Junkyard Beats Poem

By Sue Ellson

Let me refuse
With grace and ease
Let me reduce
And shrink my needs

Let me reuse
All that I can
Let me repurpose
And use it again

Let me recycle
With constant glee
Let me remember
What is for free

I will make do
And be resourceful
Life is for living
And being more playful

My heart within
It beats for me
The sounds I make
Are just the key

To share my soul
To dance and drum
Connecting here
With everyone

Junkyard Beats
Lift my spirit
So join right in
And let’s get to it

On Friday 18 July 2025, I attended the Educate Plus VIC / TAS Chapter Summit 2025 at Carey Baptist Grammar School.

The first session of the day was with ‘Junkyard Beats‘ and they shared a message of using what we already have available and enjoying both body and instrument percussion drumming using recycled materials.

I wrote this poem as a reflection on the experience but also for possible use as a ‘song’ to accompany percussion in the future. With love, Sue Ellson🙂

#JunkyardBeats #SueEllson #SueEllsonPoem #poem #poetry

Photo is of a friend with items collected from a pile of hard rubbish in Surrey Hills Melbourne on 5 May 2014.

Update

On 23 October 2025, I attended the Educate Plus NSW / ACT Chapter Summit 2025 at the Novotel Hotel, Sydney Olympic Park. I met Oded Prior there and asked if he had received my poem. I read it out to him and then he said it sounded like music and then we recorded this video on the spot! I published it online later that day and then it was added to the Junkyard Beats socials as well!

Originally Shared on Poems Page, Instagram Page, Publications Page, Archive.org, Facebook Page, Instagram, Google, LinkedIn Page, LinkedIn Profile, Pinterest, Twitter / X

Reshared as a Video on Republished Poems Page, Publications Page, Archive.org, Facebook Page, Facebook Profile, Google, Instagram Reel (Original Recording), Instagram Reel (Junkyard Beats Version), LinkedIn Page, LinkedIn Profile, Pinterest, Twitter / X, YouTube Landscape, YouTube Short