Today we are snowed in. In the last twenty-four hours we have gotten about 10 inches of snow and it is cold and blowing and still snowing. It is a good Sunday afternoon to lay around and read.
I love poetry. But what I mean is that I like simple poetry that makes sense. I am not a poetry snob by any means. I like poems that rhyme and have a nice flow. I like poems that are about my life. I like poems that make you laugh.
These are my books that have meant the most to me. I have read these poems many times throughout my life. The thing about a poem is that it is easier to remember than a story, so the lines come back to you and you find yourself reciting a poem from childhood when you are 30 years old. (Or older.)
Here are my favorite poetry books, and one poem from each:
A.A. Milne. You know, the guy who wrote Winnie the Pooh. He also wrote this lovely book of poems for children. My favorite?
Disobedience
James James
Morrison Morrison
Weatherby George Dupree
Took great
Care of his Mother
Though he was only three.
James James
Said to his Mother,
"Mother," he said, said he:
"You must never go down to the end of the town
if you don't go down with me."
The poem goes on for five more verses. My Grandma Hart had it memorized and I can very clearly remember her reciting it. My kids do not seem impressed when I recite it to them, but I love it.
Everyone loves Shel Silverstein. He was very popular when I was in elementary school, and he still is- because who doesn't like poems like this:
HOW NOT TO HAVE TO DRY THE DISHES
If you have to dry the dishes
(Such an awful, boring chore)
If you have to dry the dishes
('Stead of going to the store)
If you have to dry the dishes
And you drop one on the floor-
Maybe they won't let you
Dry the dishes anymore.
I asked Katie to pick her favorite from this book, and here it is:
POINT OF VIEW
Thanksgiving dinner's sad and thankless
Christmas dinner's dark and blue
When you stop and try to see it
From the turkey's point of view.
Sunday dinner isn't sunny
Easter feasts are just bad luck
When you see it from the viewpoint
Of a chicken or a duck.
Oh how I once love tuna salad
Pork and lobsters, lamb chops too
Till I stopped and looked at dinner
From the dinner's point of view.
I received this book for Christmas when I was 18. I bet you already know quite a few of his poems. Here is one that maybe you have never heard:
Dust of Snow
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
If you are looking for a nice collection of popular poems; from Bible verses to Langston Hughes to her own poetry, you will like this collection of Jackie Kennedy Onassis' favorites. She was also quite fond of Robert Frost. Here is one I really like:
Three Ponies
by Arthur Guiterman
Three little ponies who didn't like their hay
Said to each other, "Let's run away!"
Said the first, "I will canter!"
Said the second, "I will trot!"
Said the third, "I will run if it's not too hot!"
And they all started off
With their tails in the air.
But they couldn't jump the fence
So they're all still there.
It just so happens that all of these books were given to me by my Hart family. What a great gift to me that you inspired me to love poetry =) Thank you.
Do you have a favorite poem? Share it with me!
