inside the library bag

Poetry in the pockets

Posted on 13 April 2009

Poem in Your Pocket posters have been posted around the school. It’s become a task to keep those pockets fed. The elementary students have started collecting the poems as if they are trading cards. There is a great deal of energy and enthusiasm that we don’t want to dampen.

We have a large collection of poetry books, but the process of photocopying a page from each book is time consuming. Instead I have found some excellent online sources. My delicious poetry links are plentiful, but I found I had a shortage of children’s poetry.

Sylvia Vardell’s Poetry for Children has provided a wealth of poems for elementary students. I especially appreciate her careful selections, reviews and citations. Another site, that helped me fill those pockets for children was Elaine Magliaro’s Wild Rose Reader, her posting — “Resources for National Poetry Month 2009″ provides a treasure of sites. In addition to the excellent poetry sources, the listing of NCTE poetry winners is linked to articles about each of the poets. Funny poems are always in great demand; Shel Sylverstein, Jack Prelutsky, Michael Rosen are solid winners. Giggle Poetry provides poems from Bruce Lansky, Kenn Nesbitt, Ted Scheu, Charles Ghigna, Bill Dodds, Robert Pottle, Eric Ode, and others.

The other day I covered for an elementary class, and the big hit was Nick Toczek’s “The Dragon Who Ate Our School” from Join in or Else. I did not appreciate the rhyme and rhythm of that poem until I heard him, several years ago,  read it in front of a group of students. Half way through, students cannot help but chime in with the refrain:

She’s undeniably great.
She’s absolutely cool,
the dragon who ate
the dragon who ate
the dragon who ate our school.

Changing gears from dragons to babies, here’s a poem in celebration of the recent arrival of new babies in our community–

Infant Joy
by William Blake

“I have no name,
I am but two days old.”
“What shall I call thee?”
“I happy am,
Joy is my name.”
“Sweet joy befall thee!”

“Pretty joy!
Sweet joy but two days old,
Sweet joy I call thee;
Thou dost smile,
I sing the while–
Sweet joy befall thee!”