Thursday, April 12, 2007

A Poem a Day #12

Today’s poem is for Mary Lee and Franki at A Year of Reading. Having read some of the posts at their blog, I believe I can safely infer that these two ladies must be dy-no-mite teachers! Got to love their list of 100 Cool Teachers in Children’s Literature and their list of Books about Books and Reading.

From a longtime teacher to Mary Lee and Franki: Keep up the great work in school and at A Year of Reading!

Here's a poem of address written in the form of a FAX. I got my inspiration for writing poems about Pluto when I was working on my review of COMETS, STARS, THE MOON, AND MARS, Douglas Florian’s most recent collection of poems and paintings about space.



INTERPLANETARY FAX
by Elaine Magliaro

TO: Pluto
DATE: August 24, 2006
RE: Demotion to Dwarf Status

Sorry, Pluto, you’re way too small.
You’re just an itty-bitty ball…
An insignificant cosmic dot…
A speck in the Milky Way. You’re not
Considered a planet anymore.
Here’s your pink slip; there’s the door.
You’re off the list. Goodbye! Adieu!
Don’t go making a hullabaloo.
There’s nothing…nothing…you can do.
Accept your fate.

FROM: IAU

I was inspired by Douglas Florian’s book to write the following poem, too. I posted it at Blue Rose Girls in my Update: Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars…and Pluto.

PLUTO POEM
by Elaine Magliaro

Pluto, Pluto, once a planet.
Made of ice…and, maybe granite,
A distant, tiny, frigid sphere
Demoted to a "dwarf" last year.

Pluto, Pluto, once a planet.
Astronomers said: "We should can it.
It’s much too small; its orbit’s odd
It’s named after a nasty god."

Pluto, Pluto, once a planet.
The IAU? It chose to ban it
From the planetary club.
That’s a solar systemic snub!!!

(IAU stands for the International Astronomical Union.)

3 comments:

Mary Lee said...

Thankyouthankyouthankyou for our very own Elaine Magliaro original poem! Douglas Florian is one of my favorite children's poets, and Pluto is my favorite (former) planet. Never mind Pluto's dwarf status, it is still worthy of a poet's inspiration!

Franki said...

WOW! Thanks so much! This was a real treat--a great start to the day:-)
Franki

Elaine Magliaro said...

Mary Lee & Franki,

It looks like you ladies are up and about early in the mornin'.
Glad you like the poem. It's not one of my "old molderers" that needed tweaking. I began writing it when I wrote the other Pluto poem a few weeks ago. I decided it wasn't working so I put it aside and forgot all about it. I was reading through some bits and pieces of poems yesterday, found it...and thought I'd give it another go.