A Birthday Poem

A POETRY PARTY...ALL MONTH LONG!!!

Honestly! Sometimes I don’t know where my brain is! I have been so preoccupied with writing children’s poetry and penning rhyming rants for my new blog Political Verses…with doing work on my high school class’s 45th reunion committee…with making all the arrangements for our reading’s council’s spring dinner meeting, with other personal things that I won’t go into here—that I forgot all about Wild Rose Reader’s Second Bloggiversary. The actual date of the anniversary was April 1st--but I don't "fool" around when it comes to poetry.

So, in honor of my blog’s second birthday, I have a poem for you that I wrote last year for a poetry collection—and then decided not to include it in the manuscript.


BIRTHDAY CAKE
By Elaine Magliaro

This year
my birthday cake blossoms
with a bouquet of yellow roses,
buttery and bright.
Eight flaming candles
announce my age.
I make my wish
and blow.
Mom cuts me
the first slice…
a thick slab
of golden goodness
blooming with a fine, fat flower.

Happy (Sweet) Birthday to me!!!


Don’t forget: It may be the month of my blog’s anniversary, but you get the presents—some of the best children’s poetry books in print!

About Today's Poetry Prize Drawings

I'll be doing the drawings around noon today at Wild Rose Reader to pick the winner of a copy of Falling Down the Page: A Book of List Poems edited by Georgia Heard and at Political Verses to pick the winner of J. Patrick Lewis's new--and very funny--book of poems, The Underwear Salesman and Other Jobs for Better or Worse. If you've left comments at any of my posts dated April 1-4, you're eligible to win a prize. I'll also do a special drawing at Political Verses to pick the winner of Calvin Trillin's Deciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Race in Rhyme. You'll be eligible for the Trillin book if you left a comment at any of my March posts at that blog.

One More Thing

Head on over to Seven Impossible Things today. Jules and Eisha have a special “Kicks” post this Sunday to help us celebrate National Poetry Month with art by Julie Paschkis and Adam Rex and unpublished poems by Douglas Florian, Julie Larios, Sara Lewis Holmes, Kelly Fineman, and me. Here’s the link:
7 Imp’s 7 Kicks #109: Featuring a Small Crowd to Help Us Welcome National Poetry Month