Brontosaurus of Another Name: A Poem of Address

Several years ago, I began working on Docile Fossil, collection of poems about dinosaurs, fossils, and extinct animals. I really haven't done much with the collection--except to post some of its poems on Wild Rose Reader. Here is one of the poems that I thought I'd post today...after I reworked the third stanza.

Brontosaurus of Another Name

Oh, Brontosaurus,

for years

you wandered about in my brain

on pillared legs,

the vivid image

of a long-necked beast.

Oh, Brontosaurus,

my favorite imaginary pet,

you sauntered about happily

munching on greenery

in the jungle of my mind.

Oh, Brontosaurus,

I have learned that

you are NO thunder lizard.

It really is a shame.

Apatosaurus is your name.

********************

Forget Extinct: The Brontosaurus Never Even Existed (NPR)

From Science Kids

Apatosaurus (Brontosaurus)

The Apatosaurus is also well known as the Brontosaurus. Confusion was caused when bones of the giant dinosaur were first discovered back in 1877 by Othniel Charles Marsh. After naming the new dinosaur Apatosaurus (meaning deceptive lizard), he later found a larger set of bones and incorrectly thought they were a new species which he then named Brontosaurus (meaning thunder lizard). It turns out that the second set of bones were just the adult version of the Apatosaurus.

 ********************

Have some fun reading dinosaur poems! I recommend the following books:

Dizzy Dinosaurs: Silly Dino Poems—

An I Can Read Book with poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and pictures by Barry Gott.

Click here to look inside the book.

Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings,

which was written and illustrated by Douglas Florian.

Click here to look inside the book.

********************

Book Giveaway Reminder

My book giveaway for the third week of National Poetry Month (April 14-20) will be COWBOYS—with poems by David L. Harrison and illustrations by Dan Burr. NOTE: I’ll announce the winner of COWBOYS on Sunday, April 21^st.