Monday, April 15, 2013

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.

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From Science Kids
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.

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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.

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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 21st.




2 comments:

Charles Waters said...

You have so many manuscripts. I wish I could read them all! I know I'd be entertained and learn something from each of them!

Bridget R. Wilson said...

Yes! I would love to see all these manuscripts you mention. Perhaps one day they'll all be published. :-) I can't believe a brontosaurus really isn't. I'm looking forward to sharing dinosaur poems with my library kids this summer as we "Dig Into Reading."