Sunday, April 21, 2013

MUD-LUSCIOUS: Poems for Spring


“Never forget that the subject is as important as your feeling; the mud puddle itself is as important as your pleasure in looking at it or splashing through it.  Never let the mud puddle get lost in the poetry –because, in many ways the mud puddle is the poetry.”Valerie Worth

e.e. cummings wrote [in Just-]a poem about spring titled in Just-. In the poem, cummings described the season as being “mud-luscious” and “puddle-wonderful.” And aren’t puddles and mud fun to play in when we’re young? I know I loved splashing in puddles and making mud pies when I was a child. I’m sure many of you did, too.

 Click here to read in Just-.
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Today, I ‘m posting some poems in celebration of mud and muddy puddles.


The Muddy Puddle
By Dennis Lee

I am sitting
In the middle
Of a rather Muddy
Puddle,
With my bottom
Full of bubbles
And my rubbers
Full of Mud,

While my jacket
And my sweater
Go on slowly
Getting wetter..

Click here to read the rest of the poem.

Haiku
By Issa

A bush warbler…
Muddy feet wiped
On the plum blossoms

MUD
By Elaine Magliaro

Messy, mushy, mucky
Ucky, oozy, wonderful wet 
Dark chocolate dirt perfect for pie making






DIRTY DOG
(A Triolet)
By Elaine Magliaro

Dirty, dirty, dirty dog!
Didn’t heed your master—NO!
Thought you’d run into the bog.
Dirty, dirty, dirty dog!

(I rant in my mad monologue.)
You frolicked where you shouldn’t go.
Dirty, dirty, dirty dog!
Didn’t heed your master—NO
!


MUD by Polly Chase Boyden



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BOOK GIVEAWAY
My book giveaway for the fourth week and final days of National Poetry Month will be Puddle Wonderful: Poems to Welcome Spring with poems selected by Bobbi Katz and illustrations by Mary Morgan. I’ll announce the winner of this book on Wednesday, May 1st.

NOTE: Puddle Wonderful is a Random House PICTUREBACK®. It was published in 1992 and is now out of print. It includes many wonderful poems about the spring season—including works by Eve Merriam, Bobbi Katz, Elizabeth Coatsworth, Charlotte Zolotow, J. Patrick Lewis, e.e. cummings, Dennis Lee, Lilian Moore, Langston Hughes, Karla Kuskin, and John Updike. It would be a great book to share with a young child and would make an excellent addition to an elementary classroom collection.



3 comments:

Bridget R. Wilson said...

Love that e. e. cummings poem I have a friend from college who can recite it in Golem's voice from LOTR. Brings back some good memories. Mud can be such fun!

Linda B said...

I wish I could say we have puddles, but again this week we have snow in the forecast. Wishing for raindrops instead! Thanks for all the rainy poems, Elaine!

Charles Waters said...

I performed "The Muddy Puddle" by Dennis Lee during my stint with Poetry Alive! Sure brings back memories. Kids truly related to Mr. Lee's verse.