UNDER THE TREE: An Original Poem

It has been many months since I last posted anything on Wild Rose Reader. I have missed the kidlitosphere--especially participating in Poetry Fridays. There has been much going on in my life...and I have had to focus on those things. Still, I couldn't let the year end without sharing a poem or two with you.

Several years ago, I began working on a collection of poems about candy. The collection takes one through the year with sweet treats. While writing the poems, I collected information on many different kinds of candy by reading books and by doing research on the Internet. I included short informational paragraphs about the candy along with the poems.

I have loved chocolate since I was little. One present that I always found stuffed in my Christmas stocking when I was a child was a small sack of chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil. How I enjoyed unwrapping them and letting the dark brown disks melt on my tongue!

UNDER THE TREE

Here’s a gift to savor…not save:

A sack of candy coins

Wrapped in gold…

Milk chocolate medallions

That melt on my tongue.

I won’t stash this sweet cash.

I’m putting this money

Where my mouth is!

  

Milk Chocolate

Milk chocolate coins wrapped in foil are given to children as Hanukkah gelt and are also often stuffed into children’s Christmas stockings. The giving of chocolate Hanukkah gelt is a European tradition, which most likely dates back to the late 18^th or early 19^th century. The giving of chocolate coins at Christmastime is believed by some to commemorate Saint Nicholas who gave bags of gold coins to the poor.

NOTE: It appears that my granddaughter Julia has inherited her “Gammy’s” love of chocolate!

You’ll find the Poetry Friday Roundup at The Opposite of Indifference.

PUDDLE MUDDLE: An Original Poem

I apologize for announcing the winner of PUDDLE WONDERFUL two days late. We're in the process of selling our house and things are moving along quickly at this point. I've been trying to get lots of things done. I've been packing up my children's books and poetry books and cookbooks and other books and taking them to my new house and organizing them in my new built-in bookcases. It seems like an endless task. I think I'm going to have to give more of my books away!

I'm happy to announce that Linda at Teacherdance is the winner of Puddle Wonderful: Poems to Welcome Spring. Congratulations, Linda! Email me your address and I'll send the book to you.

Note to the other book winners: I apologize for not getting your books in the mail yet. I hope to do that in the next week.

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Here's one of my puddle poems for this Poetry Friday:

PUDDLE MUDDLE

I’m in the middle of a puddle…

in the middle…

in a muddle.

The puddle’s much too deep.

It spilled

into my boots.

Now they’re filled

with muddy water

to the brim.

I hope my feet

know how to swim!

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Liz Steinglass has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week. 

 

TALL TALK: Two Giraffe Poems

I really enjoy writing poems about animals—especially animal mask poems. One thing I always think about is the most prominent characteristic(s) of certain animals before I decide what to say in my poems. So…when I wrote the following two poems about the giraffe, I thought about its height/long neck and proceeded from there.

GIRAFFE

Giraffe is very tall—
but has a voice so small
you never hear him
bark or roar,
sneeze or snore,
screech or howl,
grunt or growl,
caterwaul…
or ever say a word at all.

Perhaps because his head’s so high,
his sounds get lost up in the sky.

TALL TALK (A Mask Poem)

I am taller than tall.

I’m the tallest of all

The mammals that live on the land.

I can nibble the leaves                                                                        

From the tip-tops of trees

I think being tallest is grand.

My head is so high

That it touches the sky.

I can wink at the birds as they go flying by.

I can nuzzle the clouds,

Feel the first drops of rain,

Enjoy the fine view from this lofty domain.

With my head at this height

The whole world is in sight!

I think being tallest is grand.

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BOOK GIVEAWAY REMINDER

As in past years, I’ll be giving away a children’s poetry book at Wild Rose Reader every week during the month of April. If you leave a comment at one of my poetry posts during the last week and final days of National Poetry Month (April 21-30), I’ll enter your name into the drawing for a poetry book. If you leave comments at two posts, I'll enter your name twice...and so on. I’ll announce the winner of my last book giveaway on Wednesday, May 1^st.

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. 

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.

 

THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE A BUS: An Original List Poem

So sorry that I didn’t announce the winner of David Harrison’s book COWBOYS last Sunday. We lost Internet connectivity here Sunday night. Then I left for my daughter’s house where I played fulltime nanny granny for a few days while my daughter and son-in-law went on a three-day vacation. I returned home yesterday afternoon and still had a problem connecting to the Internet. It happens here every now and again. I don't know why.

My husband and I are in the process of selling our house—so my life is a bit hectic at the moment. I spend much of my time when I’m at home emptying bookcases, drawers, and clothes closets—and also throwing away things that I will probably never need or use again. Although I plan to keep most of my children’s books, I have neighbors who have three daughters who LOVE to read so I’ve given them some of my novels /novels in verse for middle and older readers. It’s good to know those books will be read and valued.

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Today, I’m posting another of my “things to do” list poems.

THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE A BUS

Roll along

on big black feet.

Stop and go

up and down the street.

Open your door.

Let people in.

Take your passengers

for a spin.

When you’re thirsty,

guzzle gas.

At night,

light up

your eyes of glass.

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Book Winner Announcement

I am happy to announce that Bridget R. Wilson is the winner of COWBOYS. Congratulations, Bridget! Email me your address and I’ll send the book to you.

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BOOK GIVEAWAY REMINDER

As in past years, I’ll be giving away a children’s poetry book at Wild Rose Reader every week during the month of April. If you leave a comment at one of my poetry posts during the last week and final days of National Poetry Month (April 21-30), I’ll enter your name into the drawing for a poetry book. If you leave comments at two posts, I'll enter your name twice...and so on. I’ll announce the winner of my last book giveaway on Wednesday, May 1^st.

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.

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.

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Laura Purdie Salas has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Writing the World for Kids.