NPM: A Birthday Poem for Lee Bennett Hopkins: Post #9

I wrote this little ditty in celebration of Lee's 81st birthday:

Lee Bennett Hopkins likes rhythm and rhyme.

He LOVES to read poetry all of the time.

Lee loves to read it,

            and write it,

                        and share it.

A day without a poetry?

Lee couldn't bear it!

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I wrote the Eating Poetry for Dear One: A Tribute to Lee Bennett Hopkins, an anthology compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong in celebration of Lee's receiving the 2009 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. I used the titles of Lee's poetry books when writing it. The titles are printed in italics.

 

Eating Poetry

Here we are
sitting side by side,
eating through a day
full of poems,
chewing on wonderful words,
delicious words
full of surprises—
words that flit, flutter, fly
from our tongues,
words that taste of
April, bubbles, chocolate,
words with the scent of sky magic.

Here we are
sitting side by side
savoring similes,
munching on metaphors,
rhymes dribbling down our chins,
licking rhythm from our lips.

Here we are
sitting side by side
in the city I love
eating poetry
a l l  d a y  l o n g…
Yummy!

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The following post has links to several of my other posts about Lee Bennett Hopkins:

Wild Rose Reader Looks Back: A Belated 80th Birthday Post for Lee Bennett Hopkins

 

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BOOK GIVEAWAY

 

I'll be giving away a copy of GREAT MORNING!: Poems for School Leaders to Read Aloud by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. Janet autographed the book for me. It's a poetry book every teacher and school librarian should have.

To be entered into the drawing for the book, all you have to do is to comment on any of my Wild Rose Reader posts that I publish from April 8th through April 13th. I'll announce the winner on Sunday, April 14th.