Remembering Lee Bennett Hopkins with Poetry

I have been thinking a lot lately about my dear friend Lee Bennett Hopkins who passed away earlier this month. I've also been thinking about all of Lee's poetry books that I have collected over the years. I have dozens and dozens of them! I used his books often when I was teaching elementary school. I treasure those books even more now that he is gone.

One of my favorite anthologies compiled by Lee came to mind a few days ago. It's titled ON THE FARM. It's a thin volume of sixteen poems that is beautifully illustrated by Laurel Molk. It was published by Little, Brown in 1991. The book contains poems by some of America's finest children's poets--including David McCord, Aileen Fisher, Lilian Moore, Myra Cohn Livingston, Valerie Worth--and Lee Bennett Hopkins.

 

Here's a sampling of the poems you'll find in this lovely anthology:

FOAL

by Mary Britton Miller

Come trotting up

Beside your mother,

Little skinny.

Lay your neck across

Her back, and whinny,

Little foal.

You think you're a horse

Because you can trot--

But you're not...

Click here to read the rest of the poem.

LAWNMOVER

By Valerie Worth

The lawnmower
Grinds its teeth
Over the grass,
Spitting out a thick
Green spray;

Its head is too full
Of iron and oil
To know
What it throws
Away...

Click here to read the rest of the poem.

PRAYER

By Myra Cohn Livingston

Thank you for the sun,
          the sky,
     for all the things that like to fly,
          the shining rain that turns grass green,
          the earth we know --
          the world unseen...

Click here to read the rest of the poem.

 

THE COW

By Robert Lewis Stevenson

The friendly cow all red and white, 
I love with all my heart: 
She gives me cream with all her might, 
To eat with apple-tart. 

She wanders lowing here and there, 
And yet she cannot stray, 
All in the pleasant open air, 
The pleasant light of day... 

Click here to read the rest of the poem.

FAMILIAR FRIENDS

By James S. Tippett

The horses, the pigs,

And the chickens,

The turkeys, the ducks

And the sheep!

I can see all my friends

From my window

As soon as I waken from sleep.

 

The cat on the fence

Is out walking.

The geese have gone down

For a swim.

The pony comes trotting

Right up to the gate;

He knows I have candy

For him...

Click here to read the rest of the poem. (NOTE: You will have to scroll down a page as the link takes you directly to a poem by Elizabeth Coatsworth.)

 

THE PICKETY FENCE

By David McCord

The pickety fence
The pickety fence
Give it a lick it's
The pickety fence
Give it a lick it's
A clickety fence
Give it a lick it's
A lickety fence...

Click here to read the rest of the poem.

Lee opened ON THE FARM with his own poem titled HELLO, FARM.

HELLO, FARM

By Lee Bennett Hopkins

Hello, ducks,

chickens,

cows.

Hello, hen house,

stable,

barn.

Hello, woodpiles,

silo,

swing.

Hello,

hello,

everything.

I used Lee's poem as a model for the following poem that I wrote in his memory.

HELLO, POETRY

By Elaine Magliaro

Hello, children,

library,

books.

Hello,

reading

in cozy nooks.

Hello, meter,

rhythm,

rhyme.

Hello,

poetry

all the time!

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Kathryn Apel has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week.