This morning while I was down in the teacher's workroom running some copies I came across a little paperback gem called all the small poems and fourteen more by Valerie Worth. We keep a shelf of children's books there which are meant to be used by the teachers for various reading and writing lessons. I'm usually on the run when I have to make copies, but this morning since I had time (have I mentioned my very excellent student teacher?) I took a look.
Worth's poems are short, sometimes just one or two words per line, but each one is sharp and perceptive. The poems are about mundane things: lions, fireworks, mosquitoes, slugs. But in reading each one you can feel and see the object she is describing. Here is one:
book
Such a
Bountiful
Box of
Tricks:
Packed
With the
Five senses,
The seven
Seas, the
Earth's
Four winds
And corners,
All fitted
Exactly in.
Each poem is accompanied by a simple pen and ink drawing by Natalie Babbitt.
I love that image--"bountiful box of tricks"!
I felt as though I had found a treasure right there next to the copying machine.
2 comments:
It was nice to see a new name in my comments! I've had fun browsing among your posts. I love your quilts. Lovely work. Have you considered skipping a border on your log cabin and going straight to binding? Seems like I've seen a lot of log cabins finished that way lately and it looks good.I'll be back! I need all the inspiration I can get to move on finishing my WIPs.
hi, I have numerous "boxes of tricks" but have never heard a book described in that way. pleased that good student teacher is still going well. Your grandmother's flower garden is looking very nice altogether like that but being a big log cabin fan i have to say that's marvellous. thanks for dropping back in and commenting, pleased you like my gratitudes! tracey
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