Poems

 

I enjoy poetry. It is words not quite set to music.

If I am writing poetry it is most often in the form of a limerick. I have no idea why. I suppose that is the rhythm in me.

Of course nursery rhymes are important. They are usually the first poetry children are exposed to. Things like Humpty Dumpty, Little Boy Blue, and Mary Mary quite contrary are only three of the well-known nursery rhymes. There are so many. 

One of my favorites was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

There was a little girl,

            Who had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead.

            When she was good,

            She was very very good,

But when she was bad she was horrid.

My daughter taught it to my little niece. When my niece recited it she said, "And when she was bad she was hooo-id. So cute.

A. A, Milne wrote Halfway Down

Halfway down the stairs
Is a stair
Where I sit.
There isn't any
Other stair
Quite like
It.
I'm not at the bottom,
I'm not at the top;
So this is the stair
Where
I always
Stop.

Halfway up the stairs
Isn't up
And isn't down.
It isn't in the nursery,
It isn't in the town.
And all sorts of funny thoughts
Run round my head.
It isn't really
Anywhere!
It's somewhere else
Instead!

And then there is Mom's favorite by Dorothy Aldis called Hiding

I'm hiding, I'm hiding,
And no one knows where;
For all they can see is my
Toes and my hair.

And I just heard my father
Say to my mother —
" But, darling, he must be
Somewhere or other;

" Have you looked in the inkwell? "
And Mother said, " Where? "
" In the inkwell , " said Father. But
I was not there.

Then " Wait! " cried my mother —
" I think that I see
Him under the carpet. " But
It was not me.

" Inside the mirror's
A pretty good place, "
Said Father and looked, but saw
Only his face.

" We've hunted, " sighed Mother,
" As hard as we could
And I am so afraid that we've
Lost him for good. "

Then I laughed out aloud
And I wiggled my toes
And Father said — " Look, dear,
I wonder if those

" Toes could be Benny's?
There are ten of them, see? "
And they were so surprised to find 
Out it was me!

Are those fun? No wonder children love then so.