Flowers For Socrates

by NONA BLYTH CLOUD

American schoolchildren now go back to school before Labor Day in a number of school districts in 13 states. Between 1900 and 1990, most U.S. schools had a summer break beginning sometime in June and going through the end of August. While multiple reasons are being given for this trend, one of the biggest factors is allowing teachers more instructional time before those all-too-critical statewide assessment tests in the spring.

What does this have to do with poetry, you ask? I thought it would be great to have one last hurrah for Summer, just for Kids – and for that Kid which still lurks in the maze of memory inside every Grown-Up.

Who better to celebrate with than Jack Prelutsky (1940 – ), born on September 8th, just as children were getting used to being back in their classrooms? After all, he was named as the very first ‘Children’s Poet Laureate’ by the Poetry Foundation (2006-2008).

Words are his favorite playthings, and we’re lucky he shares his toys with the rest of us. ‘Children’s poetry’ is often looked down on by “serious” critics, but it is the first doorway into poetry. If children peek around that doorframe and don’t feel welcome, chances are they won’t connect to poetry later in life either.

So for the child in you, and for any children you have in your life, read on – out loud is the best way!

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Poems from Kids Pick the Funniest Poems:

Be Glad Your Nose Is on Your Face

Be glad your nose is on your face,
not pasted on some other place,
for if it were where it is not,
you might dislike your nose a lot.

Imagine if your precious nose
were sandwiched in between your toes,
that clearly would not be a treat,
for you’d be forced to smell your feet.

Your nose would be a source of dread
were it attached atop your head,
it soon would drive you to despair,
forever tickled by your hair.

Within your ear, your nose would be
an absolute catastrophe,
for when you were obliged to sneeze,
your brain would rattle from the breeze.

Your nose, instead, through thick and thin,
remains between your eyes and chin,
not pasted on some other place —
be glad your nose is on your face!

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