POEMS TO THINK ABOUT

March
            by Mildred Pittinger

You're loud,
You're noisy,
   A blustery old chap!
You whistle, 
You moan,
   You tear at my cap!

You blow,
You scowl,
   But, March, you are fair!
Part lion,
Part lamb,
   Now spring's in the air!
                           



Draco
by Mildred Nash

There's a dragon named Draco-
He can scarcely be seen
As he humps his back up
To get himself over
The Little D's cup
And his tail in between
The two dippers.
His head holds the fairest
Of sixteen dim stars.
Look hard-persist-
Half-imagine you've found him.

Read more in Stars for Starters: A Night Sky Poetry Guide


an excerpt from Amelia Earhart

by Ann Whitford Paul

While other girls wore skirts and pinafores,
Amelia  much preferred to dress in bloomers.
She hated playing with dolls and sipping tea.
Amelia loved to climb and swing from trees.
At seven she came up with an idea.
"Let's build a roller coaster in the yard.
Come on," she begged her sister. "It's not hard."

find the rest of this poem in All By Herself poems by Ann Whitford Paul




By Myself

by Eloise Greenfield

When I'm by myself
And I close my eyes
I'm a twin
I'm a dimple on a chin
I'm a room full of toys
I'm a squeaky noise
I'm a gospel song
I'm a gong
I'm a leaf turning red
I'm a loaf of brown bread
I'm a whatever I want to be
An anything I care to be
And when I open my eyes
What I care to be
Is me



Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman didn't take no stuff
Wasn't scared of nothing neither
Didn't come in this world to be no slave
And wasn't going to stay one either

"Farewell!" she sang to her friends one night
She was mighty sad to leave 'em
But she ran away that dark, hot night
Ran looking for her freedom

She ran to the woods and she ran through the woods
With the slave catchers right behind her
And she kept on going till she got to the North
Where those mean men couldn't find her

Nineteen times she went back South
To get three hundred others
She ran for her freedom nineteen times
To save Black sisters and brothers
Harriet Tubman didn't take no stuff
Wasn't scared of nothing neither
Didn't come in this world to be no slave
And didn't stay one either

      And didn't stay one either

                                                 -Eloise Greenfield


from The Weary Blues
by Langston Hughes

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
    I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Anenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
    He did a lazy sway...
    He did a lazy sway...
To the tune o' those Weary Blues.


Winter Moon

How thin and sharp is the moon tonight!
How thin and sharp and ghostly white
Is the slim curved crook of the moon tonight!

Langston Hughes


Poem Fossil

I had a strange dream:
a man dug up the bones 
of a giant poem.

It was bloodthirsty, he explained
with rhymes so ferocious
they could rip off your head!

Mighty poems once roamed
the valleys around here
but only their bones remain.

I woke with a sad feeling
until I remembered the truth-
poems are NOT extinct.

And I know it
                     because I 'm a poet.


by Ralph Fletcher

Bad Weather

They're predicting a big term paper

due to arrive on Monday morning.

Tuesday the forecast looks bad:

intense DOL and grammar drills.

Wednesday will be a scorcher

when the state writing test arrives.

Thursday there's a high probability

of five-paragraph essays.

Friday should bring some relief 

when scattered poetry blows in.

by Ralph Fletcher

I CAN

I can

be anything

I can

do anything

I can

think

anything

big

or tall

OR

high or low

W I D E

or narrow

fast or slow

because I

CAN

                              and 

I

WANT

         TO!

by Mari Evans




To Catch A Fish
by Eloise Greenfield

It takes more than a wish
to catch a fish
you take the hook
you add the bait
you concentrate
you wait    you wait
but not a bite
the fish don't have
an appetite
so tell them what
good bait you've got
and how your bait
can hit the spot
this works a whole
lot better than
a wish
if you really
want to catch
a fish



I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you- Nobody- too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd banish us- you know!

How dreary- to be- Somebody!
How public- like a Frog-
To tell you name- the livelong June-
To an admiring Bog!

Emily Dickinson

Dream Variation

To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to the dance
Till the white day is done.
Then the rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently.
                 Dark like me -
That is my dream!

To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale evening...
A tall, slim tree...
Night coming tenderly
              Black like me.

Langston Hughes



"Hope" is the thing with feathers-
That perches in the soul-
And sings the tune without the words-
And never stops- at all-

And sweetest-in the Gale- is heard-
ANd sore must be the storm-
That could abash the little Bird-
That kept so many warm-

I've heard it in the chillest land-
And on the strangest Sea-


Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb- of Me.


Emily Dickinson

If I can stop one Heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching
Or cool one Pain

Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in Vain.

Emily Dickinson

Fairies

by Langston Hughes

Out of the dust of dreams

Fairies weave their garments

Out of the purple and rose of old memories

They make rainbow wings.

No wonder we find them such marvellous things!

The Dream Keeper

by Langston Hughes

Bring me all of your dreams,

You dreamers,

Bring me all of your 

Heart melodies

That I may wrap them

In a blue cloud-cloth

Away from the too-rough fingers

Of the world.

Dreams

by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

You Can Be Whatever You Want To Be! by Donna Levine

There is inside you
all of the potential
to be whatever you want to be,
all of the energy
to do whatever you want to do.

Imagine yourself as you would like to be,
doing what you want to do,
and each day, take one step
towards your dream.

And though at times it may seem too
difficult to continue,
hold on to your dream.

One morning you will awake to find
that you are the person you dreamed of,
doing what you wanted to do,
simply because you had the courage
to believe in your potential
and to hold on to your dream.