Poems by NCTE Award Winning Poets
Bernice L. Cullinan, Editor
Honesdale, Pennsylvania
Boyd's Mill Press, 1996
ISBN 1563970872
Ages 9-12
Each collection is preceded by a black and white portrait of the poet and a few words they've shared about poetry. The back of the book shares more about each individual poet, their words, and a mini-bio of each. All of the poets are either deceased or well into their years-- into their seventies and above, reflecting that the NCTE looks at a body of work over a period of time.
I enjoyed reading the poetry, and I'm sure every child could pick their favorites. I've picked mine as well. I really liked Valerie Worth and Barbara Esbensen's poetry. I loved Worth's poem giraffe and the images she paints with words:
How lucky
To live
So high
Above
The body,
Breathing
At heaven's
Level,
Looking
Sun
In the eye;
While down
Below
The neck's
Precarious
Stair;
Back, belly,
And legs
Take care
Of themselves,
Hardly
Aware
Of the head's Airy
Affairs.
Barbara Esbensen loves to play with words. My favorite of hers is BAT.
Every night
a short word
covered with fur mouth open
flies
out of dark libraries
All day it hangs
upside-down in the card
catalog under B
but at sundown B A T
by the hundreds
leaves the gloomy
pages
of mystery books crawls
out of damp bindings
and g l i d e s into the night air
shaking itself free
of the trailing old words
DRACULA BLOOD FANG. . .
The collections of poems are primarily rhyming poetry-- the kind that children like the most, but it gives a sampling of unrhymed poetry such as the two that are listed here that are just as tasty and appealing.
I like when books go beyond the poetry to give us a glimpse of the hearts and minds of those who created it. That appeals to me, but I'm sure that's not nearly as important to children as the enjoyment of the poems themselves. I think Valerie Worth was on the right track when she said, "Never forget that the subject is as important as your feeling; the mud puddle itself is as important as your pleasure in looking at it or splashing through it; never let the mud puddle get lost in the poetry, because, in many ways, the mud puddle is the poetry."
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