The Land Of Nod

From breakfast on through all the day
At home among my friends I stay;
But every night I go aboard
Afar into the Land of Nod.

All by myself I have to go,
With none to tell me what to do-
All alone beside the streams
And up the mountain-sides of dreams.

The strangest things are there for me,
Both things to eat and things to see,
And many frightening sights aboard
Till morning in the Land of Nod.

Try as I like to find the way,
I never can get back by day,
Nor can remember plain and clear
The curious music that I hear.

--Robert Louis Stevenson

Leaves in The Yard

Leaves have the lightest footfall
Of all who come in the yard.
They play rounders, they play tig,
They play no-holds-barred.

Late, when people are all asleep
Still they scamper and weave.
They play robbers, they play cops,
They play Adam-and-Eve.

Tap, tap, on the pavement,
Flit, flit, in the air:
The sentry-going bat wonders what they're at,
The blank back-windows stare.

When they rest, the wind rest;
When they go, he goes too;
They play tiptoe, they play mouse,
He shouts hoo.

Summer, they fidgeted on trees,
Then autumn called 'Enough!'
They play leapfrog, they play fights,
They play blind-man's-bluff.

Ragged, swept in corners,
Fallen beyond recall,
Ragged and old, soon to be mould,-
But light of hearts wins all.

--Hal Summers

Little

I am the sister of him
And he is my brother.
He is too little for us
To talk to each other.

So every morning I show him
My doll and my book;
But every morning he still is
Too little to look.

--Dorothy Aldis

The Little Turtle

There was a little turtle.
He lived in a box.
He swam in a puddle.
He climbed on the rocks.

He snapped at a mosquito.
He snapped at a flea.
He snapped at a minnow.
And he snapped at me.

He caught the mosquito.
He caught the flea.
He caught the minnow.
But he didn't catch me.

--Vachel Lindsay

Lost Rainbow

One day
coming home from school
(where else?)
I found a rainbow
Lost
and sad
and torn
and broken
on a garage forecourt.
I picked it up,
wrapped it in a Wonderloaf wrapper
(which was also lost)
and took it home
where I warmed it
and dried it
in front of my mother's fire.
But it died.

I think it must have been
a very old rainbow.

--Peter Dixon

Loveliest of Trees

Loveliest of tress, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

--A. E. Housman

Lullaby

Hush, little baby, don't say a word,
Papa's going to buy you a mocking bird.

If the mocking bird won't sing,
Papa's going to buy you a diamond ring.

If the diamond ring turns to brass,
Papa's going to buy you a looking-glass,

If the looking-glass gets broke,
Papa's going to buy you a billy-goat.

If that billy-goat runs away,
Papa's going to buy you another today.

--Anon

Lullaby

A heart to hate you
Is as far away as the moon.
A heart to love you
Is as close as the door.

--Barundi