February
Here’s a poem from my latest book AWAY WITH WORDS!, published earlier this year. The book is illustrated by my son Perry. It’s our first collaboration but hopefully not our last!
February, funny word,
With my “r” that’s hardly heard,
Different in so many ways,
I’m the month with fewest days;
And another thing that’s strange is
I’m the only month that changes:
Every leap year – one in four –
I am given one day more,
Twenty-nine from twenty-eight
(Not so easy to keep straight).
Still it’s lots of fun to vary –
I like being February!
From AWAY WITH WORDS! Wise & Witty Poems for Language Lovers, ill. Perry Hoberman (Little Brown, 2022)
Anthropoids
Here is one of mine that is included in THE TREE THAT TIME BUILT, an anthology of poems about nature and science, compiled by myself and Linda Winston:
The next time you go to the zoo
The zoo
Slow down for a minute or two
Or two
And consider the apes
All their sizes and shapes
For they all are related to you
To you.
Yes, they all are related to you
To you
And they all are related to me
To me
To our fathers and mothers
Our sisters and brothers
And all of the people we see
We see.
The chimpanzees, gorillas, and all
And all
The orangutans climbing the wall
The wall
These remarkable creatures
Share most of our features
And the difference between us is small
Quite small.
So the next time you go to the zoo
The zoo
Slow down for a minute or two
Or two
And consider the apes
All their sizes and shapes
For they all are related to you
To you
From: THE RAUCOUS AUK, ill. by Joseph Low (Viking Press, NY, 1973)
Snow
Here are two very early poems. The first one was made up for my children when they were tiny – three of them under five! Each time it snowed, we chanted it together. Years later I wrote it down and put it in a book. The second is ice-skating the way I experienced it, before indoor rinks and global warming.
SNOW
Snow
Snow
Lots of snow
Everywhere we look and everywhere we go
Snow on the sandbox
Snow on the slide
Snow on the bicycle
Left outside
Snow on the steps
And snow on my feet
Snow on the sidewalk
Snow on the sidewalk
Snow on the sidewalk
Down the street.
From: HELLO AND GOOD-BY, illustrated by Norman Hoberman (Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1959). Also in THE LLAMA WHO HAD NO PAJAMA, illustrated by Betty Fraser (Browndeer Press, Harcourt, 1998)
Ice-skating
In winter when the biting breezes
Blow and all the water freeze,
Then it’s time, it’s time to go
Skating on the ice.
Choose a day that’s bright and clear,
Bundle up from toe to ear;
It’s the time, the time of year
For skating on the ice.
I perch upon the snowy rocks
And pull on both my woolen socks;
I lace my skates and tie them fast
And then I’m up and off at last.
I cannot make a figure eight
(I still have trouble going straight)
But just the same I love to skate,
To ice-skate on the ice.
From: ALL MY SHOES COME IN TWOS, ill. by Norman Hoberman (Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1957). Also in THE LLAMA WHO HAD NO PAJAMA, ill. by Betty Fraser (Browndeer Press, Harcourt, 1998).
Squirrel
As fall approaches, the squirrels are busy gathering and hiding their winter provisions. How they manage to find them again always has puzzled me.
Grey squirrel
Small beast
Storing up a winter’s feast,
Hides a hundred nuts at least.
Nook and cranny stocked with seed
Tucked away for winter’s need.
Acorns stuck in hole and crack.
Will he ever get them back?
When the snow is piled up high
And the year is at December,
Can he really still remember
Where he hid them in September?
I have watched him from my window
And he always seems to know
Where the food he hid is waiting
Buried deep beneath the snow.
And I wonder
(Do you wonder?)
How he knows where he must go.
From: A LITTLE BOOK OF LITTLE BEASTS (Simon & Schuster, 1973)