Poetry

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

could frame thy fearful symmetry?

"The Tiger" (first stanza)

-William Blake

Love That Dog is all about the magic of poetry and how anyone can write a poem - you just have to try. At the start, Jack doesn't want anything to do with writing poetry because he doesn't believe he can do it and he thinks it's just something girls do, but over time he realizes that he can and also that he just might have something to say after all.

Jack is inspired by all of the poems Miss Stretchberry reads to his class and especially by the poetry of Walter Dean Myers. Miss Stretchberry reads poems by Robert Frost, William Blake and Valerie Worth among many others. Have you ever been inspired by a poem? What was it and who wrote it? My favorite poets include Shel Silverstein, Douglas Florian, Naomi Shihab Nye and Maya Angelou. Check out these posts from last April (National Poetry Month) and October (new Children's Poet Laureate announced) about some of my favorite poets and poetry.

I encourage all of you to read a lot of poetry and try writing your own poems. Poetry should be celebrated all year long, not just during National Poetry Month (April). If anyone would like to share something they've written, feel free to send it in as a comment to this post.