Meribeth C. Shank reviews books for young people, writes picture books, has taught adult classes on Writing Books for Young People, has worked in Media Centers, Libraries, and bookstores, and earned her MFA in Writing for Children from Vermont College and her undergraduate degree in elementary education from Goshen College. meribethshank@gmail.com
Monday, September 29, 2025
Bat Patrol (Monday Poem)
Monday, September 22, 2025
A Frog in a Well Explains the World (Monday Poem)
Monday, September 15, 2025
Strategy (Monday Poem)
That's how I happened
Monday, September 8, 2025
My Name (Monday Poem)
Monday, September 1, 2025
September, 1918 (Monday Poem)
By Amy Lowell
This afternoon was the colour of water falling through sunlight;
The trees glittered with the tumbling of leaves;
The sidewalks shone like alleys of dropped maple leaves,
And the houses ran along them laughing out of square, open windows.
Under a tree in the park,
Two little boys, lying flat on their faces,
Were carefully gathering red berries
To put in a pasteboard box.
Some day there will be no war,
Then I shall take out this afternoon
And turn it in my fingers,
And remark the sweet taste of it upon my palate,
And note the crisp variety of its flights of leaves.
To-day I can only gather it
And put it into my lunch-box,
For I have time for nothing
But the endeavour to balance myself
Upon a broken world.