The Cedar Chest (Monday Poem)

by Rosario Castellanos 

translated by Judith Infante

 

 

The ax that felled

forever the fragrance

and the tree taken

with its torso severed.

 

Now here you are, under a roof,

in the corner of a bedroom

and guests take you for granted

and, you seem to accept it

    and to keep still.

 

Don't sell away your memory

to sad routines and to time.

Do not forget the woods

or the wind or the birds.

 

 

from The Tree is Older Than You Are:

A Bilingual Gathering of Poems and Stories

from Mexico With Paintings by Mexican Artists

Selected by Naomi Shihab Nye

Simon & Schuster, 1998  

The Animal Store (Monday Poem)

by Rachel Field 

 

 

If I had a hundred dollars to spend,

Or maybe a little more,

I'd hurry as fast as my legs would go

Straight to the animal store.

 

I wouldn't say, "How much for this or that?" --

"What kind of a dog is he?"

I'd buy as many as rolled an eye,

Or wagged a tail at me!

 

I'd take the hound with the drooping ears

That sits by himself alone;

Cockers and Cairns and wobbly pups

For to be my very own.

 

I might buy a parrot all red and green,

And the monkey I saw before,

If I had a hundred dollars to spend,

Or maybe a little more.

 

 

from Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart

Selected by Mary Ann Hoberman

Illustrated by Michael Emberley

Little Brown and Company, 2012  

 

Chums (Monday Poem)

by Arthur Guiterman

 

 

He sits and begs; he gives a paw;

He is, as you can see,

The finest dog you ever saw,

And he belongs to me.

 

He follows everywhere I go

And even when I swim.

I laugh because he thinks, you know,

That I belong to him.

 

But still, no matter what we do,

We never have a fuss,

And so I guess it must be true

What we belong to us.

 

 

from Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart

Selected by Mary Ann Hoberman

Illustrated by Michael Emberley

Little Brown and Company, 2012  

 

 

 

 

Messages from Everywhere (Monday Poem)

 light up our backyard.

A bird that flew five thousand miles

is trilling six bright notes.

This bird flew over mountains and valleys

and tiny dolls and pencils

of children I will never see.

Because this bird is singing to me,

I belong to the wide wind,

the people far away who share

the air and the clouds.

Together we are looking up

into all we do not own 

and we are listening.

 

 

 

by Naomi Shihab Nye 

 

from Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart

Selected by Mary Ann Hoberman

Illustrated by Michael Emberley

Little Brown and Company, 2012  

Eletelephony (Monday Poem)

 by Laura E Richards

 

 

Once there was an elephant,

Who tried to use the telephant --

No! No! I mean an elephone

Who tried to use the telephone --

(Dear me! I am not certain quite

That even now I've got it right.)

 

Howe'er it was, he got his trunk

Entangled in the telephunk;

The more he tried to get it free,

The louder buzzed the telephee --

(I fear I'd better drop the song

Of elephop and telephong!)

 

 

from Sing a Song of Popcorn: Every Child's Book of Poems

Selected by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

Scholastic, 1988  

Why Poetry? (Monday Poem)

by Lee Bennett Hopkins

 

 

Why poetry?

Why?

 

Why sunsets?

Why trees?

 

Why birds?

Why seas?

 

Why you?

Why me?

 

Why friends?

Why families?

 

Why laugh?

Why cry?

 

Why hello?

Why good-bye?

 

Why poetry?

 

That's why!

 

 

from Falling Down the Page: A Book of List Poems

edited by Georgia Heard, Roaring Brook Press, 2009  

 

 

 

What is Earth? (Monday Poem)

 by J. Patrick Lewis

 

 

What is earth, whale?

A sea where I sing.

What is earth, robin?

A thing I call Spring.

What is earth, python?

A space to squeeze in.

What is earth, penguin?

A place to freeze in.

What is earth, camel?

A land without water.

What is earth, horsefly?

No spot for a swatter.

What is earth, earthworm?

An apple a day.

What is earth, groundhog?

A hole in PA.

What is earth, eagle?

A sky where I soar.

What is earth, cockroach?

A house I explore.

What is earth, eel?

It's really quite shocking.

What is earth, parrot?

Where I go on talking

                                                    and talking

                                                    and talking

                                                    and talking. . . . . .

 

 

 

from Falling Down the Page: A Book of List Poems

edited by Georgia Heard, Roaring Brook Press, 2009