Dancing in the Moonlight (Monday Poem)

by Angela Johnson

 

 

Me and Kesha Cousins used to dance to hip-hop music in the woods.

Boom box blasting through the trees.

We had to do it in the woods 'cause her parents

got saved and didn't allow it.

Kesha just wanted to dance.

In a video maybe one day, she said.

Figured she could still get in heaven if dancing was her only sin.

 

Kesha met a boy at the revival in Waugh,

then we stopped dancing in the moonlight.

Next time I saw her she was slipping

out of the Blue and Gray Club in high heels.

I guess she figured after she'd sinned

more than once heaven was closed to her.

 

 

 

from The Other Side: Shorter Poems

by Angela Johnson

Orchard Books, 1998  

The Other Side (Monday Poem)

 by Angela Johnson

 

 

I used to stand on top of the shed in the back of my

grandmama's house and see the other side.

The other side of where I was.

The other side had tall building and I could buy

hot dogs and pretzels on the street.

At night the hum of the subway and faraway sirens

would put me to sleep.

I dreamed of the other side.

I'd seen it on vacation and TV.

The other side didn't have a creek or magnolia trees

and warm women who smelled like cookies hugging you

on hot, sticky Sunday afternoons.

 

If I stood for a long time,

the other side would fade and

where I stood would light up my world.

 

 

from The Other Side: Shorter Poems

by Angela Johnson

Orchard Books, 1998  

Good Books, Good Times (Monday Poem)

 by Lee Bennett Hopkins

 

 

Good books. 

Good times.

Good stories.

Good rhymes.

Good beginnings.

Good ends.

Good people.

Good friends.

Good fiction.

Good facts.

Good adventures.

Good acts.

Good stories.

Good rhymes.

Good books.

Good times.

 

 

from Good Books, Good Times!

selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins

illustrated by Harvey Stevenson

Harper Collins, 1991  

 

Books Fall Open (Monday Poem)

by David McCord

 

 

Books fall open,

you fall in,

delighted where

you've never been;

hear voices not once

heard before,

reach world on world

through door on door;

find unexpected

keys to things

locked up beyond

imaginings.

What might you be,

perhaps become,

because one book

is somewhere? Some

wise delver into

wisdom, wit,

and wherewithal

has written it.

True books will venture,

dare you out,

whisper secrets,

maybe shout

across the gloom

to you in need,

who hanker for

a book to read.

 

 

from Good Books, Good Times!

selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins

illustrated by Harvey Stevenson

Harper Collins, 1991  

 

 

 

  

Artist (Monday Poem)

 by Anna Grossnickle Hines

 

 

Bright as a lightbulb,

round as a pie,

the moon glows full

in the winter sky.

It's high overhead,

but far below

the moon paints pictures

on the blue-white snow.

 

 

from Winter Lights: A Season in Poems & Quilts

by Anna Grossnickle Hines

Greenwillow, 2005 

 

A Sight to See (Monday Poem)

by Anna Grossnickle Hines

 

 

Aurora borealis!

Aurora borealis!

The words ring out

in a joyful shout.

Come see!

 

Come see

this amazing sight,

the shifting colors,

a billowing curtain

of swirling,

swooping light.

 

Aurora borealis!

Aurora borealis!

The words slip out

in a whisper.

Wow.

 

 

from Winter Lights: A Season in Poems & Quilts

by Anna Grossnickle Hines

Greenwillow, 2005 

One Little Candle (Monday Poem)

 by Anna Grossnickle Hines

 

 

One little candle,

a flickering light,

prancing and playing,

pushing back the night.

 

A hop-skipping flame

putting on a show,

mighty little candle

sets the room aglow.

 

 

 

from Winter Lights: A Season in Poems & Quilts

by Anna Grossnickle Hines

Greenwillow, 2005