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