ATIONS

by Shel Silverstein


If we meet and I say, "Hi,"
That's a salutation.
If you ask me how I feel,
That's consideration.
If we stop and talk awhile,
That's a conversation.
If we understand each other,
That's communication.
If we argue, scream and fight,
That's an altercation.
If later we apologize,
That's reconciliation.
If we help each other home,
That's cooperation.
And all these added up
Make civilization.

(And if I say this is a wonderful poem,
Is that exaggeration?)



from A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein, 1981, Harper & Row

UNSCRATCHABLE ITCH (Monday Poem)

by Shel Silverstein


There is a spot that you can't scratch
Right between your shoulder blades,
Like an egg that just won't hatch
Here you set and there it stays.
Turn and squirm and try to reach it,
Twist your neck and bend your back,
Hear your elbows creak and crack,
Stretch your fingers, now you bet it's
Going to reach -- no that won't get it--
Hold your breath and stretch and pray,
Only just an inch away,
Worse than a sunbeam you can't catch
Is that one spot that
You can't scratch.



from A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein, 1981, Harper & Row

SIGNALS (Monday Poem)

by Shel Silverstein


When the light is green you go.
When the light is red you stop.
But what do you do
When the light turns blue
With orange and lavender spots?



from A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein, 1981, Harper & Row

EARLY BIRD (Monday Poem)

by Shel Silverstein


Oh, if you're a bird, be an early bird
And catch the worm for your breakfast plate.
If you're a bird, be an early bird --
But if you're a worm, sleep later.



from Where the Sidewalk Ends: the poems and drawings of Shel Silverstein, 1974, Harper & Row

OH CALENDAR (Monday Poem)

by J. Patrick Lewis


To see
December press
Its face against the door,
I realize I've grown an inch
Or more

Since we
First hung you up.
You measured time by turns:
Hard winter nights to softball days,
Sunburns,

The chill
At Halloween,
Then, rumors of reindeer
Across the sky.  Good-bye, Happy
Old Year!



from The Family Read-Aloud Holiday Treasury selected by Alice Low, illustrated by Marc Brown, 1991, Little Brown & Company

MY CHRISTMAS PRESENT (Monday Poem)

by Deborah Chandra


My Christmas present stares at me,
A silver bulge beneath the tree,
Tied with bright red bows.

I pick it up--its ribbons slip
And tingle on my fingertips.
"What can you be?" I whisper low.

I shake and poke and peer at it,
Then put it back and sigh a bit.
It will not tell me what it knows.

Stiffly dressed in shiny clothes
Of silver, waiting silently,
My present sits . . . and stares at me.


from Balloons and Other Poems by Deborah Chandra, illustrations by Leslie Bowman, 1990, Farrar Straus Giroux

HUNGRY MORNING (Monday Poem)

by Myra Cohn Livingston


In December I remember
In the rain and frosty snow
     hungry cardinals,
     hungry blue jays,
     hungry sparrows: Here I go.

Here's a piece of toast I've saved you
From my breakfast, warm and good,
     hurry cardinals,
     hurry blue jays,
     hurry sparrows: Here's your food.



from The Sky is Full of Song selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Dirk Zimmer, 1983, Harper & Row