Laura Purdie Salas

Writing the World for Kids

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Poem of the Day: Black spider (by Rebecca Kai Dotlich)

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Yesterday’s poem featured spiders in a rather unappetizing way. So for today’s poem, I’ve chosen a beautiful spider poem from Sweet Dreams of the Wild: Poems for Bedtime (Wordsong, 1996–illustrated by Katharine Dodge). Rebecca Kai Dotlich is one of my favorite poets–and a lovely person as well, and this book, her first children’s poetry book, has her characteristic heart and dynamic, right-there, makes-you-see-hear-feel-it word choices. Here’s one I love:

Black spider,
black spider,
where do you sleep?

I sleep in a web
of knitted threads,
woven of silk
in a flower bed.
On a thin, gauzy sheet
I sway in the air,
from a lilac bush
to the garden chair.
I cuddle up tight
with sweet dreams of the wild,
and THAT’S where I sleep,
sleepy child!

–Rebecca Kai Dotlich, all rights reserved

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