Laura Purdie Salas

Writing the World for Kids

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You are here: Home / Poems for Kids / Poem of the Day: Farewell (by David L. Harrison)

Poem of the Day: Farewell (by David L. Harrison)

April 14, 2010 By Laura

 

 

Forget fairy-tale pirates and dive into the real world of the pirate’s life. It’s not always pretty.

David L. Harrison’s poetry collection Pirates (Wordsong, 2008), with beautiful oil paintings by Dan Burr, is that rare thing–a boy-friendly poetry collection that isn’t light verse.

Check out this grim, but moving, poem about the common ending on a hangman’s noose that many pirates faced:

Farewell

I knew one day
I’d end like this–
without hope.

I knew one day
I’d meet my fate
on hempen rope.

I had my share
of wickedness,
defeats, wins…

Farewell, then.
I go to settle
for my sins.

–David L. Harrison, all rights reserved

 

This despairing but resigned feeling describes how I used to feel about public speaking. But I’ve gotten a little better. I’m very comfortable with school visits now, which is a good thing! I’m still nervous speaking to adults, though. Today, at the Texas Library Association conference, I’ll be reading my poems to a room full of librarians. Librarians are some of my very favorite people! And yet…it feels a bit like the hempen rope. I just always feel gripped by fear before I address a room full of grown-ups. Wish me luck! (On the plus side, I get to share the speaking table with Douglas Florian and other terrific poets, and I’ll get to spend some time with Sylvia Vardell, wonderful advocate of children’s poetry and organizer of this presentation. Yay!)

Tagged With: David L. Harrison, National Poetry Month 2010 (Poem a Day), poems, poetry books

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Related

« Poem of the Day: Papaya (by Pat Mora)
Poem of the Day: Today at the Bluebird Cafe (by Deborah Ruddell) »

January News

Happy 2021!

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