Laura Purdie Salas

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You are here: Home / Poems for Kids / Poetry Friday: Worldly Wise, from The Monarch’s Progress

Poetry Friday: Worldly Wise, from The Monarch’s Progress

June 6, 2008 By Laura

I was reading The Monarch’s Progress, a lovely recent collection by Avis Harley, whom I’ve not heard of before. It’s full of great imagery and satisfying language, and I really enjoyed it. One thing she does that I like to do sometimes is write rhyming acrostics. There are several in the book, and this one is, I think, my favorite:

Worldly Wise

Comma-size
And worldly wise,
The tiny caterpillar arrives
Eager to feed on leafy green–
Ravenous, greedy feasting machine!
Plumping up until it splits to shed
Its skin for one that fits–
Lively stripes grow bold in rows as
Larger and larger the larva grows,
And then–it ends this gorging bliss,
Retiring as a chrysalis.

—Avis Harley

I enjoy poems of transformation and transition, and this one does it so well! And the words are so sumptuous!

We’re transitioning to summer (well, it’s been cold, wet, and hailing over the past week, so it doesn’t feel like summer, but that’s ok), the kids are done with school, and the chaotic summer schedule begins. I sort of wish I could retire into a chrysalis!

The Poetry Friday roundup today will be at Sarah Reinhard’s Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering. Check it out!

Tagged With: poems, Poetry Friday

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