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You are here: Home / Poems for Teachers / Poetry Friday: Reply to the Question “How Can You Become a Poet?” (Eve Merriam)

Poetry Friday: Reply to the Question “How Can You Become a Poet?” (Eve Merriam)

January 8, 2010 By Laura

  

I kept reading about the book The Tree That Time Built: a celebration of nature, science, and imagination, poems selected by Mary Ann Hoberman and Linda Winston. Elaine at Wild Rose Reader blogged about it. An SLJ blogger raved. Oh! And I see Mary Lee at A Year of Reading has posted about it today!

Anyway, I had this book on both my birthday and Christmas list and didn’t receive it. So when I was at my indie bookshop earlier this week, I bought it for myself. This won’t be a review, because I haven’t read the book yet! But last night, I flipped open to a random page and read this gem. 

Reply to the Question
"How Can You Become a Poet?"

take the leaf of a tree
trace its exact shape
the outside edges
and inner lines

memorize the way it is fastened to the twig
(and how the twig arches from the branch)
how it springs forth in April
how it is panoplied in July

by late August
crumple it in your hand
so that you smell its end-of-summer sadness

chew its woody stem

listen to its autumn rattle

watch as it atomizes in the November air

then in winter
when there is no leaf left

                                                  invent one

–Eve Merriam, all rights reserved

I can’t wait to read the entire book!

For more wonderful poetry, treat yourself to the Poetry Friday roundup, hosted today at The Miss Rumphius Effect. And check out the results of this week’s Poetry Stretch, too. Lots of wonderful short poems in the (new to me) shadorma form. 

Tagged With: Eve Merriam, poetry books, Poetry Friday

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« My 2010 Writing Goals
Can You Be a Freelance Children’s Writer? »

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