The Reason I Like Chocolate

The reason I like chocolate

is I can lick my fingers

and nobody tells me I’m not polite

 

I especially like scary movies

‘cause I can snuggle with Mommy

or my big sister and they don’t laugh

 

I like to cry sometimes ‘cause

everybody says “what’s the matter

don’t cry”

 

and I like books

for all those reasons

but mostly ‘cause they just make me

happy

 

and I really like

to be happy

 

--Nikki Giovanni

Published in A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children, 2005

Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People by Monica Brown, Illustrated by Julie Paschkis

Take a look at this new book about the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda

“Once there was a little boy named Neftalí who loved wild things wildly and quiet things quietly. From the moment he could talk, he surrounded himself with words. Neftalí discovered the magic between the pages of books. When he was sixteen, he began publishing his poems as Pablo Neruda. Pablo wrote poems about the things he loved—things made by his friends in the café, things found at the marketplace, and things he saw in nature. He wrote about the people of Chile and their stories of struggle. Because above all things and above all words, Pablo Neruda loved people.” –from the book flap

Also check out: The Dreamer by Pam Nunez Ryan, Illustrated by Peter Sis

Buffalo Dusk

The buffaloes are gone.

And those who saw the buffaloes are gone.

Those who saw the buffaloes by thousands and how they

pawed the prairie sod into dust with their hoofs, their

great heads down pawing on in a great pageant of dusk,

Those who saw the buffaloes are gone.

And the buffaloes are gone.

--Carl Sandburg

Published in A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children, 2005