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
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
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