You know it when you feel it

I’ve been thinking about poetry lately, probably because I spent time last week with a poet and read her work in a concentrated way.

It was a pleasure to spend time with Carole Boston Weatherford. (opens in a new window) You probably know her work. Her book Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom (opens in a new window) (Hyperion) was awarded a Coretta Scott King award and a Caldecott Honor. Other books that she’s written have not only won prestigious awards, but have been included on many notable lists.

In any case, spending time with Carole made me wonder: what is poetry for children? How does it differ from poetry for adults? Does poetry do something that prose doesn’t?

I’m not at all sure that there’s a satisfactory definition of poetry, but I kind of like what Robert Frost had to say about poetry, that it “begins in delight and ends in wisdom.” It seems to ring true, particularly about poetry shared with children.

We start sharing Mother Goose rhymes with the youngest child and continue on. Personally, I like the Iona Opie collection illustrated by Rosemary Wells, My Very First Mother Goose (opens in a new window) (Candlewick) for very young children.

And then Carole Weatherford’s Jazz Baby (opens in a new window) (Lee & Low) is a great one to share. Jazz Baby celebrates the music in words and rhythm that can be shared with children of almost any age (I was with her when she shared it successfully with a group of 6th graders!)

Think about it. The delight, the pleasure, the joy of sharing rhymes winds up encouraging children to play with language, hear the rhythm, or pay closer attention to words because of the way they’re presented.

I think the same is true for older children — and for adults &mdah; regardless of the type of poetry. The way words are put together in poetry or poetic forms slows me down as a reader.

And the space between the words — both literally and figuratively — just may give readers greater understanding of something they didn’t even know they knew.