Lemonade and Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word

If you thought that haiku was a staid poetic form, then you haven’t come across this collection! Boys and all things boy are presented for each of the four seasons. Sprinkled throughout are humorous line drawings that extend the light tone.

A poetic form called the “clerihews” was established in 1890. It’s the short form used to briefly present presidential factoids that are sometimes irreverent but always humorous and based in fact. Each four-line poem is accompanied by a black and while line caricature of the president to magnify the humor.

The author successfully creates a picture in the title of each poem (they are concrete or shape poems, after all!) followed by the poems in which are “pictures with words.” The result is a creative, playful collection of concrete poetry.