Poetry BY children

My son leaves for college this week and we are excited for him as he begins this new adventure, but I sure am going to miss him, too. In honor of this event in our family, here’s a poem written by a teenage boy that touches my mother’s heart.

Warmth
By Richard Furst
Grade 10

I walked through the empty kitchen
to the door,
to leave the warmth of home
for the bitter-cold anxiety of
a Monday at school.
Ducking the old dogwood outside,
I heard a familiar call,
and turned to see my mother
waving me off to school,
sending me a small fire
to keep my heart a little warmer.

From TEN-SECOND RAINSHOWERS

Several poets who have worked in schools, libraries, and with other youth projects have gathered and edited collections of poetry written by children of all ages. Collections such as SALTING THE OCEAN edited by Naomi Shihab Nye (2000) or TEN-SECOND RAINSHOWERS (1996) and SOFT HAY WILL CATCH YOU (2004) both edited by Sanford Lyne are beautiful books full of unsentimental and authentic young voices. For children who aspire to be writers or who may find personal poetry writing a helpful release, these books are an invitation to see oneself as a writer, to see children as capable of poetic expression, too. Here are a few notable collections of poems BY kids:

Aguado, Bill. 2003. PAINT ME LIKE I AM: TEEN POEMS FROM WRITERSCORPS. Harper.
Francis, Lee. 1999. WHEN THE RAIN SINGS: POEMS BY YOUNG NATIVE AMERICANS. Simon & Schuster.
Franco, Betsy. 2001. THINGS I HAVE TO TELL YOU: POEMS AND WRITING BY TEENAGE GIRLS. Candlewick.
Franco, Betsy. 2001. YOU HEAR ME?: POEMS AND WRITING BY TEENAGE BOYS. Candlewick.
Lyne, Sanford. 1996. TEN SECOND RAIN SHOWERS; POEMS BY YOUNG PEOPLE. Simon & Schuster.
Lyne, Sanford. 2004. SOFT HAY WILL CATCH YOU: POEMS BY YOUNG PEOPLE. Simon & Schuster.
Nye, Naomi Shihab. 2000. SALTING THE OCEAN; 100 POEMS BY YOUNG POETS. Greenwillow.