POETRY PUDDING/Poems about Poetry

I love poems about poetry and found a wonderful example in Poetry Pudding, the 2007 prize winning anthology of New Zealand’s major poets writing for young people. Here it is:




Windows
by Riemke Ensing

In the poet’s house all the windows
are open, even at night. How else
could the moon leave her caress
and light the lamp of language.
How else could the ‘Queen of the Night’ draw
her seductive scent through nightmares
and turn dream into smiles.

Owls call and small creatures scuttle to safety
under the wardrobe. A moth flies in
and settles on a still warm lampshade,
glad to be out of the nip in the air. A breeze
slips in to dance with the dust for a while.
By morning both will have gone, leaving
a charmed trace. That’s how stories are made.
A tender dazzling of stars passing over the dark
and needing a window as lighthouse
for poets.

Argante, Jenny. Ed. 2007. Poetry Pudding; A Delicious Collection of Rhyme and Wit. Ill. by Debbie Tipuna. Auckland, NZ: Reed Publishing, p. 168.

I wrote about this “poems about poetry” topic earlier this year, in my Feb. 15 posting and in my January column in Book Links. It might be fun to pull more international and multicultural examples of such poems and compare and contrast them all, like:

• “Wish” by Linda Sue Park, from Tap Dancing on the Roof; Sijo Poems (Clarion, 2007)
• “A Blank White Page” by Francisco X. Alarcón, from Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems / Iguanas en la Nieve y Otros Poemas de Invierno (Children’s Book Press, 2001)
• “The Bridge” by Kaissar Afif, translated by Mansour Ajami, from The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems and Paintings From the Middle East collected by Naomi Shihab Nye (Four Winds Press, 1992)

And look for Eve Merriam’s poems about poetry such as “Where is a Poem?” from There is No Rhyme for Silver, “How to Eat a Poem” from A Sky Full of Poems, and “’I,’ Says the Poem” also from A Sky Full of Poems. These gems are often included in general poetry anthologies and are wonderful examples to introduce a poetry lesson or label the poetry book area.

Picture credit: www.people.vcu.edu