Moon Poems

Another beautiful full moon to enjoy-- and on Friday the 13th! I put together a quick list of "moon" poetry books in honor of the day.  Enjoy!

Moon Poems

1. Abeel, Samantha.1993. Reach for the Moon. Duluth, MN: Pfeifer-Hamilton.
2. Agard, John and Nicholes, Grace. Eds. 2002. Under the Moon & Over the Sea; A Collection of Caribbean Poems. Somerville, MA: Candlewick. 
3. Alarcón, Francisco X. 1998. From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems/Del Ombligo de la Luna y Otros Poemas de Verano. San Francisco: Children’s Book Press.
4. Aldana, Patricia. Ed. 2004. Under the Spell of the Moon. Toronto, Canada: Groundwood.
5. Bruchac, Joseph. 1992.  Thirteen Moons on Turtle’s Back: A Native American Year of Moons. New York: Philomel Books.
6. Crist-Evans, Craig. 1999. Moon Over Tennessee: A Boy’s Civil War Journal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
7. Durango, Julia. 2011. Under the Mambo Moon. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge. 
8. Florian, Douglas. 2007. comets, stars, the moon, and mars. San Diego: Harcourt.
9. Harris, Jay M. 2007. The Moon Is La Luna: Silly Rhymes in English & Spanish. Ill. by Matthew Cordell. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
10. Hopkins, Lee Bennett. Ed. 1995. Blast Off: Poems about Space. New York: HarperCollins.
11. Johnson, Lindsay Lee. 2002. Soul Moon Soup. Asheville, NC: Front Street.
12. Kuskin, Karla. 2003. Moon, Have You Met My Mother? The Collected Poems of Karla Kuskin. New York: HarperCollins.
13. Lawson, JonArno. The Man in the Moon-Fixer’s Mask. Toronto: Pedlar Press, 2004.
14. Livingston, Myra Cohn. 1998. Space Songs. New York: Holiday House.
15. Ryder, Joanne. 2002. Mouse Tail Moon. Ill. by Maggie Kneen. New York: Henry Holt.
16. Salas, Laura Purdie. 2008. And Then There Were Eight: Poems About Space. Minneapolis, MN: Capstone.
17. Sidman, Joyce. 2010. Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night. Ill. by Rick Allen. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
18. Singer, Marilyn. 2011. A Full Moon is Rising. Lee & Low.
19. Sklansky, Amy E. 2012. Out of This World: Poems and Facts About Space. Ill. by Stacey Schuett. New York: Knopf.
20. Wallace, Nancy Elizabeth. Ed. 2003. The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars: Poems. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
21. Willard, Nancy. 2001. The Moon & Riddles Diner and the Sunnyside Cafe. San Diego: Harcourt.
22. Wood, Nancy. 1995. Dancing Moons. New York: Doubleday.
23. Yolen, Jane and Peters, Andrew Fusek. Comp. 2010. Switching on the Moon; A Very First Book of Bedtime Poems. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick.
24. Yolen, Jane. 1993. What Rhymes with Moon? New York: Philomel. 
25. Zemach, Margot. 2001. Some from the Moon, Some from the Sun: Poems and Songs for Everyone. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

And I can't resist the opportunity to connect with a poem from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science. Here's a moon poem from the 4th grade section, along with the "Take 5" mini lesson for sharing this poem with kids.

Queen of Night

By Terry Webb Harshman

I am the moon, Queen of Night,

riddle wrapped in borrowed light,

a silver spool where dreams unwind,

ancient orb as old as time.

I masquerade; I wax and wane . . .

forever changing yet the same;

I stir the tides with unseen hands;

they ebb and flow from sea to sand.

Father Sun may keep the day;

I ride along the Milky Way . . . 

holding court with owls and bats,

moles and voles and backstreet cats.

Within my tent the weary rest;

puppies doze and sparrows nest.

Children dream beneath my light . . .

I am the moon, Queen of Night.

Take 5

1. Before sharing this poem, alert students to listen for particular “moon vocabulary.” Then read the poem aloud and make a list of all the moon-specific language they can identify (e.g., night, light, ancient, orb, wax, wane, tides, ebb, flow, Milky Way).

2. Read the poem aloud again, and invite students to chime in on the first and last lines of the poem (I am the moon, Queen of Night), echoing the title of the poem). 

3. Connect this poem with a nonfiction book about the moon to compare the factual information you can glean from each source. One example is The Moon by Seymour Simon.

4. Use this poem to talk about what we know about the moon, beginning with attributes of the moon and then considering tides, seasons, and the observable appearance of the moon over time during its phases. Consult the NASA website at SolarSystem.NASA.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Moon.

5. Follow up with another poem about the moon, “I Like that Night Follows Day” by April Halprin Wayland (1st Grade, Week 24, page 92), and selections from A Full Moon Is Rising by Marilyn Singer and Dark Emperor by Joyce Sidman.

Happy Poetry Friday! Join the crew over at Catherine's place here.

Image source: earthsky.net, FR