rest

all night

under my bed

tired

they stretch

and loosen

their laces

wide open

they fall asleep

and dream

of walking

they revisit

the places

they went to

during the day

and wake up

cheerful

relaxed

so soft

Francisco X. Alarcon, "Ode to My Shoes" from Bellybutton of the Moon. Copyright © 1998 by Francisco X. Alarcon.  Reprinted by permission of Lee & Low Books.

 

Source: Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems (Lee & Low Books, 1998)

Hugging you takes some practice.

So I'll start out with a cactus.

Marilyn Singer, "Porcupines" from Twosomes. Copyright © 2011 by Marilyn Singer.  Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Source: Twosomes (Alfred A. Knopf, 2011)

It takes more than a wish

to catch a fish

you take the hook

you add the bait

you concentrate

and then you wait

you wait     you wait

but not a bite

the fish don’t have

an appetite

so tell them what

good bait you’ve got

and how your bait

can hit the spot

this works a whole

lot better than

a wish

if you really

want to catch

a fish

“To Catch a Fish” from Under the Sunday Tree. Copyright © 1988 by Eloise Greenfield, used by permission of S©ott Treimel NY.  Source: Under the Sunday Tree (Harper & Row, 1988)

Quickly and quietly,

the bat patrols the night,

sending an invisible song

echoing like ripples on a pond,

chasing moths around a streetlight.

Quickly and quietly,

the bat patrols the night.

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

Mix a pancake,

Stir a pancake,

Pop it in the pan;

Fry the pancake,

Toss the pancake—

Catch it if you can. 

I’m fond of frogs, and every day

I treat them with affection.

I join them at the FROG CAFE—

We love the Croaking Section.

Text © 2000 Jack Prelutsky. Used by Permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Source: It's Raining Pigs and Noodles (HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 2000)

without anybody's help

on a clean white page in my composition notebook,

     I know

if I wanted to

I could write anything.

Letters becoming words, words gathering meaning,

     becoming

thoughts outside my head

becoming sentences

written by

                                                  Jacqueline Amanda Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson, "on paper" from Brown Girl Dreaming. Copyright © 2014 by Jacqueline Woodson. Used by permission of Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.