Showing posts with label Kathi Applet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kathi Applet. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

List poems

Last night at the bookstore I shelved a children's book called FALLING DOWN THE PAGE: A BOOK OF LIST POEMS (edited by Georgia Heard). I especially liked this one by the wonderful Kathi Applet called "Test Day."

It's never about the things I know:

Where the old turtle hid her eggs
How many homeruns my brother hit last season
My mom's favorite colors--violet and pink
That chocolate chip cookies need vanilla
The year my grandfather fought in the war
The year he didn't come back
That my great-great-aunt learned to drive she she was 68
What time the moon rose last night
And what time it set this morning
How the thunder scares my ginger-striped cat
Why the neighbor's hound howls at stars
Where the grackle built her nest
What to put in my dad's cup of coffee . . .

It's never about the things I know.

Okay. I wanna hear. What are the things YOU know about?