Poetry Friday: Where is Spring?
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
Happy National Month of Poetry in the US and Canada – and for the rest of us, Happy Poetry Friday! I have just had the pleasure of reviewing a beautiful poetry picture-book, “Where is Spring?” by Yang-Huan, illustrated by H. Y. Huang and A. Yang (Heryin Books, 2007). It is absolutely perfect for us (in the Northern Hemisphere) as a readaloud at the moment. Spring seems to have been a long time coming this year but we’re just about there now. This morning, here in North Yorkshire (UK) the temperature plummetted back down to 2 degrees and it was grey and foggy – so the wail went up again. “Where is Spring?”: but as the day progressed, Spring did indeed arrive…
In Yang-Huan’s beautiful poem, a boy sends his kite up into the air to find out where Spring is:
A seagull says: Spring is traveling by sea in a boat,
Do you not hear the sailors serenading Spring?A swallow says: Spring is resting in the sky,
Do you not see the busy clouds
Carefully mopping the sky bright and blue?A sparrow says: Spring is strolling in the fields by the riverbank,
Do you not see the earth awakening from its winter sleep,
Combing the hair of the trees and putting new clothes on the fields?
We love this imagery – and the illustrations in this gorgeous picture-book really bring it alive, along with the small boy’s exuberance. You can just imagine that he’s been cooped up all winter and is absolutely delighted to be racing through the fields with his kite streaming high up in the sky. Eventually the boy and his kite return home to find that Spring has even entered there. Maybe we’ll be getting the kite out this week-end…
This week’s Poetry Friday is being hosted by ayuddha.net.
