Poetry Friday: The Child Poet
Friday, June 19th, 2009Can children write poems? Of course! It’s true we don’t normally associate children with writing poetry so much as we do with reading it (or reading it to them,) but children can often display a knack for the language that is fresh and startling. Witness the work of young New Zealand poet, Laura Ranger in this excerpt from ‘Two Word Poem’:
The toad sat on a red stool
it was a toadstool.
The rain tied a bow
in the cloud’s hair
it was a rainbow.
Which witch put sand
in my sandwich?
Laura was seven when she wrote this. Precocious to be sure, the poetry nontheless remains delightfully childish at the same time. I discovered Laura Ranger’s work in a little book called Laura’s Poems tucked away in the back corner of a children’s bookstore in Wigtown, Scotland. Published in 1995 by a small press called Godwit Publishing Ltd. in New Zealand, the book is likely out-of-print and hard to acquire. What struck me about Laura’s book was not so much the precocity of the verse, but her genuinely child-like desire and ability to express herself in words. Laura apparently wrote out her poems in hand first, and then revised them on a word-processor. Computer technology enabled her to edit which then led to her improving on her initial hand-written impressions. And remember this was 1995! Today, many children have ready access to computers or some even with hand-held devices that allow them to record and edit their words should they have a desire as deep as Laura’s to observe the world and write about it.
Does your child like to write poetry? If so, where can they find outlets to see their words in print? Laura published her poems in the American children’s magazine, Stone Soup. And currently in Britain, there is a poetry contest for young writers called the Foyle Young Poets Award with a deadline for submissions of July 31, 2009.
Today’s Poetry Friday host is Carol at Carol’s Corner.
