I was thinking about poetry written for an audience of children. I don’t think I’ve written like that before. There’s a complexity to children’s poetry that is kind of surprising. With Dr. Seuss, we think of bright colors, nonsensical words and phrases. Silly things. But when you think about the messages Theodor Seuss Geisel was imparting:
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You’re on your own,
and you know what you know.
And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.
-from Oh the Places You’ll Go!
you see the true depth of the work. Letting children know they can be whoever they want. It’s all up to them.
How hard it must be to write so simply.
Have any of you tried your hands at writing children’s poetry? Have you looked back and read a Shel Silverstein quote and thought, wow that’s so much more significant than I though.
“There are no happy endings, endings are sad-so let’s have a happy beginning and a happy middle.”
― Shel Silverstein, A Light in the Attic
Let’s not let this conversation end. I’ll see you down in the comments!
The Reverie 
Yes, I’m always surprised at the complexity of the vocabulary in children’s poetry, and I’m always delighted at the “cheap rhymes” the authors can pull off in the midst of pretty heavy subject matter.
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I totally agree. I think it’s so much harder to tackle these bigger issues in such a simplistic manner than people give credit.
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There is always a lesson o be learned from children’s poetry. And how easy complexity and simplicity mix.
Social issues in a simplistic manner isn’t easy and making it fun in the process is making it harder.
In the beginning of my blog I done a poem with some fun homonyms. Inspired by hairless (hair) hare. A Japanese story with bullies, gods and a friendly person.
https://rantingcrow.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/hairless-hare/
One should always give it a try and have some fun. Who knows what comes up on paper.
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I agree, one should try it and see what comes out.
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[…] If you missed it, we had a conversation on Friday about children’s poetry here. […]
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