Our ABC Poets by Sydney, Rileigh, Allie, Morgan, Emma, Alli, Louis, Jacob, Kyle, and Mrs. Mills

1. Our ABC Poetsby Sydney, Rileigh, Allie, Morgan, Emma, Alli, Louis, Jacob, Kyle, and Mrs. Mills

2. Arnold Adoff Exercises: To Be Done Each Day. • 30 jumping jacks. • 10 windmills. • 5 leg crossovers: each leg. • 25 leg switches: mountain climbing. • 10 hamstring pulls. • Trunk rotations. • 8 push-ups. • 30 sit-ups. • Hurdle-stretches. • 20 toe-risers. • Arm circles. • Neck rotations.

3. John Ciardi • Born on June 24,1916 • His father died three years after he was born • Got a B.A. Degree in 1938 • He wanted to be a poet and a translator

4. Poetry By John Ciardi • Poetry is where every line comes to rest against a white space.

5. Emily Dickinson • Born in Amherst, Mass., Dec. 10, 1830 • She lived in Old Connecticut Village with her family, Amherst, Mass. • Emily wrote a lot of love poems • Then she died, Amherst, Mass., May 15, 1866

6. I’m Nobody! Who Are You? By Emily Dickinson • I’m nobody! Who are you? • Are you nobody, too? • Then there’s a pair of us- don’t tell! • They’d banish us, you know. • How dreary to be somebody! • How public, like a frog • To tell your name the livelong day • To an admiring bog!

7. Barbara Esbensen • University of Wisconsin • lives in Edina, Minnesota • Family- was the youngest of six children • Born- April 28, 1925 • Job- teacher

8. Frog by Barbara Ebensen • Touch it with your pencil • Splat! • The word lands wet and squat upon the page • F R O G • Feed it something light with wings. • Here’s one! • Tongue flicks bright wings caught! • Small poem gone

9. Aileen Fisher • Born- September 9th, 1906 • She went back to Chicago to find a job as an assistant replacement for women journalist. • Aileen wrote about nature. • Ideas for poems lie all around us…. In the city as well as in the country, poems are waiting to be discovered. Who knows…. Perhaps you are living a poem right now which some day you will put down on paper. • -Aileen Fisher

10. Douglas Florian • He is a poet and a painter. • He got the Lee Bannet Hopkins Award. • He purposely uses incorrect grammar. • He has illustrated over 30 kids books.

11. Daddy Longlegs by Douglas Florian • O Daddy, Daddy O How’d You get those legs to grow from spiderobic exercise did you drink milk or chew on cheese and by the way where are you’re knees O Daddy, Daddy O how’d you get those legs to grow

12. Robert Frost • Born- March 26, 1874 • Raised-San Francisco • Mom- teacher • Dad- journalist • Lived to be- 89 • Died- January 29, 1963

13. The Pasture by Robert Frost I’m going to clean the pasture spring, I’ll only stop to rake the leaves away, (And wait to watch the water clear, I may) I sha’n’t be gone long.-You come too. I’m going out to fetch the little calf, That’s standing by the mother, It’s so young it totters when she licks it with her tongue. I sha’n’t be gone long.

14. Yolande Cornelia Giovanni Jr. • Born- June 7, 1943 in Knoxville Tennessee • What she wrote about- Themes of childhood, family, love relationships. • Where from- Tennessee

15. Knoxville, Tennessee by Yolande Cornelia Giovanni Jr. I always like summer best you can eat fresh corn from daddy’s garden and okra and greens and cabbage and lots of barbecue and buttermilk and homemade ice cream at the church picnic And listen to gospel music outside at the church homecoming and go to the mountains with your grandmother and go barefooted and to be warm all the time not only when you go to bed and sleep

16. Langston Hughes Born-February 1, 1902 Died-May 22, 1967 Where-Missouri Writes about- love, hate, and despair

17. City by Langston Hughes In the morning the city spreads its wings making a song in stone that sings In the evening the city goes to bed hanging lights above its head. Cycle by Langston Hughes So many little flowers, Drop there tiny heads, But new ones come to bloom , In there place instead. I miss the little flowers that have now gone away but newly building blossoms are equally the same.

18. Seven Times One By Jean Ingelow There’s no dew left on the daisies and clovers, there’s no dew left in heaven, I’ve said my “seven times” over and over, seven times one are seven.

19. Paul B. Janeczko • He did NOT like school. • He always wrote about baseball, what he did when he was a kid. • He NEVER shared information about himself.

20. The Infield by Paul B. Janeczko Like the barnyard with the infielders scratching in the dust with their toes walking heads down but a watchful eye on the umpire ready to squawk and the chatter batter batter batter hummmm baby no batter batter batter always the chatter

21. Karla Kuskin Born- July 17th 1932 Lived- New York She is still alive at 76 Writes about- outside nature and seasons

22. Space by Karla Kuskin I’m up here you’re down there and nothing in space between us but a mile of air where I sail a mile of air clouds pass Where you run green grass Where I float birds sing One thin thing there is that holds us close together kite string.

23. Myra Livingston • Born- August 17, 1926 • Age- 82 years old • Has more than thirty books published. • 3 children • Died in- 1996

24. Halloween by Myra Livingston Green cat eyes in midnight gloom Fly with the witch on her ragged broom Over dark hills where bonfires loom There, where haunted spirits groan Crouched in the rubble of rag and bone Old Halloween unearths gray stone Counting the souls of the restless dead, Nodding her wizened shrouded head. Then with her bony fingers spread She bids them dance to a frenzied tune.

25. David McCord • Born November 15, 1897 Near New York’s Greenwich Village • As an adult he lived in Long Inland in Princeton, New Jersey, and in Oregon. • David writes mostly for children, and adults. • He died April 13, 1997.

26. The Shell I took away the ocean once, Spiraled in a shell, And happily for months to months I heard it very well. How is it then that I should hear What months and months before Had blown upon me sad and clear, Down by the grainy shore?

27. Eve Merriam • Born in Germantown in a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 19, 1916 • Lives at Greenwich villages West side on one of Manhattan’s busiest streets • She mostly writes about her old memories.

28. Ten Rosy Roses Ten rosy rose standing in a line, Jan picks one and now there are nine. Nine rosy roses near the garden gate, Nina picks one and now there are eight. Eight rosy roses, along comes Kevin, he picks one and now there are seven. Seven rosy roses by the wall of bricks, Pam picks one and now there are six. Six rosy roses beyond the honey hive, Helen picks one and now there are five. Five rosy roses at the schoolhouse door, Kim picks one and now there are four. Four rosy roses near the maple tree, Amos picks one and now there are three. Three rosy roses beneath a sky of blue, Rachel picks one and now there are two. Two rosy roses standing in the sun, the twins take a turn and now there are none. Mrs. Jones, September 6.

29. Edna St. Vincent Millay • Named after St. Vincent hospital because her brother got hurt • Moved to New York • Born in Rockland ,Maine on Feb. 22,1892 • Died on Oct. 19, 1950

30. The Buck In the Snow by Edna St. Vincent Millay White sky, over the hemlocks bowed with snow, Saw you not at the begging of evening the antlered buck and his doe Standing in the apple orchard? I saw them suddenly go, Tails up, with long leaps lovely and slow, Over the stone-wall into the wood of hemlocks bowed with snow. Now lies he here, his wild blood scalding the snow. How strange a thing is death, bringing to his knees, bringing to his antlers The buck in the snow. How strange a thing-a mile away by now, it may be, Under the hemlocks that as the moment pass Shift their loads a little, letting fall a feather of snow- Life, looking out attentive from the eyes of the doe.

31. Ogden Nash Born- August 19, 1902 Died- May 19, 1971 Age- 69 years old when he died. Most popular poet of his time. He started his career in 1925.

32. The Guppy The Parent • Whales have calves, • Cats have kittens, • Bears have cubs, • Bats have bittens; • Swans have cygnets, • Seals have puppies, • But, guppies just have little guppies. • Children aren’t happy with nothing to ignore, • And that’s what parents were created for. • By Ogden Nash

33. Lisa’s Fingerprints by Mary O’Neill Some say I have my mother’s nose, My father’s eyes, my uncle’s toes, And so I think it is just fine My finger prints are only mine. Not my father or my mother Or my sister or my brother Those now , before, or after me Will lack this nonconformity. No set of prints whose every line Matches yours, or mine. Is this distinction true within The world of wing, paw, hoof, and fin?

34. Edgar Allen Poe • Mom died in 1811 • Born Boston, Massachusetts 1809 • Died in Baltimore Maryland 1849 • Married his cousin Virginia Clemm in 1836 • Orphan before he was three (when he was 2) • Father deserted the family

35. The Bells Hear the sledges with the bells Silver bells! What a world of merriment their melody foretells! How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, In the icy air of night! While the stars that oversprinkle All the heavens seem to twinkle With a crystalline delight; Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the tintinnabulation From the bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells- From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

36. Jack Prelutsky Born- September 8, 1940 Raised- New York City Now lives in- Albuquerque, New Mexico Age- sixty-eight years old Education- New York City public schools, he studied voice in high school, Hunter College

37. The New Kid on the Block • That new kid likes to fight, • and picks on all the guys, • that new kid scares me some, • (that new kid’s twice my size), • that new kid stomped my toes, • that new kid swiped my ball, • that new kid’s really bad, • I don’t care for her at all. • By Jack Prelutsky There’s a new kid on the block, and boy, that kid is tough, that new kid punches hard, that new kid plays real rough, that new kid’s big and strong, with muscles everywhere, that new kid tweaked my arm, that new kid pulled my hair.

38. Quatrain Since we don’t have a Q poet we do have a form of poetry that starts with Q Quatrain- Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fear symmetry?

39. James Whitcomb Riley Born-October 7, 1849 Died-July 22, 1916 Where-Greenfield, IN Writes about- nature, home, country

40. Little Orphant Annie by James Whitcomb Riley Little Orphant Annie’s come to our house to stay, to wash the cups and saucers up and brush crumbs away, An shoo the chickens off the porch, an dust the harth and sweep, An make the fire, and bake the bread, and earn her board and keep, An all us other children, when the supper things is done, we set around the fire an has the mostest fun a-listnin to which tale that Annie tells about, and the goblins at get you, if you don’t watch out! Wuzst they wuz a little boy who wouldn’t say his prayers, an when he weht to bed at night away upstairs, his mama heard him holler his daddy heard him bawl, but when they turned the covers down, he wasn’t there at all, they seeked him in the rafter-room, cubby-hole and press, they seeked him in the chimney-flue and everywheres I guess, but all they ever found was his pants and round-a-bout,an the goblins will get you if you don’t watch out An one time a little girl who always laugh and grin, and made fun of everyone and all their blood and kin, an wasen’t when there was company an old folks was there she moked um and shocked um and said she didn’t care an just as she kicked her heels and turned to run and hide the wus two big black things astanden by her side an they snatched her through the ceiling for she knew what she’s about Er the goblins will get you if you don’t watch out! An little Orphant Annie say, when the blaze is blue, an the lampwick stutters, an the wind goes woo-oo, an you hear the crickets quit, an the moon is gray,an the lighning-bugs in dew is all squenched away, you better mind your parents an your teachers fond an dear, an churish them that loves you and dry the orphant’s tear, an help the poor and needy ones at clusters all about or the goblins will get you if yo don’t watch out!

41. Carl Sandburg • Walt Whitman inspired him • Died on July 23, 1967 • Born in Galesburg January 6, 1878

42. Milk-White Moon, Put The Cows To Sleep by Carl Sandburg Milk-white moon, put the cows to sleep. Since five o’ clock in the morning, Since they stood up out of the grass, Where they slept on their knees and hocks, They have eaten grass and given their milk And eaten grass again and given their milk, And kept their heads and teeth at the earth’s face. Now they are looking at you, milk-white moon. Carelessly as they look at the level landscapes, Carelessly as they look at a pail of new white milk, They are looking at you, wandering not at all, at all, If the moon is the skim face top at a pail of milk, Wondering not at all, carelessly looking, Put the cows to sleep, milk-white moon, Put the cows to sleep.

43. Shel Silverstein • Born- September 25,1930, in Chicago • How he started- His friend brought him to a publisher. Then he noticed he liked to write poems. • What he writes about- mostly comedy. • Where from-Chicago

44. Musical Career by Shel Silverstein She wanted to play the piano, But her hands couldn’t reach the keys. When her hands could finally reach the keys, Her feet couldn’t reach the floor. When her hands could finally reach the keys, And her feet could reach the floor , She didn’t want to play that ol’ piano any more.

45. Robert Louis Stevenson • He was born Nov. 13, 1850 • He began writing when 3 • Most of childhood was ill • Mid 1870’s to 1880’s writes many poems

46. Rain by Robert Louis Stevenson The rain is raining all around, It falls on field and tree, It rains on the umbrellas here, And on the ships at sea.

47. Sara Teasdale Born- August 8th 1884 Died- January 29th 1933 Writes mostly about-great symplicity, clarity, recurring scene of loss

48. February Twilight I stood beside a hill smooth laid new snow a single star looked out from the cold evening glow. There was no other creature that saw what I could see I stood and watched the evening star as long as it watched me. by Sara Teasdale

49. John Updike • John Updike was born on March 18, 1932 in Shillington, Pennsylvania.

50. Jam by John Updike Jam spreads on bread and buns. Jam runs and slides and slips and stains your lips.