a poem for your pocket

April is National Poetry Month! And April 14 is Poem in Your Pocket Day, when you're encouraged to carry around a poem with you all day long.

I joined a swap recently in which you were to send a children's poem to your partner for this occasion, which is good timing since I recently found these amazing old Junior Classics books at a library sale for a dollar each. One of the books was a volume of Poetry for Young Readers, so I went through and chose "A Seal's Lullaby" by Rudyard Kipling and "The Moon's the North Wind's Cooky" by Vachard Lindsay, both of which I really liked. I also picked a funny Shel Silverstein poem called "How Not to Have to Dry the Dishes" since my partner loves his books.

I thought it'd be fun to make a mini accordian-style poetry book instead of sending just one poem, so I printed everything out onto nice stationery, glued extra end papers and pretty cardstock for covers, and sewed on a bit of ribbon to tie it together. I left a blank page in the middle so my partner can add her own poem if she likes, too! I like the idea of knowing someone will be carrying this with her all day long in a couple of weeks. It'll be fun to see the poem I receive in return, too.