Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Susan Marie Swanson - Wonders

Wonders
(after the traditional rhyme “I Saw a Peacock with a Fiery Tail”)
by
Susan Marie Swanson

I saw a tiger
burning bright

I saw the sun
in the middle of the night

I saw a star
torn from a tree

I saw a leaf
holding a key

I saw a pocket
full of art

I saw a book
shaped like a heart

I saw a stone
coming untied

I saw a shoelace
wiggle and hide

I saw some tadpoles
buzzing round a cake

I saw a bumblebee
high above the lake

I saw a cloud
pacing at the zoo

You can see
these wonders too!

© 2010 Susan Marie Swanson. All rights reserved.

Susan Marie Swanson writes poetry and picture books that pick perfect details and have juuuuust the right words to tell their stories. For a reader, they're a treat, and for a writer, they're a master class if you study them. Perhaps this comes from spending 25 years writing poetry WITH kids not just for them or perhaps it's natural talent (or both!) - check out this interview or her site to see if you can decide - but whatever it is, it is an inherently good thing.

Susan's The House in the Night (2008) received the Caldecott Medal for illustrator Beth Krommes (the second such poet-to-Caldecott mentioned here this week - editors/illustrators take note!) and a slew of other awards and stars and the like. No wonder - it's gorgeous and an amazing read-aloud. You really should share it with children (and parents and grandparents) today so you can understand why I'm such a fan and so happy to have Susan Marie Swanson here as part of 30 Poets/30 Days.

Yesterday gave us Cancion De Mango/Mango Song by Jorge Argueta. Tomorrow, Weeds by Ralph Fletcher! For more on 30 Poets/30 Days and ways to follow along, please click here.

13 comments:

tanita✿davis said...

I think I'd like to see a stone coming untied. Now I want to know if it unties to base minerals, or what...

I love poetry which just feeds my crazy imagination.

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful poem! It has given me poem envy.

Jane Heitman Healy said...

This poem is a real imagination-opener! Greg, thanks for another 30 Poets! I'm enjoying it so much, I'm featuring a link on my own blog post today http://readlearnandbehappy.blogspot.com/2010/04/poetry-tag-and-other-sites-national.html

Dr. Letizia said...

Hey Greg, My middle school students are looking forward to new poem each day! Talk about motivation! Thanks!

Andromeda Jazmon said...

Love this poem! I am with Tanita - a stone untied? That's my favorite line. I am going to have to look for more of her.

Jules at 7-Imp said...

Lovely. Thank you both.

Lee Wind, M.Ed. said...

Especially after last night's #kidlitchat on twitter, the idea of poems and picture book text being related seems so clear to me with Susan's "Wonders." I can imagine an illustrator being SO excited to make this poem a picture book. It was lovely to read. Thanks to you both,
Namaste,
Lee

Megan said...

Love the imagery of this poem - I could see it all and found myself grabbing a pen to doodle once I finished reading it.

Havi Brooks (and duck) said...

What a joy to read. I absolutely love it! Thank you.

Deborah Weber said...

This is wonder-ful indeed!

Anonymous said...

i really like this poem. i love poems a lot and so does my teacher ms.nisman.i wrote a poem.

when i walk through the woods i herd a wired noise i wonder what it was but i cant figer it...

Anonymous said...

im in the same class as the other kid on ms.mismans class any way i really like this poem!!!!see you on monday anonymous

Anonymous said...

oh no i wrote the wrong thing its ms.nisman sorry