30 Poets/Day 16 - Betsy Franco and Bobbi Katz

I love the different perspectives that Betsy Franco and Bobbi Katz write from in these two poems... and how each perspective rings so true. Which, of course, is part of the fun I have each year putting 30 Poets/30 Days together - I get to see the world through other eyes. And today... so do you!


Me and Joe Lining Up After Recess
by
Betsy Franco

We race
for the front

   bunch up
      and bump,
           wiggle,
                 giggle,
          push,
      pull,
           trip,
                 tease,
                       jab,
                           grab,
                 poke,
           pinch,
   squish,
squeeze.

Then teacher gives the quiet sign.
Says,
"You two go to the end of the line!"

© 2009 Betsy Franco. All rights reserved.
from Messing Around on the Monkey Bars, and other school poems for two voices
(Click here to see the original post and comments)

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Lesson (working title)
by
Bobbi Katz

On this daffodilicious day
I am judging a community poetry contest
               in a distant city
swimming on waves of words.
A tsunami of images and emotions
     is carrying me
               deep,
so deep
        into other lives: Lives of children
who hear things no child should hear.
Lives of adults aching for lost loved ones.
Wounded veterans invisible to passers-by.
Kids fearing death before college.
Teens fenced-in by peer pressure…
or parents living through them…
I do not know their names or faces.
Poems have introduced me to their hearts.

And how to choose just three “winners”
  for each category
  and just three “honorable mentions”?
Each poet is a winner. Each is honorable.
I winnow the piles
      Down
down,
      down
         until I too
            am
                down.
Sadness swells over my head
sweeping me off my feet.
I know I must take a break.

I walk outside.
Earth sings green and yellow spring songs.
I stretch my arms out and look up.
A young child's poem appears.
Each letter written in a different color:

The sky is in

the sky is in

the sky is in

   the sky.

Imagine a sunshined heart of many colors
Blossoming beneath the poem,
completing it.

 Yes! I'll remember this fine lesson:
   this fine poem
written by a child in a distant city.

© 2010 Bobbi Katz. All rights reserved.
(Click here to see the original post and comments)

Yesterday we had poems from Mary Ann Hoberman and Eileen Spinelli. Tomorrow... Jon Scieszka and James Carter.

Please click here for more information about this year's edition of 30 Poets/30 Days, including how to follow along.