A couple of weeks ago Sally wrote a Books at Bedtime post about Mitsumasa Anno‘s Animals, which sent me back to my collection of his books. Among them, I have another book with a very similar title: The Animals – a book of selected poems by Michio Mado, who is perhaps Japan’s best know poet for children. The poems here have been translated by the Empress Michiko of Japan, and are beautifully presented on gold pages, Japanese on the left, English on the right, with a frieze of animals created my Anno running along the bottom.
Each poem breathes from its double-page spread, and gives the reader thinking space. The book was published by Margaret K. McElderry, who died recently – and it is a testimony to the wonderful work she did in unerringly bringing beautiful picture books into being.
My copy of The Animals was once a library book and one of its previous young readers felt passionately enough about one of the poems to draw around its title on the Contents page very carefully with a felt tip pen. So that is the poem I will share with you today.
Butterflies
Butterflies close their wings
When they go to sleep.
They are so small,
In nobody’s way.
Yet they fold themselves
In half
Modestly…
And this lovely one, “A Dog Walks”, about trying to work out how a dog moves its legs when its walking:
How about tying
On each leg a bell,
Each with a different sound?ChiRin
KoRon
KaRan
PoRonThen shallI know?
I wonder?
This week’s Poetry Friday is hosted by Sara Lewis Holmes at Read Write Believe – head on over.