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It was so fun to meet Douglas Florian in person at TLA last week! He had the librarians in stitches with his wry and speedy recitations of his poems. Here's one of my favorites from his newest collection, Poetrees (Beach Lane Books, 2010):

Scribbly Gum

The scribbly gum's smooth gray bark
Has lines where larvae left their mark.
Their nibbling left a scribbly drawing--
A work of art by boring, gnawing.
From their munching, lunching, chewing--
Lovely woodcuts for the viewing.

--Douglas Florian, all rights reserved

One of the really cool things about the TLA conference last week was meeting several new (to me) poets. I loved hearing Leslie Bulion's funny, scientifically accurate, and gross poems about bugs--all from her book Hey There, Stink Bug! (Charlesbridge, 2006--with cool illustrations by Leslie Evans). Here's one she read that really got the librarians laughing:

The Hot Shot

Bombardier bombardier bombardier beetle,
slow on the wing but thinks fast on its feetle.
Blasting poor predators into retreatle,
with boiling hot acid it aims from its seatle.

--Leslie Bulion, all rights reserved

(This is another collection featuring both poems and nonfiction elements--check this book out!)

I love books that combine poetry with nonfiction, and Toad by the Road (Henry Holt, 2007) is a great example of that. Joanne Ryder wrote the poems and Maggie Kneen did the lovely, detailed illustrations.

Here's one of my favorites:

Zap, Zap

My tongue is a tool--
Far better than most--
For catching my breakfast,
Though I shouldn't boast.
It's long and it's swift
And it's covered with goo.
I flick it at cricket
And stick him with glue.

--Joanne Ryder, all rights reserved

Must pack up, clean up, and check out, but here's the poem of the day from Deborah Ruddell's Today at the Bluebird Cafe (Margaret K. McElderry, 2007). Such a great collection of lighthearted poems, beautifully illustrated by Joan Rankin!

Today at the Bluebird Cafe

It's all-you-can-eat at the Bluebird Cafe,
a grasshopper-katydid-cricket buffet,
with berries and snails and a bluebottle fly,
a sip of the lake and a bite of the sky.

--Deborah Ruddell, all rights reserved

 

It's my first full day in Texas! I'm here for the Texas Library Association's annual conference, and I'm so excited to be here. Tomorrow is when all my events are scheduled for--today is for working and exploring. So after a morning of work and a quick workout, I'll be heading out to the Alamo and then maybe taking one of the Riverwalk boat cruises. Then tonight is the All-Conference Welcome Party at the Institute of Texan Cultures. Cool!

As I'm enjoying being plopped down into a difference culture (Texas is a different world from Minnesota, even though they're part of the same country), I'm sharing a poem from Pat Mora's Yum! MmMm! Que Rico! America's Sproutings (Lee & Low, 2007). Each haiku celebrates one food native to the Americas, and vibrant, whimsical illustrations by Rafael Lopez make my mouth water (see a couple of inside art pieces here).

Here's one that makes me hungry for hot days (not many poems can do that) and fresh fruit:

Papaya

Chewing your perfume,
we taste your leafy jungle.
Yum! Juicy tropics.

--Pat Mora, all rights reserved