poems from fourth grade

When I was in fourth grade at Jones Elementary, our teacher, Miss Worley, used to have us read a poem aloud, as a class, every day. We all had poetry binders with Xeroxed copies of the poems in them, and we’d get a new one each day. Some days, though, there was no new poem and we could request which poem everyone would read. I remembered a couple of them this week and thought I’d share them:

Pick Up Your Room by Mary Ann Hoberman

Pick up your room, my mother says
(she says it every day);
My room’s too heavy to pick up,
that’s what I always say.

Drink up your milk, she says to me,
don’t bubble like a clown;
of course she knows I’ll answer that
I’d rather drink it down.

And when she says at eight o’clock,
You must go right to bed,
we both repeat my answer:
why not go left instead?

***************

Love by Shel Silverstein (accompanied by an illustration of a little girl holding up a sign with a big “V” on it)

Ricky was “L” but he’s home with the flu.
Lizzie, our “O,” had some homework to do.
Mitchell, “E,” prob’ly got lost on the way
So I’m all of love that could make it today.

I don’t know why I remember these two, except that “Love” was definitely the class favorite. We’d beg for it day after day. Something about it, with the little girl standing there holding her “V,” was so sweet. It’s still in my head after 15 years.

(Miss Worley also read us books like Earth to Matthew, There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom, and The BFG. She did hilarious character voices. I can still hear her inflections when I read these books now. I hope my kids love story time with me that much.)

It’s raining in Abilene after weeks of drought – much-needed, and very English. Both of which make me happy.

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