Skywriting -- a poem by Laura Purdie Salas

 What a great poem for two voices!

Personal Poetry Anthology Index

1 = A Packet of Poems

2 = A Parcel of Poems

3 = A Posse of Poems

4 = A Plethora of Poems

Anonymous:  If You Should Meet a Crocodile (3)
Anonymous: Thanksgiving (3)
Author Unknown: Fairy Tale Song (3)
Asch, Frank:  Sunflakes (2)
Baylor, Byrd:  Coyote (2)
Brady, Elsie N.: Leaves (3)
Brown, Calef:  Lone Star Witches (3)
Bryan, Ashley:  Song (2)
Chanko, Pamela: Jiggle, Wiggle, and Giggle (3)
Curie, Robert:  The Home Place (2)
Dickinson, Emily: If I can stop one heart from breaking (1)
Dotlich, Rebecca Kai:  Classroom Globe (2)
Dyson, Cheryl: Veteran’s Day (3)
Esenwine, Matt. F.:  Christmas Cookie Favorites (3)
Farjeon, Eleanor:  A Dragonfly (2)
Farjeon, Eleanor:  There Isn't Time (1)
Field, Rachel:  If Once You Have Slept on an Island (2)
Field, Rachel:  Some People (1)
Fisher, Lillian M:  My Desert Home (1)
Fletcher, Ralph:  Poetry (2)
Florian, Douglas:  Don't! (2)
Frank, John:  A Cold October Night (3)
Frost, Robert:  The Road Not Taken (2)
Frost, Robert:  Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (1)
George, Kristine O'Connell:  Storm (3)
Ghinga, Charles:  Pigs (1)
Giovanni, Nikki:  knoxville, tennessee (1)
Greenfield, Eloise:  Things (1)
Gregory K.: Resolutions (3)
Hahn, Mary Lee:  Reading is Breathing (2)
Heck, C. J.: The day the circus came to town (3)
Hindley, Judy:  Green (2)
Holbrook, Sara: The Library (3)
Hopkins, Lee Bennett:  The Museum Door (1)
Hughes, Langston: April Rain Song (1)
Hughes, Langston: Dreams (2)
Klein, A. M.:  Orders (2)
Lamm, C. Drew:  Watercolor Maine (1)
Lansky, Bruce: Lost (2)
Lee, Dennis:  Muddy Puddle (1)
Lesser, Carolyn: A Walk in the Woods (1)
Livingston, Myra Cohn:  The Night (2)
Mansfield, Katherine: Butterfly Laughter (2)
Nye, Naomi Shihab:  The Traveling Onion (2)
Ozer, Kemal (Turkey): At the Beach (2)
Paul, Ann Whitford: California Missions (2)
Prelutsky, Jack:  Alligators are Unfriendly (2)
Prelustky, Jack:  My Gerbil Seemed Bedraggled (1)
Richards, Laura E.:  Eletelephony (1)
Rossetti, Christina:  Who Has Seen the Wind? (2)
Schroc, Priscilla:  Grandmother's Parlor (2)
Shields, Carol Diggory:  The First Americans (2)
Silverstein, Shel:  Eighteen Flavors (1)
Singer, Marilyn:  Desert (2)
Spinelli, Eileen:  When Grandma Comes (2)
Teasdale, Sara:  May Night (2)
The Only Cin: Overload (2)
Thompson, Dorothy Brown:  Maps (2)
Zolotow, Charlotte:  People (1)
Hubbell, Patricia: On My Island (1)
Katz, Bobbi: Poems (1)
Kennedy, X. J.: Mother's Nerves (3)
Kuskin, Karla:  Rules (1)
Lear, Edward:  There Was an Old Man with a Beard (1)
Lindsay, Vachel: There was a little turtle (3)
Livingston, Myra Cohn: El Dia de Muertos: The Day of the Dead (3)
Livingston, Myra Cohn:  Why? (1)
Lobel, Arnold: Books to the Ceiling (3)
Merriam, Eve:  How to Eat a Poem (1)
Moore, Helen H. : Author, Author (3)
Moore, Helen H.: Cooperation (3)
Moore, Helen H.:  Popcorn:  (3)
Mora, Pat: This Big Sky (1)
Nesbitt, Kenn: The Aliens Have Landed (3)
Prelustky, Jack:  Homework!  Oh Homework! (1)
Prelutsky, Jack:  A Pizza the Size of the Sun (3)
Racza, Bob:  Norm (3)
Rose, Margaret: The Butterfly (3)
Rossetti, Christina:  Hurt No Living Thing (3)
Sandburg, Carl:  Fog (1)
Schertle, Alice:  Lizard (2)
Schertle, Alice:  Moo (3)
Shakespeare, William: Sonnet 18 (1)
Siebert, Diane: from Mojave (1)
Silverstein, Shel:  Batty (3)
Stevenson, Robert Louis: Bed in Summer (3)
Stevenson, Robert Louis: My Shadow (3)
Vance, Barbara: Snow Kisses  (3)
Viorst, Judith: Learning (3)
Williams, William Carlos:  This is Just to Say (1)
 
Gregory K: Resolutions (3)
Sarah, a fourth grader in PA:  One Class (2)
 

Poetry Book: Maine: The Way Life Should Be: A Wicked Good Book of Verse by Robert Pottle

Illustrated by Holly Hardwick
paperback
found at Ellsworth Library

2005, Blue Lobster Press, Eastbrook, Maine

64 pgs.

wonderful "pencil" drawings

Goodreads rating:   3.67 - 3 ratings

My rating:  5/Loved it! 

My comments:  The poetr, Robert Pottle, was born in Eastport and now lives in Eastbrook (or at least he did when this book was published.)

Loved the poems and line drawings.  There's also information on each page.  Many are song to familiar tunes:

    "There's  a Racoon in the Trash Can" (Battle Humn of the Republic)

    "Have You Ever Seen a Puffin?" (The More We Get Together)

    "I'm a Little Lobster " Part I - catching; Part II - cooking; Part III - eating

    "Itsy Bitsy Black Flies" (Itsy Bitsy Spider, of course!)

    "Nine Painted Turtles " (One little, two little, three little ...)

    "Busy Beaver's Song" (I've Been Working on the Railroad)

Loons
 Whether hauntingly howling one night on a lake
or laughing one morning in June,
they’re known for the numerous sounds they can make;
a primitive bird is the loon.
 
The common loon’s plumage is all black and whte,
The newborns are brownish and black.
If you’re lucky you may see a marvelous sight;
a loon with a chick on its back.
 
At diving and swimming, they cannot be beat.
At aquatics, they’re simply the best,
but it takes them an hour of flapping their feet
to get from the short to their nest.

Goodreads:  Funny poems, and songs set to familiar tunes, about Maine's abundant wildlife. Interesting animal facts about all of the animals covered are included.

Poetry Books

Anthologies are BELOW 

Favorite Adult Poems

Ada, Alma Flor - Gathering the Sun, 1997

    26 "small" poems

    describe life of Mexican farm worker

    awesome "sun drenched" illustrations

    cover is dark, ;not representative of book illustrations

Ashman, Linda - M is For Mischief, An A to Z of Naughty Children 2008

    ABC book wit":

    alliteration

    sophisticated vocabulary

    cleverness

    illustrations to examine closely

    wonderful collection of oems

Alexander, Kwame, Chris Colderly, Marjory Wentworth - Out of Wonder, Poems Celebrating Poets, 2017

    celebrating Billy Collins

    celebrating William Carlos Williams

    celebrating Mary Oliver

    celebrating Naomi Shihab Nye

    plus 16 others

    illust. Ekua Holmes

Blackaby, Susan - Nest, Nook & Cranny, 2010

    

    poetry from 5 different habitats

    desert, grassland, shoreline, 

    wetland, woodland

    imagery of all sorts!

Brown, Caleb - Hallowilloween, 2010

    14 poems relating to Halloween

    Many not directly related

    Fun

Brown, Skila - Clackety Track: Poems About Trains, 2019

    13 poems

    abundance of train information

    illust. by James Cristoph

Bulion, Leslie - Superlative Birds, 2019

    20 poems

    includes scientific info on each

    writing project idea

    smallest, largest, all superlatives

Corman, Avery - Bark in the Park! Poems for Dog Lovers - Avery Corman, 2019

    ill. Hyewon Yum

    39 different dogs

    super short 

        (2-3-4 lines each)

    dogs: bassett hound, greyhound

        chihuahua, dachshund, pug

        german shepherd, poodle

Elliott, David - In the Past, From Tribolites to Dinosaursto Mammoths in More Than 500 Million Years, 2018

    a timeline through the past

    tells time period and how long ago

Esbensen, Barbara Juster - Swing Around the Sun, 2003

    four different illustrators

    one for each season

    20 of Esbensen/s poems

Fletcher, Ralph - A Writing Kind of Day, 2005

    poems about writing poems,

    poetry, words

    super poems

Florian, Douglas - Autumnblings, 2003

    29 poems

    many can be used as starters for kids

    autumn and the coming of winter

        

Fogliano, Julie - When Green Becomes Tomatoes:  Poems for all Seasons, 2016

    47 Poems

    Pack a punch!

    Exquisite

    Illust. Julie Morstad

    Titles are dates

Frank, John - A Chill in the Air, 2003

    Fall & Winter

    nature

    simple

Frank, John - How to Catch a Fish, 2007

    Fishing all over the world

    Tobago, Washington, Ireland,

    Baffin Island, Japan, Long

    Island, NY, Namibia,

    New Caledonia, California

    British Columbia, Georgia, 

    Hawaii, Florida

Gerstein, Mordecai - Dear Hot Dog, 2011

    three friends

    poems about a single subject from each of their pov's

    toothbrush, pants, socks, shoes

    toes, cup, bowl, kite, air

    water, summer sun, hot dog

    ice cream cone, leaves,

    rain, book, crayons, scissors, 

    spaghetti, bear, light , pillow

Greenfield, Eloise - In the Land of Words, 2004

    20 poems about poetry, words, and story.  

    illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist

Harley, Avis - The Monarch's Progress, 2008

    lifespan of a monarch

    many different types of poetry    

    18 poems

    

Havill, Juanita - I Heard It from Alice Zucchini, Poems About the Garden  2006

    20 poems about gardening, vegetables,

    great language

    alliteration, personification

    punctuation...

Hoberman, Mary Ann - The Llama Who Had No Pajama - 1998

    100 Favorite poems including:

    "Waiters"

    "North Pole"

Hood, Susan - Shaking Things Up: 14 Young Women Who Changed the World, 2018

    History and Biography in poetry

    Molly Williams, Nellie Bly

    Mary Anning, Annette Kellerman

    Pura Belpre, Frida Kahlo

    Jacqueline Nearne & Eileen Nearne

    Frances Moore, Ruby Bridges

    Mae Johnson, Maya Lin

    Angela Zhang, Malala Yousafzai

Hopkins, Lee Bennett - City I Love, 2009

    18 poems

    18 cities

    fun to guess which city

    map at back of book

Iyengar, Malathi Michelle - Tan to Tamarind, 2009

    celebrate the color brown

    lovely poetry

    

Janeczko, Paul & J. Patrick Lewis - Wing Nuts, 2006

    senryu, a form of HAIKU

    funny

    lots of word play

    

Johnston, Tony - The Ancestors Are Singing, 2003

    Poems of Mexico, past & present

    Maya, Aztec

Katz, Alan - Too Much Kissing & Other Silly Dilly Songs About Parents, 2010

    2-page spreads

    funny & fun

    tunes are to well-known songs

Katz, Susan - Looking for Jaguar and Other Rain Forest Poems, 2005

    19 poems

    rain forest plants & animals

    free verse poems are great

    rhyming poems not-so-great

    

    

Larios, Julie - Delicious!  Poems Celebrating Street Food Around the World, 2021

    Short poems

    Many cultures

    Gorgeous illustrations: Julie Paschkis

    Food

Larios, Julie - Yellow Elephant, A Bright Bestiary, 2006

    illust. by Julie Paschkis

    14 poems about animals

    

c

Lewis, J. Patrick - Heroes and She-roes, 2005

    poems highlighting many heroes

    Helen Keller, Lewis & Clark

    Ghandi, Tianemen Square

    Roberto Clemente, Lady Godiva

    MLK Jr., Rosie the Riveter    

    Ida Wells-Barnett, Joan of Arc

    Rosa Parks....and more!

     

Lewis, J. Patrick - Please Bury Me in the Library, 2005

    16 poems

    library & books

Lewis, J. Patrick - The Underwear Salesman, And Other Jobs for Better or Verse,  2009

    exterminator, map-maker

    bely dancer, pet groomer, poet

    highway line painter, banana

    picker, bridge painter, sunken 

    treasure hunter, acupunturist, 

    cuckoo-clock repairman, 

    paleontologist, marathon runner

Lewis, J. Patrick & Douglas Florian - Poem-Mobiles: Crazy Car Poems, 2014

Miller, Rhett - No More Poems! 2019

    knock offs using Shel Silverstein

    controversial poem about killing a sibling

    funny

    23 poems

    illust. Dan Santat

Mora, Pat - This Big Sky, 1998

    14 poems about the southwestern desert

    illust. Steve Jenkins

Mora, Pat - Yum! MmMm! Que Rico! 2007

    Poems about foods native to North and South America

    all haiku

    blueberry, chili, chocolate, corn

    cranberry, papaya, peanut, pecan

    potato, prickly pear, pumpkin

    tomato, vanilla

Paolili, Paul & Dan Brewer - Silver Seeds, 2001

    Acrostic poems that really make sense!

Down goes the moon

And up comes the sun,

Welcoming the

New day.

Park, Linda Sue - Tap Dancing on the Roof, 2007

    sijo (Korean)

    similar to haiku

    three lines

    "twist" at the end

Pashkis, Julie - Flutter & Hum, 2015

    gorgeous illustrations by the author

    written in Spanish and translated

    some, written in Spanish, sounded

        incredible, even though I 

        couldn't understand

Perry, Andrea - The Snack Smasher, 2007

    13 poems of :

    vile villains, ruthless roughnecks,

    scoundrels....

    VERY funny

    

Peters, Lisa Westberg, Earthshake: Poems from the Ground Up, 2012

    22 poems

    earth/geology

    illust. Cathie Felstead

Pollock, Penny - c, 2001

    13 Poems

    a different poem/moon for each month

    illust. Mary Azarian

Pottle, Robert - Maine: The Way Life Should Be: A Wicked Good Book of Verse

    illustrated by Holly Hardwick

    funny poems about Maine and its wildlife

    many sung to well-known tunes

Prelutsky, Jack - I've Lost My Hippopotamus, 2012

    lots of funny poems

    a number of haiku

    poems combining two animals

    illust. Jackie Urbanovich

Prelutsky, Jack - In Aunt Giraffe's Green Garden, 2007

    poems for the very young

    (too young for 4th graders)

Rogers, Fred - A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, 2019

    illust. by Luke Flower

    75 songs/poems from the show

    not my favorites

    great tribute to Fred Rogers

Rosenthal, Amy Krouse - The Wonder Book, 2010

    silly

    play-on-words

    take-offs on Mary Mack-Mack-Mack

    line drawings

    

Rossetti, Christina - Blooming Beneath the Sun, 2019

    Cut paper illustrations by Ashley Bryan

    Classics

    "Who Has Seen the Wind?"

    "Hurt No Living Things"

    "Where Innocent Bright-Eyed Daisies Are"

Ruddell, Deborah - Today at the Bluebird Café, 2007

        illust Joan Rankin

        bird poems

        some VERY anthropomorphized

        some funny

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.

Salas, Laura Purdie - Book Speak! Poems About Books, 2011

    21 poems

    all about books and reading and words

Schertle, Alice - Button Up!  Wrinkled Rhymes, 2009

    poems about clothing

    super clever and fun

    illust. by Peetra Mathers

Schmidt, Annie, M., A Pond Full of Ink, 1978 in Dutch, translated

     Translations remind me too much of kids that force rhyming, I don't think they translated well, too bad, illustrations are cool.

Shange, Ntozake - We Trouble the Waters, 2009

    

    poems about being black in the south during Jim Crow

Sidman, Joyce - Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow, 2006

    eye-popping art by Beth Krommes

    two-page spread with explanation

    dew & grasshopper, rabbit & fox

    spittlebug & xylem, deer & trees

    snake & toad, goldfish & hawk,

    milkweed & butterflies

Sidman, Joyce - Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night, 2010

    Newbery Honor book, 2011

    sophisticated poetry

    woodprints

Sidman, Joyce - This Is Just to Say, 2007

    poems of apology, followed by responses

    funny

Sidman, Joyce - Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold, 2014

    12 lovely poems

    informative explanations

Simler, Isabelle - Sweet Dreamers, 2019

    translated from French

    poems about the way animals sleep

    illust. by the author

Singer, Marilyn - Every Month Is a New Year, 2018

    Poems that commemorate New Year's celebrations all over the world

    cut paper illust by Susan L. Roth

Singer, Marilyn - First Food Fight This Fall, 2008

    12 kids write different poems

    about school

    great for 3rd/4th grade

Singer, Marilyn - Mirror, Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse, 2010

    all based on Fairy Tales --

    Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty

    Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood

    Ugly Duckling, Snow White

    Jack-in-the-Beanstalk, Hansel & 

    Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin

    Princess & the Frog, Sleeping Beauty

Vanderwater, Amy Ludwig - Forest Has a Song, 2013

    elegant, clever words

    poems about the woods

Viorst, Judith - What Are You Glad About?  What Are You Mad About? Poems for When a Person Needs a Poem, 2016

    Didn't like any of them!

    (I rated it a 2)

    The one I chose to include has pacing that doesn't work for me...

Whitehead, Jenny - Holiday Stew, 2007

    seasons

    holidays

    illust by the author

Wilson, Karma - Outside the Box, A Book of Poems, 2014

    homage to Shel Silverstein

    funny, clever, rhythmic

Wolf, Sallie - The Robin Makes a Laughing Sound, 2010

    observation journal

    poetry book

    sketching

    watercolors

Wolff, Ashley, I Call My Grandma Nana, 2009

    quatrains

    14 poems about what different kids call their grandmas

    many countries

    illust by the author

Worth, Valerie - Peacock and Other Poems, 2002

    

    short poems

    slim, beautiful volume

    illust. by Natalie Babbitt!

ANTHOLOGIES

The Bill Martin, Jr. Big Book of Poetry, 2008

    200+ GREAT poems, old and new

    various well-known illustrators

    classic anthology

Dare to Dream...Change the World - Jill Corcoran, 2012

    poems about world changers by many different poets:

    Sylvia Mendez, Nicholas Cobb,

    Father Gregory Boyle, Anne Frank

    Jonas Salk, Jean-Michel Basquiat

    Michelle Kwan, Ashley Bryan,

    Temple Grandin, Martha Graham

    Georgia O'Keeffe, Christa McAuliffe

    Steven Speilberg, the YouTube founders

    

Days to Celebrate - Lee Bennett Hopkins, 2005

    historical

    holidays

    great poets

    calendar

    many formats

Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes and Anecdotes from A to Z - Irene Latham & Charles Waters, 2021

    Short poems

    Different formats

    Making the world a better place

    "Try-Its" for each poem

Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart selected by Mary Ann Hoberman, 2012

    old & new poems

    illust. Michael Emberley

Got Geography - selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, 2006

    Short selections

    illust. Philip Stanton

Green Poems - Jill Bennett, 1999

        59 Poems

        Oxford/British mostly

The Poetry of US: More Than 200 Poems That Celebrate the People, Places, and Passions of the People of the United States, 2018

    Photos

    3 separate indexes

    separated by US regions

    over 200 poems

The Read Aloud Treasury compiled by Joanna Cole and Stephanie Calmenson, 1988

    32 nursery rhymes

    30 poems for babies, toddlers, preschoolers

    13 picture book stories with original illustrations

        Little Bear, Sylvester, Cordoroy....

Sing a Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Each Day of the Year selected by Fiona Waters, 2018

    huge, heavy book

    love it!!

    366 nature poems

    one for each day of the year

    different poets

Sky Magic - selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, 2009

    14 poems

    sun, moon, stars...