FROM THE BOOKSHELF

On Turning Ten
- Billy Collins

The whole idea of it makes me feel
like I'm coming down with something,
something worse than any stomach ache
or the headaches I get from reading in bad light--
a kind of measles of the spirit,
a mumps of the psyche,
a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.

You tell me it is too early to be looking back,
but that is because you have forgotten
the perfect simplicity of being one
and the beautiful complexity introduced by two.
But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit.
At four I was an Arabian wizard.
I could make myself invisible
by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.

But now I am mostly at the window
watching the late afternoon light.
Back then it never fell so solemnly
against the side of my tree house,
and my bicycle never leaned against the garage
as it does today,
all the dark blue speed drained out of it.

This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself,
as I walk through the universe in my sneakers.
It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends,
time to turn the first big number.

It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I could shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees. I bleed.

Two time Poet Laureate of
the United States, 201-2003

Also responsible for Poetry 180,
which I have placed on the side
bar as a permanent link. It is a
wonderful site, to use in the
classroom, with a new poem
for students daily.


Teaching With Fire, Intrator, Sam M. & Scribner, Megan, Ed.

Whether we realize it or not

Children Will Listen
- Stephen Sondheim

Careful the things you say
Children will listen
Careful the things you do
Children will see
and learn.
Children may not obey,
but children will listen.
Children will look to you
for which way to turn
Co learn what to be.
Careful before you say
'Listen to me.'
Children will listen.

Careful the wish you make,
Wishes are children.
Careful the path they take -
Wishes come true,
not free.
Careful the spell you cast
Not just on children.
Sometimes the spell may last
Past what you can see
And turn against you . . .

Careful the tale you tell,
That is the spell.
Children will listen.


Teaching With Fire, Intrator, Sam M. & Scribner, Megan, Ed.