Children's Poems

All of the below poems were read on May 31, 2020 at The Society of Classical Poets Symposium, which was...

  How Monkeys Came to Be adapted from a Palestinian folktale Monkeys and people once were one. For monkeys had...

  Editor’s Note: This poem was originally found in The Pebbles and Shells: A Book of Verses ,1909, edited by...

  The Dizi Gui (弟子规) is an ancient Chinese text for children that was written in the Qing Dynasty during...

  Mastering Magic Set the questing mind on fire with magic, Learn the ancient lore then follow through. Effortlessness must...

A Child’s Winter Inventory Winter ‘87-’88 Twittering birds; Chattering teeth; Snow coats the trees In an icy sheath. Glittering snow,...

Translations by Terry L. Norton. Original Latin by Phaedrus follows each. The Red Kite and the Doves When doves had...

  Choosing a pet can be vexing and yet it’s important to vet all the choices you’ve got. If you’re...

  This is a tale of sibling rivalry from the 1812 Brothers Grimm collection of Children’s and Household Tales. Similar...

Stalks of brown and amber and gold, mighty when young, wither when old. Bleached by the sun and watered daily,...

  Skin hard as jade, Mouth like a blade, I’m seldom dry, A dross lookst I, And hard to find,...

A Journey to the East by Evan Mantyk is a historical and poetical fairytale adventure styled after Journey to the...

  An acrobat named Larry Loops was best among all circus troupes, But he quit one day and was heard...

Check-Mate by a Pawn for my sons We parry, thrust: This game of wits, Where each pawn must Deflect your...

The Ballad of the Poor Troubadour I’m past my prime __and I’m out of time— I never made a dime...

Glistening orbs Dance on air Drifting skyward Without a care Iridescent spheres Shimmering bright Reflecting prisms In the sunlight Luminous...

  The wisest poem ever Was written by my daughter, Although I’ve never known her To be much of a...

When Santa’s sleigh took to the sky, He saw a wonder by him fly: A Chinese Fairy dance on clouds And...

  One afternoon, ‘neath forest tall, where Sunlight dons disguise, I saw a sight few people see (unless they’re telling...

How much wheat can a woodchuck eat? Or cabbage, carrots, and peas, Spinach, parsley, peppers, and kale, Tomatoes, lettuce, n’...

Darkness No longer did they see the need For things called books they used to read. Music—no longer symphonies, But...

Where was it that Alice went, One bright and shining day, A rabbit's lair, beneath the blare, A restless child...

  Time (for Children) Time flies, as everyone knows and time marches on, as the saying goes and time will stand...

  Witches’ Brew Round and round the seven seas go, In the putrid poisons throw, Double, double toil and trouble,...

  Kitty staring at the tipped fishbowl (whoever felled it left not a hair), With no one home, what was,...

  Ice I open my golden flowing fins,     I dance beneath the ice, I dip and twirl and pose and...