April is for Poets

April is National Poetry Month and it’s also one of those spring months that announces its presence with bouts of severe weather even as it’s gracing the countryside with a delicate tracery of green. What better way to celebrate a month of poems than a book that celebrates storms in verse.

STORM COMING! by Audrey B. Baird and illustrated by Patrick O’Brien, Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press, 2001.

The book’s first verse is the title poem, written for two voices. When a storm is rumbling around your house, your children could recite this one bravely, greeting a storm they’re not scared of,

not really,

well,

maybe just a little.

Poems like “Firebolt” and “Cloudburst” are short and to the point, packing in plenty of energy for young readers and listeners. “Reflections” raises a question for discussion and has that just right feel to it when the thunder has stopped but the rain lingers.

Author Baird will be remembered by writers and illustrators of children’s poems and stories for editing and publishing ONCE UPON A TIME. Many saw their first by-line in this national magazine. Audrey has lowered the curtain on her quarterly creation, but not on her poetry. Her second book of poetry is A COLD SNAP: FROSTY POEMS, also illustrated by the talented Patrick O’Brien and published by Wordsong.

Although it’s hard to choose just one poem as a favorite from STORM COMING!, mine is “My Grandfather’s Toe.”

What’s yours?