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Cover Story

Grades 2-3

TIME for Poetry

April Is Poetry Month!

It's time for a rhyme. Jack Prelutsky has written children's poetry for more than 40 years. He has created many different types of poems. Read three of his poems here. Then write your own, using some tips from his new book, Pizza, Pigs and Poetry.

Persona

A persona poem takes the point of view of someone other than the poet. Imagine being a balloon or an ant. How would it feel to float? How might the world look to a bug, or a dragon?

Dragonbrag

Once upon a happenstance

I met a knight in armor.

I fixed my flame upon his lance

It was a four-alarmer!

Haiku

This kind of poem is from Japan. Traditional haiku (hi-koo) does not rhyme, and is three lines long. The first and third lines have five syllables, and the second line has seven syllables. Every word counts, so choose wisely.

Concrete

These poems look like the very thing that they are about. Play with the shape and size of the letters and words. They can be backward, upside down, in shapes or in pieces.

I'm Trapped in an Egg

I'm trapped in an egg, and I cannot get out. There's no one to hear, though I pound and I shout. I barely can see, there is so little light. Inside of an egg, it's perpetual night. I do not remember how I came to be inside of this eggóit's a mystery to me. But since I'm without any plan of attack, I'll wait and I'll hope that the shell starts to crack.

Wingless we went in,

But we emerged as fliers

And oh, such colors!

Next: A Bad Break