Today is National Poem In Your Pocket Day 2012!
How does it work? Simply find a poem you like (or write one), jot it down or copy it. Fold it up and stick it in your pocket (or purse, or diaper bag...). Carry it around all day and find opportunities to share it with people you meet! Spread the poetry love!To celebrate, I'm hosting a poetry linky on my other blog A Year With Mom and Dad! Create a simple post that shares a favorite poem (that you read or wrote!), and then link up.
**Please be careful when you republish a poem on your blog that it is in the public domain to avoid copyright issues.
Here's one of my favorite poems, as a writer, because I understand how it feels to have something you wrote feel like a child you want to see succeed in the world!
The Author to Her Book
by Anne Bradstreet
Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth didst by my side remain,
Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,
Who thee abroad, exposed to public view,
Made thee in rags, halting to th' press to trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
The visage was so irksome in my sight;
Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could.
I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw.
I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run'st more hobbling than is meet;
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save homespun cloth i' th' house I find.
In this array 'mongst vulgars may'st thou roam.
In critic's hands beware thou dost not come,
And take thy way where yet thou art not known;
If for thy father asked, say thou hadst none;
And for thy mother, she alas is poor,
Which caused her thus to send thee out of door.
What's your favorite poem?
Toasting Marshmallows by Kristen O'Connell George
Come along with a girl and her family through an entire camping experience - from pitching tent, to fishing her little brother out of the lake, to discovering abandoned cabins and cars in the woods,... and of course, to toasting marshmallows by the fire. The writing is light, lyrical, and conveys a strong sense of setting. You can hear the owl's "one lone vowel," sense the vastness of a "small me...staked to a huge planet," see the "scribbles" of the "river messages." 
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
Verse novels are one of my favorite "new genres" of writing. Love That Dog is a novel written in poetry (verse) that tells the story of a boy named Jack who hates poetry... yet, he's struggling to tell the story of his dog, Sky. As his teacher offers him poems to try on for size, he finds a way to share the whole story of his dog through poetry. I love how a selection of great, well-known poetry is presented throughout the novel, and readers can learn a little bit of poetic styling as Jack attempts to understand and emulate each poem. The end of the book includes the original poems that Jack studies in class. (I'd recommend this book for 3rd grade and up). 
Twilight Comes Twice by Ralph Fletcher
Fletcher is a gold mine of an author - writing in a range that extends from this picture book poem, to chapter book novels, to handbooks for parents and teachers to learn and teach writing! I'm a huge fan as a writer, teacher, and book-lover! Twilight Comes Twice is not only gorgeously illustrated, but the poem describes the day from sun up to sun down in magical free-verse stanzas. Watch as the words paint the picture: "With invisible arms, dawn erases the stars from the blackboard of night..." (gorgeous, right?). Full of repetition, personification, simile, and stunning imagery, this is a poem you'll want to share with your children (and savor for yourself) over and over. The entire book is one poem, presented stanza by stanza on each page, so to a child, it may not even seem like poetry - a great way to sneak in a little beautiful verse without them flinching!
