I have a confession to make; I am not generally a fan of poetry. I don’t know why, but maybe it is because I am not a woman of few words. lol Poetry is an art in which the economy of words reigns supreme and ideas are not generally stated, but have to be correlated to other ideas in order for you to get the meaning. I think to myself, “Just come out and say what you mean!” But, enough of my issues and let me pass on to you a poetry book that I do like.
Halibut Bones and Hailstones: Adventures in Poetry and Color was written in 1961 and is comprised of 12 poems of color. The way that Mary O’Neill describes each color is something that I “get.” Here is the poem about yellow.
“Yellow is the color of the sun
The feeling of fun
A duck’s bill
A canary bird
And a daffodil
Yellow’s sweet corn
Ripe oats
Humming birds’little throats
Summer squash and Chinese silk
The cream on top of Jersey milk
Dandelions and Daisy hearts
Custard pies and lemon tarts.
Yellow blinks on summer nights
In the off-and-on of firefly lights.
Yellow’s a topaz,
A candle flame
Felicity’s a yellow name.
Yellow’s mimosa,
And I guess,
Yellow’s the color of…HAPPINESS!”
Language Arts Idea: After you have read a poem on a specific color, how about having your children write a poem abut that color? If they cannot do it on their own then have them partner with you or another one of your children and create one together.
Art Idea: Illustrate the poem or create a border to frame it.
Schoolmarm Ohio 
I love it!! Sam hated rhymes from the start. It was hard to do any poetry. Now I just have him do it for copywork to practice his writing. I’m not much for it either. It’s like a lot of art – the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If I don’t know what it means, I don’t want to look at it.
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That is rich, Lisa! I did read some beautiful poetry from some students this week and I totally got what they were saying. Maybe there is hope for me after all!
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