Poetry

I haven't been reading much poetry to the Noodle recently. We just got out of the habit of it. When he was a tiny fellow we used to read a picture book (or two) every night, and then a couple of poems. We would read from When we were very young (given to the Noodle in the days after his birth by a family who have since become rather more prominent than they were at the time. In a good way, that is) or from my old Golden Treasury of Poetry edited by Louis Untermeyer. I chose this as my prize for being good at English in year 7.

We liked the short and funny ones best. 'Bears' was always a big hit, and also the one about rice pudding. Although the Noodle is quite fond of rice pudding actually, thanks to the cooking brilliance of his Nana. My favourite bit of the Golden Treasury is the epitaphs, even if most are apocryphal.

The other favourite poetry book was A poem a day edited by Adrian Mitchell. I have just realised that he died late last year, which is a sadness since his poetry is so lively and funny and apt to all kinds of moments that might otherwise be embarrassing or difficult.

One of our favourites from that collections is 'Daddy fell into the pond' by Alfred Noyes, but there are lots of other funny ones. And also serious, lovely, tricky ones as well. It also functioned as a handy science book because all the poems are designed around the northern hemisphere seasons, so it tends to remind that the earth is round. And should earth have a capital letter? I don't know.

So recently we have had a bit of poetry again and it makes a person laugh like a drain from time to time and also ask difficult questions. Which is good.