Poetry for children

My family is in the midst of birthday season. I just picked up a charming book of poetry for one of my nephews (along with a Spiderman popup book.) Shapiro, who grew up in Andover, Mass., writes poetry for children. Her poems are parodies of famous poems like Because I Could Not Stop By Bike (Emily Dickinson's Because I Could Not Stop For Death.)

More information can be found about Shapiro at: http://www.kjshapiro.com/KJShapiro.html

My Letter from the World is a parody/ inspired by Dickinson's This is My Letter to the World. It can be found in I Must Go Down to the Beach Again and Other Poems.

My Letter from the World

This is my letter from the world
That once it wrote to me
"Dear Friend," it spelled, in purple buds
upon a lilac tree.

"Come look around," the letter said
On mountains topped in snow.
"For if you search for a hundred years
There'd still be more to know.

"Please play with me," it wrote in waves
Beneath a bright blue sky,
Then signed itself, "Sincerely, World,"
Upon a butterfly.