Poll: Favorite Poems
There is something about fall that makes me see the world in verse. It could be the changing leaves on the trees here in Pennsylvania that motivates this switch or even just being back in the routine of school.
I tinker with lines of potential poetry in my notebook. I share favorite poems with students. I seek out new favorites in books and on websites – and now on apps. I listen to The Writer’s Almanac on the way to school.
I see friends share their favorite poems to celebrate or to comfort.
So what are your favorite poems? Share the titles and poets below.
Nerdy Book Club 
My favorite poems are Moon by Billy Collins (as a reminder that I can still sense wonder), The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost (as a reminder as to why I made the choices I have made), and anything by Shel Silverstein (for a smile).
Jabberwoky by Carroll, and The King’s Breakfast by Milne. I love children’s poems far more than the adult variety!
The Duck by Ogden Nash, Shel Silverstein, Uncle Goose by Greg Pincus, and Robert Frost.
Something Told the Wild Geese by Rachel Field
My favorite poet is Kenn Nesbitt, the current Children’s Poet Laureate. He has several poetry books and lots of funny poems at http://www.poetry4kids.com.
*Ogden Nash, “Celery raw, develops the jaw…”
*the collection called Soup Songs by Roy Blount “I wish that I were up to my knees in my mother’s macaroni and cheese”
*Jack Prelutsky – all his wonderful silliness “I only got one Valentine and that was signed, Love, Frankenstein” “The Queen of Eene”
*And I love it when a poet invents or twists a word to suit the poem: “The local stores are out of broccoli, loccoli” (Roy Blount) short and perfectly true!
*Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak. In my elementary librarian days, second graders were known to test me by checking the words while I ‘read’ it without even looking! They then went on to memorize the poem for their birthday month or favorite selection from the book.
Nowadays, in my jr/sr high library, I still post poems. I love Billy Collins’ Poetry 180. I could go on and on… thanks for this post.
Dirt on my Shirt!! by Jeff Foxworthy. The kids looove this poem-it is funny, irreverent, and very kid-appealing! Also…by the same author, I lost my favorite hat. Jeff Foxworthy does a great job appealing to kids (especially boys),keeping his sense of humor, and discussing every day life in a most poetic manner. On the other end of the spectrum…anything by Emily Dickinson. Her view of life and people was amazing, especially for someone who rarely left her house. My students enjoy reading her poems, too.
“Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins
“I, Too, Sing America” by Langston Hughes
“Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll
Spoken word:
“What Teachers Make”, “I’ll Fight You for the Library” “Like Totally Whatever You Know” by Taylor Mali
“Knock Knock” “Duality Duel” by Daniel Beatty
“Hands” by Sarah Kay
Since Billy Collins seems to be a favorite here already, I will jump on the bandwagon. “The Lanyard”. is the best mother’s day poem. Even better, listen to him read it on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-zWoKqlH_E
One of my own all-time favorites, especially since I’m a mother!
Thanks for sharing these. I immediately looked some of them up. “Introduction to Poetry” is now one of my favorites, too!! I have totally known professors and teachers who tied poems (or stories for that matter) to a chair and beaten them with a hose!! Love, love, love that imagery!!
One of my all time favorite fall poems is Something Told the Wild Geese by Rachel Field. I also like two by Helen Hunt Jackson: September and October’s Bright Blue Weather.
Oh my gosh, I think I sang a version of “Something Told the Wild Geese” in high school with my choir. That title triggered a memory long forgotten.
Oh and I almost forgot Emily Dickinson’s poem Autumn and one of my favorites, There is no frigate like a book.
Muriel Rukeyser’s “Book of the Dead” and “For My Son” and “All the Little Animals” (more here: http://murielrukeyser.emuenglish.org/category/writings/)
also Wendell Berry’s “The Country of Marriage” and so many more of his..and I love all of Donald Hall’s poetry, especially the poems in “The Purpose of a Chair,” which I read in my school’s archives and have yet to get my hands on my own copy (someday I will).
Mary Oliver too. I can’t remember titles right now.
I just watched George Watsky “S is for Lisp” and loved that, too.
Thank you for reminding me to make a mental note of my favorite poems in case I ever should need them. 🙂
also Pablo Neruda’s “Ode to Socks” and “Sonnet 17”
“Honey, I Love”… Neruda’s ” I Remember You As You Were” and Sharon Olds’ “The Last Hour,” and “Whooping It Up at the MTV Saloon” by Sara Holbrook. Brian Andreas’ “More Than a Princess” and Naomi Shihab Nye’s “Pollen”…Alan Wolf’s purse poem and Kwame Alexander’s Crush collection…so many more poems I love.
Uncle Goose by Greg Pincus,The Bogus Boo by James Reeves, anything by Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstein
Of course, there are many. My current favorite is Neil Gaiman’s Instructions–so completely magical. It’s especially magical to listen to Neil himself read it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi2pBZGJqj8
Please Bury Me in the Library by J. Patrick Lewis. Monster Goose, by Judy Sierra is especially fun for this season. I’ll reiterate anything by Prelutsky, Children’s Poet Laureate, as his poems are just amazing good fun (In Aunt Giraffe’s Green Garden, What a Day it Was at School). Frost’s Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening. Too many to name! I love this blog and thank you all for sharing.
“Thoughts That Were Put Into Words” by Karla Kuskin. Thanks for asking, & I will love reading all the comments, too!
“Part of Eve’s Discussion” by Marie Howe (1988) is pretty incredible in describing a moment that’s about 2 seconds long. (http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21277)
In the Well by Andrew Hudgins.
http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/041.html
“The Sand Dollar” by John Updike. “The House at Night” by Billy Collins. “The Song of Wandering Angus” by Yeats (My mother had a book of poetry when I was a small child, a wonderful collection called Silver Pennies, and that one captured my imagination at a very young age with its wonderful imagery: “And I will seek, ’til time and time is done, the silver apples of the moon, the golden apples of the sun.” (Hope I got that right!) Lots more!
Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
also poems by e.e. cummings and Ogden Nash
I loved poetry when I was a kid and still do. I guess my favorite all-around poet is Robert Frost, and I especially love Mending Wall and Death of the Hired Man along with Stopping By Woods and The Road Not Taken.
I usually only like poetry that makes me laugh…e.e. cummings, Shel Silverstein, Dr. Seuss. I really appreciate the art of irony.. But today’s Writer’s Almanac pick “The Lost Garden” is one of my very favorite poems. The idea of wondering if I took a different path what changes that would have made in my life and also discussing after the passage of time that pain can become a part of a well-turned tale.
Bernadette
HaddonMusings.com
Most THis Amazing Day, by eecummings. For decades now, even though I know better, it is This Most Amazing Day in my inner voice.
Nancy and I have the same favorite poet – Robert Frost. I memorized Mending Wall for a college class in public speaking about 20 years ago and I can still recite it today! The Road Not Taken fits many of my personal life choices.
I have many favorites, but Charles Simic’s The Partial Explanation has been on my list for decades. The sense of loneliness and longing has a clinking sound and a metallic taste to it in that piece that I can’t seem to shake. Beautiful, spare, and haunting.
Oh, the soothing voice of Garrison Keillor!
One of my favorite poems is “If I Were a Poem” by Sara Hollbrook.
Happy Thought by Robert Louis Stevenson is a couplet I have anchored years of learning on – The world is so full of a number of things
I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.
Autumn whispers the name of Edgar Allan Poe – particularly Annabel Lee.
Pingback: Thinking about Poetry | Thinking Through My Lens
I wrote about a favorite on my blog: http://thinkingthroughmylens.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/thinking-about-poetry/
Remembrance by Ray Bradbury
Coming to this discussion late, but I have a few favorites that I like to share with my students:
How to Paint a Donkey by Naomi Shihab Nye
Casey at the Bat by Ernest Thayer
Me and Poetry (Can’t remember the poet, but it sums up really well how kids might start out thinking about poetry.)
I start every year with Sick by Shel Silverstein and The Cave Beast Greets a Visitor by Jack Prelutsky.