Poetry Friday!!!
I woke up today and thought, POETRY FRIDAY! Which must mean things are calming down a little here… if I’ve got room in my head for anything extra… anything besides groceries and laundry.
Today, a little snippet from my novel, which comes out in about a month. Not sure if it’s *real* poetry, but this is a great opportunity to try it out on people, whatever it is. The book is full of silly little songs (sort of like Mary Poppins), sung by the main character, a milkmaid named Lucy. This is what she sings as she begins her adventure up the mountain:
When climbing up a mountain, be sure to bring your feet—
You’ll need them to escape from hungry lions that you meet.
And if you make it past the beasts and thieves and snarly bears—
However far the summit seems, it’s twice as far as there.
And here’s another snippet, which Lucy sings after the Mayor and the Chief have “arrested” Cat, who is not a cat, but is actually a prairie dog:
Men in silly uniforms who get to make the rules
Should all be poked with wooden spoons, and sent away to schools,
Where wild beasts will teach them that it’s better to be free
Than it is be a grownup, stiff and stubborn as a tree!
(That second one really owes a debt to Mary Poppins. I could not stop thinking, as I wrote:
Chief Professors all should be
Drowned in early infancy.
Anyone else still have Travers’ little songs stuck in their head from childhood?
July 18th, 2008 at 7:23 am
I’m looking forward to your novel! Thanks for the poems.
July 18th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Love this!
Actually, it reminded me of Peter Pan. When he sings (something along the lines of): “…If growing up means it would be, beneath my dignity to climb a tree…” I think it was your reference to adults as unbending trees and his reference to trees as something kids climb. So, thanks a lot, Lauren. Now, I’ve got “I Don’t Want to Grow Up” STUCK IN MY HEAD!!