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Poetry from Daily Life: Not all poems are art — embrace the ‘silly’ and ‘stupid’ ones

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Poetry from Daily Life: Not all poems are art — embrace the ‘silly’ and ‘stupid’ ones

Janet Wong
 |  Special to the News-Leader

My guest this week on Poetry from Daily Life is Janet Wong, who lives in Gig Harbor, Washington. Janet is a graduate of Yale Law School and former lawyer who switched careers to become a children’s author. She was the 2021 recipient of the NCTE Excellence in Poetry for Children Award, one of the highest honors that a children’s poet can receive. A fun fact: on a recent month-long trip where she spoke at schools nationwide, Janet (a pickleball fanatic) made time to play pickleball in eight states. ~ David L. Harrison

Roses are red, violets are blue

One of my strongest poetry memories took place at a black-tie dinner at the Library of Congress where George W. Bush introduced his wife Laura with a poem. He explained that she had been away on a diplomatic trip the previous week and he had missed her so much that he wrote a poem for her. He then read his poem, which went something like this: “Roses are red / Violets are blue / You’ve been gone a long time / I sure missed you.”

The audience — including authors presenting at the National Book Festival the next day — giggled at this silly ditty. A few people muttered, “Well, that was . . . stupid.” But I thought it was terrific. I admired President Bush for his willingness to share this frivolous but heartfelt bit of fluff. Was it art? No. But poetry doesn’t need to be art all the time. It doesn’t have to be serious, or beautiful, or thought-provoking, or “inspiring.” It’s perfectly all right to write something “stupid” — especially when it’s a little spur-of-the-moment gift meant to make someone happy.

Embrace your inner four-year-old

“Thank you for being willing to make a fool of yourself,” a boy at an international school in Asia wrote in a note to me after I visited his school via Zoom. When I perform at schools, I aim to provide moments of levity both to buoy the students’ spirits and to keep them attentive. In between the funny poems, I share serious poems about kindness, respect, and inclusion (and science and math and social studies); the funny poems help to keep the kids “with” me. When they’re having a good time, they listen more carefully. The funny poems also just make kids happy, and I believe that the best learning takes place when we have happy kids.

Here’s one of the sillier (and yes, most stupid) poems from the newest anthology created by my colleague Sylvia Vardell and me, “Clara’s Kooky Compendium of Thimblethoughts and Wonderfuzz.” (Like many of the poems in this book, this poem was written by me “in the voice of Clara.”)

The Morning Rush Has Mom in a Tizzy

by Clara

Mom told James to eat “quore mickly.”

“Crack your backpack! Flush your hair!”

“Furry with your shoes!” she shrieked.

“And don’t forget your … wonderwear!”

◆◆◆

One of the best things about an anthology (when compared to a single-poet collection) is that you’ll find a wealth of diversity in voices. Every single reader will find a poem that resonates. The poets in this anthology of 100+ poems represent a mix of poetry superstars and brand new voices, including: Alma Flor Ada, Calef Brown, F. Isabel Campoy, Yangsook Choi, Margarita Engle, Douglas Florian, Charles Ghigna, David L. Harrison, Sara Holbrook, Alan Katz, Irene Latham, George Ella Lyon, Kenn Nesbitt, Eric Ode, Michael Salinger, Darren Sardelli, Eileen Spinelli, Padma Venkatraman, Charles Waters, Allan Wolf, and many more.

When times are hard

In “Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life,” Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas suggest that “[p]layful cultures allow teams to thrive, even (and especially) when the stakes are high and times are hard.” In these “high stakes, hard times” times of ours, we need humor more than ever — immediately and often. So next time you see someone having a hard day, reach for a pen and write a little poem to cheer them up.

“Roses are red / Violets are blue / Try it and show / they’re important to you.”

Janet Wong (janet-wong.com) is the author of more than forty books; her newest book is “Clara’s Kooky Compendium of Thimblethoughts and Wonderfuzz,” a journal-style anthology co-authored with Sylvia Vardell that features a unique mix of poems, quotes, questions, and facts about science, social science, and more. Learn more about it (and the teacher guide for it) at PomeloBooks.com.

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