Children's Poems for Adults
I try to write serious poetry, poetry that resonates and captivates and fascinates and radiates. Sometimes I accomplish something that seems like it might maybe perhaps succeed at doing that. But there’s another type of poem that seems more common in my repertoire.
When I write poems, I usually start with an idea or experience, then try to write about it until some deeper discovery emerges through the language. But occasionally, a series of words will appear in my brain, striking me with their beauty or profundity or, more often, their silliness.
I riff off of these silly opening words and see how far I can take a rhyming pattern or an idea. If it goes anywhere, and if I write it down, it generally becomes what I call a “children’s poem for adults.” I thought I’d share some of these with you all.
Some are short. Some are longer. Some are best read out loud. Enjoy.
Staring at the Blank Page
I am the best writer who has ever been; Perfection inheres in all I have written. The critics love me; the publishers, too. Honors and accolades only accrue. Not only best-selling, but also most-read: Required in high schools and in higher ed. Not only most-read, but re-read many times; Up the lists and the charts, my work only climbs. Translated into every possible language, Even fictional tongues and those dead and ancient. So good from the start, they asked me to bypass Workshops and editors and each writing class. I am the best writer, as you’ve probably heard; So good I haven’t written a single word.
A Riddle
It makes a little joy, it makes a little coin it makes the next generation in between the loins it makes the revolution that the people want to join makes beautiful imperfection like imperfectoin
Know When to Fold ‘Em
They say the pen is mightier than the sword,
but that’s not a wager that I can afford.
Some Repetitions (Read Them Aloud!)
I need to get back-to-back tobacco backhoes back home.
I’ll buy you a bayou by you.
A peer will appear on a pier up here.
A diarist’s direst diary of diarrhea.
A rose arose as Rose rose.
She did not realize that that that that that writer had had there in their sentence was what made me me.
Sometimes
dumb rhymes
combine
sublime-
ly.
See?
Bemused, he mused: the Muse whose mews amused him used the music moods that moved him most.
Tough
It’s a tough act to follow a tough pill to swallow tough mud to wallow a tough log to hollow a tough marsh to mallow
See Saw
I see it, I saw it I seed it, I sawed it I seine it, I sonnet I’ve seen it, I’ve sawn it.
TGIF
Weak knights in a weak daze came to the weekend.
Empty Line
Amazing how an empty line can bring to earth a tree can void a contract countersign or pattern poetry.
Get On With It!
They say that I’m a bore, that my storytelling's poor I make them snore, listening to me is quite the chore But I think in truth they just want more of my long, lengthy, loquacious, linguistic, long-winded, long-lasting, lexical, lecturous, lazy, lolly-gagging, lingering, lumbering, long-lived, late-told, lethargic, lackadaisical, lip-leadening, lacking, lid-lilting, loopy, looping, looping, looping, lost, loose, laughable, affable, limping, limp, lumpy, low-standard, low-shelf, lyrical, listing, listless, listed, leaning, lapping, loping, leaping, lovely, less-is-more lore!
Fair Trade
A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye
A truth for a truth, a lie for a lie
Free Time
I am most a pessimist when I have free time for what once I thought I had slips quietly behind.
Spoons
The small spoon asked the large “When can I be in charge?” Said the large spoon to the smaller “If only you were a bit taller.”
Trap Door
Meet me at the backdoor, underneath the mat is a trapdoor. Bet you’re wondering what I got that for! (Now push that button right there.)
Fashion
A varmint wore my garment—there was no harm in ‘t.
Letters
O is what I say
when I P
in the Q.
Thanks for reading (and laughing)! Let me know if you come up with any “children’s poems for adults” of your own. Blessings on your day!
-Nate