Six, Olinguipus, Oh My Shoe

A Kick in the Head started the poetry journey for the older child when she was about six-ish, and a year later, we did a study of how to write poetry at home just to demystify the process which led to her first poetry collection on Tide Pools, which just happened to be what she was interested in at that time.

Again, over this summer, the very same A Kick in the Head from our bookshelf sparked a wild interest in poetry for the younger child. We've been reading several poetry picture books (separate post coming soon) to serve as inspiration, the most-admired of which was Stardines.

Anyway, so far, the kid has produced 3 poetry books, each with about 10 to 12 poems, on various topics that caught his fancy. No strict rhyme scheme, no exercise in standard poetic forms; mostly bordering on the silly, composed extempore from free form rambling, nothing profound, nothing earth-shattering...

Just the fact that he initiated it and I simply acted as the typist/illustrator made it an enjoyable experience for me.

Olinguipus came right after reading Stardines - the inspiration to combine two known things and make a new thing: Olinguito and Octopus makes Olinguipus, Art is Arm and Foot. Illustrations were added to make the poems clear.

Oh My Shoe was possibly inspired by Shel Silverstein who happens to be the older child's favorite so far. As the Contents show,  a fairly wide set of topics are covered in this collection. Very few illustrations, mostly relying on the strength of the direct and simple words. I particularly liked The House They Lived In and I Have A Nose.

Six is the latest book and my favorite. No illustrations at all. As with the other books, one of the poem's title became the book's title. My favorites were Six, Longmouth Fish, Hummingbird, and Babirusa.