Here is a poem that I wrote over four years ago to welcome my first nephew into the world, and I am recycling it here to welcome my second, who was just born this week.
As this week’s Poetry Friday host Sylvia Vardell would probably agree, it is never too early to introduce kids to poetry …
Early Signs of Life
By Ed DeCaria
In two weeks I’ve come very far,
Though life seems a little bizarre,
My head’s a bit floppy, my pants a bit soppy,
But everyone thinks I’m a star.
I’m prone to occasional fits,
Which cause an assiduous blitz,
But I’m always happy right after my nappy
Allows me to gather my wits.
I’m treated as if I’m a king,
But honestly, it ain’t no thing,
So I’ll just keep swingin’ and cryin’ and clingin’,
Who knows what tomorrow might bring?
© 2012 Ed DeCaria, All Rights Reserved
Speaking of introductions, I am nearly ready to formally introduce POEMETRICS™ to the world. I dabbled a bit following the Madness! 2012 poetry tournament earlier this year, but soon I’ll share my vision of how we can use statistics — seemingly the very opposite of poetry — to better understand the genre and readers’ attitudes toward it, and ultimately to get more high-quality poetry to be read by more kids around the world. I hope to involve many of you in the process from the beginning, because the sooner we start, the sooner we can analyze fun charts like this …
What is it? It is a heat map showing average poem ratings (on a base scale of 1-10 even though only 2-8 are shown) across the dual spectrums of “mood” (1 = serious vs. 5 = funny) and “topic” (1 = natural vs. 5 = extraordinary). The data is fake (well, sorta fake) for now, but will soon be all too real!
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