Thursday, March 15, 2012

Singing Dragons and Other Silliness by Alison Henderson


I’ve never been a huge fan of poetry; it tends to remind me of high school English class. But March is National Poetry Month, so I decided to share a couple of poems I love with you. They remind me NOTHING of high school English.

In fact, these poems come from a wonderful book of children’s poems I bought for my daughter when she was little, entitled The Dragons Are Singing Tonight, by Jack Prelutsky (Greenwillow Books, 1993). I read it over and over to her and have saved it to read to any future grandchildren I’m lucky enough to have. The book also has fantastic illustrations by Peter Sis, although I couldn’t use them here.

Here are two of our favorites:

The Dragons are Singing Tonight

Tonight is the night all the dragons
Awake in their lairs underground,
To sing in cacophonous chorus
And fill the whole world with their sound.
They sing of the days of their glory,
They sing of their exploits of old,
Of maidens and knights, and of fiery fights,
And guarding vast caches of gold.

Some of their voices are treble,
And some of their voices are deep,
But all of their voices are thunderous,
And no one can get any sleep.
I lie in my bed and I listen,
Enchanted and filled with delight,
To songs I can hear only one night a year—
The dragons are singing tonight!

Nasty Little Dragonsong

I’m a nasty, nasty dragon,
I’ve been nasty since my birth,
When it comes to nasty dragons,
I’m the nastiest on earth.
I’ve a nasty, nasty temper,
And my breath is nasty too,
I was nasty to my parents,
I’ll be nastier to you.

It’s my nature to be nasty,
Nasty, nasty night and day,
I will act completely nasty
If you’re in my nasty way.
Yet I largely pass unnoticed
As I nastily go by,
I’m a nasty, nasty dragon
Just a nasty half inch high.

I hope you enjoyed these!
Alisonwww.alisonhenderson.com

4 comments:

Jannine Gallant said...

Loved the singing dragons poem. Children's poetry can be very clever. In 8th grade our kids have to write a poetry book with a bunch of different types of poems in it. I listened to a lot of moaning from my daughter, so I decided to try it. Poetry is HARD to write. So kudos to all the poets out there!

Vonnie Davis ~ Romance Author said...

I love reading poetry for the imagery and the magical way poets use words. Can I write it? Only if I can use iambic petameter. I can really get into that mental beat of words. Great post. I especially liked the first poem. Too cool.

Colleen Connally said...

Oh, I love poetry. I wish I could write it. Love your pictures of your dragons. Cute!

Maeve Greyson said...

LOVED the singing dragons poem! :-)