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The Power of Poetry
How exciting to designate a time in April to celebrate Young People's Poetry Week. But April, like spring, is just a beginning. Poetry must be a
part of a child's everyday. Let's make Poetry Week the start of a journey that will last always—today, tomorrow, forever.
There is an abundance of poetry for children to savor—poetry of all kinds—for all times. Poems can bring a little laughter into each day;
they can also help children get through difficult periods.
As a young child growing up in the projects in Newark, New Jersey, poverty—not poetry—surrounded me. I discovered the power of poetry when
I became a classroom teacher and saw quickly how magically the genre worked with my students. I wove poetry throughout every area of the curriculum from mathematics to physical education.
My anthologies reflect my teaching career. As an anthologist I strive to bring the best poetry to readers. I want them to see and feel, sense
and touch, hear the very best. I want them to savor Sandburg feed on Frost—heartbreak with Hughes. I also want them to experience words and worlds of fresh voices who will take them well into the millennium.
Poetry stems from life itself. Children ask me where I get ideas for creating poetry. Ideas come from life—life's pleasures, problems—questions answered and unanswered.
Although Been to Yesterdays is set in the 1950's, my hope is that girls and boys, coping with situations such as divorce, financial struggle,
and losing loved ones, will come to an understanding that they are not alone. With hope and a continued sense of strong self they will survive.
Poetry and I fit together. I can't imagine being without it. Were it in my power I would give poetry to every single child everywhere. What it
can do for children is powerful-plus! It is food and drink, it is all seasons, it is the stuff of all existence. How rich I am because of the genre. How rich it can be for everyone. •
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About the Author:
Lee Bennett Hopkins has created numerous books for children and adults. His poetry autobiography, Been to Yesterdays, received both the
Christopher Medal and a Golden Kite Honor. To further promote poetry he founded the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award presented annually since 1993, and the Lee Bennett Hopkins/international Reading Association
Promising Poet Award presented every three years since 1995. Other titles include Marvelous Math, a Reading Rainbow, feature selection, Climb Into My Lap: First Poems to Read Together,
Lives: Poems About Famous Americans, and his own collection Good Rhymes, Good Times! His professional book, Pass the Poetry, Please! has been in print for over twenty-five years. He lives in Scarborough, New York.
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