Poems By Children

Little Poet at Poets House, children's poetry activities

The New York Listening Station

In the city I hear,
Laughing in the park,
The chu-chu of the train,
The alarm in my house,
Going on and on again.

Near the water I hear,
Ducks making that quack-quack,
Two boats making little splashes,
The waves making flashes.

In the sky I hear,
Aeroplanes cushing,
Birds chip chipping,
Eagles eeeeking.

In my house I hear,
My mama snoring,
My cereal cracking in the bowl,
The drums of rock and roll.

-Humza, age 3

From Saturday September 10, 2011’s Chrissie Gittins children's program

A thought comes from anywhere in the
water. You push a thought and sometimes
it goes by itself.

Thoughts come from our imagination
and can be in the brain and our breath.

My thought move swirling and leaping.

Thoughts come from anywhere;
the universe; the whole planet.

The bird thought about a thought
of a stone.

I am having a thought that has a thought.

My thoughts move diagonally to get to
other thoughts.

A thought is something you want to happen.

My thought is looking at me
and it’s floating.

When we make up a thought they come
from our mind- then we create them again
and again. They move on the river of our
thoughts after it stops to pick up another
and another.

My thought makes me feel like me
in the ocean.
-Annie P.

From Richard Lewis's We Are Rivers,
illustrated by Kathy Creutzburg, Touchstone Center Publications, 2012.