When I was a senior at the University of Illinois, I took a children’s literature course as part of my elementary education curriculum. This was one of my favorite courses in all of my college career. My professor, Violet Harris, was so intelligent, so friendly, and so sincerely excited about children’s books that I always looked forward to her class. One of my class projects was to make a compilation of poetry. My theme was Love Poems. I wrote out each poem and illustrated it on large index cards. I later had them laminated. I fondly remember Professor Harris asking me about my collection and if I was “in love.” I was in fact madly in love with my now husband. We were in the first year of our courtship at the time. She then went on to say that she read some of the poetry I compiled to her boyfriend over the phone at which the class giggled. Oh, yeah, I so did get an A!Two of my selections for the compilation were from Eloise Greenfield’s book Honey, I Love and other love poems. Honey, I love this poetry book! I could not find a complete poem to link to of her complete poem but here is a snippet of the poem,
HONEY, I LOVE.
“I love
I love a lot of things, a whole lot of things
Like
When my cousin comes to visit and you know he’s from the south
‘Cause every word he says just kind of slides out of his mouth”
I highly recommend this book. What a great gift for a child (or adult) on Valentine’s Day!
Elaine at Wild Rose Reader is hosting Poetry Friday today. Stop by her site for more poetry links!
