Poetry Friday: The Moon in June

I did not manage to post on Friday, but I'm sneaking in a couple of days late to share a favorite children's book of moon poems.

I wasn't sure if I could find it and was afraid that it might have been lost to one of my moving purges, but I located it stashed among the poetry books and fell in love all over again with the rhymes and jingles collected and illustrated by Ann Schweninger. The twenty-one verses she collected are illustrated with her luminous watercolor.

I think I checked it out of the library and then had to have my own copy. Used copies are still available on Amazon if you're interested. I've included the first and the final pages from Schweninger's book. Published in 1979, it's a moonlit treasure (and a discard from the Burlington Elementary School Library).

The Man in the Moon as he sails the sky

Is a very remarkable skipper 

But he made a mistake when he tried to take 

A drink of milk from the Dipper.

 

He dipped right out of the Milky Way

And slowly and carefully filled it;

The Big Bear growled, and the Little Bear howled

And frightened him so that he spilled it.

I see the moon,

    And the moon sees me;

God bless the moon,

    And God bless me.

Join us for poetic goodness and fun with the June moon

as Irene Latham prepares to launch her latest book, 

The Museum on the Moon, on August 8th.