This afternood I’ve been watching—and rewatching— “A Child’s Garden of Poetry.” If you’re looking for a way to spend a quiet Saturday, I recommend this HBO/Poetry Foundation presentation. Listening to children between seven- and eleven-years-old talk about the artistry and appeal of poetry, reading their own poetry or that of Shakespear, Yates, or multilingual Haiku (among others) is a spiritual experience.
The children speak with excitement, authentic understanding and emotion, intelligence and an enviable maturity, not only about the art of reading poetry about the craft writing it with an equal understanding of style, imagery and charging a poem with feeling. A master class in poetry.
