The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

The Velveteen Rabbit (1922) is a children's book written by Margery Williams and illustrated by William Nicholson. It is the story of a stuffed rabbit and his desire to become real, through the love of his owner. To read The Velveteen Rabbit in its entirety, click here.

Margery Williams (1881-1944)

English-American author,

primarily of popular children's books

"Choices" by Tess Gallagher : The Poetry Foundation

The poem "Choices" by American poet, essayist, and short-story writer Tess Gallagher is good for children. It is one of my favorite poems about nature. To read that poem, click here.

Tess Gallagher

(Photo by Brian Farrell)

Video: Tess Gallagher's poem "Choices" from Motionpoems

This video, this short film, is Tess Gallagher's contemporary poem "Choices" retold from the filmmaker's perspective. To watch this video, click here.

"Autism Screening Questionnaire -- Speech and Language Delay" by Oliver de la Paz : Poetry Magazine

"Autism Screening Questionnaire -- Speech and Language Delay" is a poem by Asian-American poet Oliver de la Paz in the July/August 2017 issue of Poetry Magazine. In 2010 Oliver de la Paz's son was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. To read that poem and to listen to an audio recording of Oliver de la Paz reading that poem of his, click here.

Oliver de la Paz

(Photo by Caleb Young)

"Rasp" by Maggie Smith : Poets.org

To read the new, unpublished poem "Rasp" by American poet Maggie Smith and to listen to an audio recording of her reading that poem of hers, click here.

Maggie Smith

(Studio 127 Photography)

Two Poems by Henry David Thoreau

"My life has been the poem I would have writ, / But I could not both live and utter it." So wrote American essayist, poet and naturalist Henry David Thoreau in his book A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849). On this day two hundred years ago in 1817, Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts. Here are two poems that he did write.


I WAS MADE ERECT AND LONE

I was made erect and lone,
And within me is the bone;
Still my vision will be clear,
Still my life will not be drear,
To the center all is near.
Where I sit there is my throne.
If age choose to sit apart,
If age choose, give me the start,
Take the sap and leave the heart.


MEN SAY THEY KNOW MANY THINGS

Men say they know many things;
But lo! they have taken wings, --
The arts and sciences,
And a thousand appliances;
The wind that blows
Is all that any body knows.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)