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Poetry for Children
Poetry Break #26

A concrete or shape poem

If you stood with your feet in the earth
Up to your ankles in grass
And your arms had leaves running over them
And every once in awhile one of your leafy fingers
Was nudged by a bird flying past,
If the skin that covers you from top to tip
Wasn't skin at all, but bark
And you never moved your feet from their place
In the earth
But stood rooted in one spot come
Rain
Wind
Snow
Sleet
Thaw
Spring
Summer
Winter
Fall
Blight
Bug
Day
Dark
Then you would be me:
A tree.

by Karla Kuskin from Any Me I Want to Be;
Harper & Row, 1972

Introduction
A concrete or shape poem has the words of the poem arranged in the shape of the object it describes. Children seem to enjoy this poem form quite a bit.

Extension
Look for Joan Bransfield Graham's books full of concrete poetry: Splish Splash (poems about water) and Flicker Flash (poems about light).