#WorldPoetryDay … What poem did you love as a kid?

Today is World Poetry Day.  As I have told you before I used to work in an elementary school library and poetry month and all the different days that celebrate poetry were always my favorite (and just so you know Poetry is 811 in the Melvil Dewey Decimal System so that is where you go to find it in the library… which is my way of saying … you should really go to the library because libraries rock!)   The picture above is me reading a story to some wee ones which was my favorite thing to do.

Now my younger elementary aged library customers were always big fans of poetry and any book that rhymed.  Dr. Seuss was obviously the foundation for that, but we progressed to actual poets like Shell Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky.  I really wasn’t familiar with their poetry until I worked in the library.  I grew up with the poems of A. A. Milne and Spike Milligan.   A.A. Milne’s poems were sweet  and Spike’s were silly.  Here is one of my favorite Spike Milligan poems …

On the Ning Nang Nong
Where the Cows go Bong!
and the monkeys all say BOO!
There’s a Nong Nang Ning
Where the trees go Ping!
And the tea pots jibber jabber joo.
On the Nong Ning Nang
All the mice go Clang
And you just can’t catch ’em when they do!
So its Ning Nang Nong
Cows go Bong!
Nong Nang Ning
Trees go ping
Nong Ning Nang
The mice go Clang
What a noisy place to belong
is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!!

You can see why I loved that as a kid.   The crazy thing is that I probably could still recite some of the poems from my childhood today … they just stay with you … how about you … do you have a favorite poem from you childhood?