Hello, Poetry Friend
We’ve come to the last celebration Rainbow Crow’s birthday. The last poem in the book is “Goodnight Crow,” a riff on Margaret Wise Brown’s classic Goodnight Moon.
It’s a more complicated poem — yes, it is a poem — than I realized until I tried to imitate it. Margaret Wise Brown … she’s got game.
I began checking out every book of hers I could find in the library. Another one I love that is also a poem is Wait Till The Moon Is Full. It features a raccoon family and explores the different ways the moon appears to these nocturnal creatures. The story includes these lines:
Long after rabbits are safe in bed then the moon sets low and red red, red when the moon is low. –from Wait Till The Moon Is Full, by Margaret Wise Brown
I am a grownup (not a rabbit, not a raccoon), but sleeping seems to be something I’m still not terribly good at. The first thing I do after I wake up in the dark and get my coffee is to go outside and look at the moon. Even though I know its phases, it is never quite the same.
A crow first came into my life April, 2005, when it stole my son’s glasses, and I was compelled to write poems about this tragic event. I kept writing crow poems, in different moon phases, for the next seventeen years. After Rainbow Crow was published, I haven’t needed to write about them anymore.
Thank you, Crow. You were a difficult Muse, but I am grateful for what you took. And for what you gave.
Goodnight Crow On the thirteenth floor there was a great green tree and a big deep nest and a picture of a crow swooping past the shore and there were three little squirrels hiding their pearls and a diamong ring and a child's blue marble and mama crow quietly whispering "garble" Goodnight floor Goodnight shore Goodnight crow swooping past the shore Goodnight puzzle Goodnight muzzle Goodnight spoon And goodnight rune Goodnight halo (if you say so) Goodnight bolts And goodnight toggles Goodnight universe Goodnight marble And goodnight to the mama crow whispering "garble" Goodnight midnight Goodnight wind Goodnight corvids. Ever wend. –Megan Willome
Happy poeming!
Megan
Oh my, I love this. First, I did not know about this M. Wise Brown book--so thank you!
And your crow poem--what lovely rhymes and images--very fun. and well done. and congratulations (again) on Rainbow Crow.