Poetry Friday!!!

Here in the kidlitosphere... it's Poetry Friday again!

Today I'm linking to my very favorite of John Berryman's Dream Songs. Because I've always thought of it as a children's poem, even though it really isnt.

But that line, my mother told me as a boy/ (repeatingly) "Ever to confess you're bored/ means you have no/ Inner Resources." reminds me so strongly of childhood.

Though my teacher put it differently. She said, "Laurel Snyder-- only stupid people get bored. Are you bored?"

(side note: if you've never heard Berryman read his own work, you should give the recordings a listen. Start with Dream Song #1. He's craaaaazy!)


Dream Song 14

Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.
After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns,
we ourselves flash and yearn,
and moreover my mother told me as a boy
(repeatingly) "Ever to confess you're bored
means you have no

Inner Resources." I conclude now I have no
inner resources, because I am heavy bored.
Peoples bore me,
literature bores me, especially great literature,
Henry bores me, with his plights & gripes
as bad as Achilles,

who loves people and valiant art, which bores me.
And the tranquil hills, & gin, look like a drag
and somehow a dog
has taken itself & its tail considerably away
into the mountains or sea or sky, leaving
behind: me, wag.