Why I Like Poetry

I have to admit it, I like poetry.  I like reading it with my boy, I like teaching him things to look out for in it but you know what I like most? 

The conversations.

Take for instance today, we read this poem written by  Robert Louis Stevenson.

Where Go the Boats?

DARK brown is the river. 
  Golden is the sand. 
It flows along for ever, 
  With trees on either hand. 
  
Green leaves a-floating,         5
  Castles of the foam, 
Boats of mine a-boating-- 
  Where will all come home? 
  
On goes the river 
  And out past the mill,  10
Away down the valley, 
  Away down the hill. 
  
Away down the river, 
  A hundred miles or more, 
Other little children  15
  Shall bring my boats ashore

I had thought about turning into a whole rhyming lesson, but when my boy smiled when I finished reading it, I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, he burst into conversation.

"Mom, can you imagine it a family of otters got ahold of them"?
"Can you just seem them mom, smashing of the sails and using the boat parts as little tables to pass things back and forth"?

From that illustrious start we had a lovely conversation on just what might happen to those boats as they floated down the river the things they'd see, the mishaps they might have, the children they might meet.

IT WAS WONDERFUL.

And THAT my dear readers is WHY I love poetry.

Is it good to see the forms, to see how poetry is put together.. FOR SURE, but it's also good to let that stuff go and enjoy the thoughts and emotions that a good poem brings forth.   R.L. Stevenson wrote a poem that delighted my boy and gave us a good conversation...what more could you ask for?   :)