Poetry Friday

Poetry Friday Roundup is hosted today by Read, Write, Howl.

My selection is Mammalabilia: poems and paintings by Douglas Florian.

Florian continues his winning ways with lively fun in this collection of poems about mammals ranging from the Aardvark to Zebra.  He makes playful use of both the names and appearances of his selected menagerie as in this short verse --

"Aardvarks aare odd.

Aardvars aare staark.

Aardvarks look better

By faar in the daark."

The art work, painted on brown paper bags, varies from verse to verse, but each is as inventive and clever as the words they accompany.  Some animals are rendered in broad strokes as with the tennis shoe wearing rhebok on the cover.  At other times, Florian uses detailed renderings to great advantage challenging readers to make an accurate count of the zebras from among their many stripes.