Poetry Friday

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Random Noodling.

My selection is "Poetrees" by DouglasFlorian. 

 

Florian focuses his talent for poetry and illustration on trees as he celebrates their beauty, uniqueness, and importance in this collection of eighteen poems that are rich with his signature wordplay: "lovely leaves/leave me in awe."

Florian's enthusiasm for his subject is clearly demonstrated in the first stanza of his poem, Coconut Palm : I'm nuts about the coconut./I'm cuckoo for the coco./I'm crazed for this amazing nut./For coco I am loco.

There's the familiar oak and weeping willow, the largest - Sequoia and the oldest - Bristlecone pine, as well as the exotic Scribbly Gum, Baobab, and Monkey Puzzle Tree.  Florian  includes poems about roots, seed, bark, leaves, and even tree rings in this thoughtful look at one of earth's most valuable resources. A Glossatree that provides information about the subjects of his verses completes the book.

Florian turns his book ninety degrees to allow for large, vertical double-page spreads for his illustrations worked in mixed media on brown bag paper.