The Children's Poet Laureate recommends.....

Mary Ann Hoberman is recommending a new poetry book for children each month.  This month's pick is Poetry for Young Children by Langston Hughes.

April Rain Song
~~by Langston Hughes

Let the rain kiss you.

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.

Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.

The rain makes running pools in the gutter.

The rain plays a little sleep-song on our roof at night—

And I love the rain.

Here he is reading this poem.  

~~Hear Langston Hughes read The Negro Speaks of Rivers at Poets.org. 

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Langston Hughes

I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.


I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

~~Hear Langston Hughes read I, Too,Sing America at the Children's Poetry Archive

~~Check out all the poetry happenings at: Children's Poetry : The Poetry Foundation