One of My All-Time Favorite Poems

pangwins dansing in the

wotr     with sweet sun shin

shinyn on it   and butiful

butrflis     dansing in the ear

and a wodrful wind flooing

with a ror          and me

woching it all

[Carolan R. Coughlin, early 1990s]


What I love, besides the wonderful invented (and unashamed) spelling of a child, is the sensual description--employing sight (butrflis  dansing in the ear), sound ("ror"), and touch (the heat of the "sweet sun shin shinyn on it" and the feel of the "woderful wind flooing"). Yes, that is haiku-like sense description and imagery.

The clincher for me, though, is the end: "and me / woching it all." That is what a poet does. The poet is both an actor and an observer. So in a way, this is a meta-poem, written by a little kid, a poem about poetry and about being a poet.