Where Go the Boats

Richard Haley Lever

Dances of the Boats

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,

Castles of the foam,

Boats of mine a-boating--

Where will all come home?

On goes the river

And out past the mill,

Away down the valley,

Away down the hill.

Away down the river,

A hundred miles or more,

Other little children

Shall bring my boats ashore.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson ~

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Julian Beever

Batman and Robin

Where the Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends

And before the street begins,

And there the grass grows soft and white,

And there the sun burns crimson bright,

And there the moon-bird rests from his flight

To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black

And the dark street winds and bends.

Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow

We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,

And watch where the chalk-white arrows go

To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,

And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,

For the children, they mark, and the children, they know

The place where the sidewalk ends.

~ Shel Silverstein ~

The Chimney Sweep

John Lewis Krimmel
“Wordly Folk” Questioning Chimney Sweeps and Their Master Before
Christ Church, Philadelphia

Paul Charles Chocarne-Moreau

Chimney Sweeps Stealing Bread

The Chimney Sweep

When my mother died I was very young,

And my father sold me while yet my tongue

Could scarcely cry ``'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!''

So your chimneys I sweep, & in soot I sleep.

There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,

That curl'd like a lamb's back, was shav'd: so I said

``Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when you head's bare

You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.''

And so he was quiet, & that very night,

As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!

That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack,

Were all of them lock'd up in coffins of black.

And by came an Angel who had a bright key,

And he open'd the coffins & set them free;

Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,

And wash in a river, and shine in the Sun.

Then naked & white, all their bags left behind,

They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;

And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,

He'd have God for his father, & never want joy.

And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,

And got with our bags & our brushes to work,

Tho the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm,

So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.

~ William Blake ~

Learning

Ammi Phillips

The Strawberry Girl

Learning

I'm learning to say thank you.

And I'm learning to say please.

And I'm learning to use Kleenex,

Not my sweater, when I sneeze.

And I'm learning not to dribble.

And I'm learning not to slurp.

And I'm learning (though it sometimes really hurts me)

Not to burp.And I'm learning to chew softer

When I eat corn on the cob.

And I'm learning that it's much

Much easier to be a slob.

~ Judith Viorst ~