Bravo Julia!Encore!

Maybe it's just me, but I found atleast this poem to be completely unremarkable.

In my opinion, this is the kind of stuff children write--it's cute and imaginative coming from them, but coming from an adult, it appears to have little merit of it's own.

The subject may be unremarkable, but I find Julia's rhythms subtle and interesting.

You do realize Julia is nine years old, right Such?

I have always liked poetry by people of all ages and I liked all of Julia's poems especially the one about the tree. For the past 15 years or so, the Seattle Metro bus company has been displaying poetry on its buses by local kids and teenagers. One of them that I liked was written by a girl about the same age as Julia:

Dinosaurs don't rumble through the park,
Or down my sidewalk after dark.
In museums still as stones,
They stand in nothing but their bones.

Since linguistics is a hobby of mine I translated it into Romanian one day just for fun. A Romanian immigrant friend of mine made the corrections and it came out thus:

Dinozaurii nu bubuiau prin parc,
Sau jos pe trotuarul meu când e întuneric.
În muzee linis'tit'i ca nis'te pietre,
Stau pe nimic doar pe oasele lor.

In fact, when studying a foreign language it has been said that children are some of the best people to practice it with because they are still learning the language too. Children's literature is also a good thing to start out with in learning the language.

--- Brian

On realizing that Julia is nine years old, I'm both penitent (about my hasty comment) and delighted (about the poem).

My opinion of the piece is definitely affected by knowledge of the writers' age.

I do like reading children's writing--it has a clarity and confidence that adults' writing often lacks. I sometimes "make up" stories with my 6-year old niece. I supply the "Once upon a time" and "Later that day" connections, while she provides the imagination. Never ceases to amaze me!