American Life in poetry
It’s wonderful when a very young person discovers the pleasures of poetry and gives it a try. Here’s a poem by a first-grader, Andrew Jones of Ferndale, Wash., who, if we’re lucky, will go on to write poems the rest of his life.
The Softest Word
The softest word is leaf
it zigzags
in the air and
falls on the yellow ground
Poem copyright 2011 by Seattle Arts and Lectures, from their most recent book of poems, “Our Beautiful Robotic Hearts, Seattle Arts and Lectures” (2011). Poem reprinted by permission of Seattle Arts and Lectures. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.