2026 National Poetry Month, Day 09 Childhood
Original topic subject: 2026 National Poetry Month, Day 9 Childhood
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1DebiCates
Australian poet Jordie Albiston, age 9
NPM 2026, Day 9, Childhood
What poems might represent "childhood" to you?
After pondering this a bit, it seemed that one of the defining characteristics of childhood is that experiencing everything for the first time. And of it coming through an open door.
Since becoming an adult, I find myself often comparing an unfolding experience with a previous experience. I almost always have a running narrative going on about unrelated things. I don't feel as "in the now" as I did as a kid.
It's not completely gone, that open door experience with no preconceived notions, but it happens rarely now, usually by an unexpected, simple experience. The other day I saw a curve-billed thrasher walking straight down my street. In the street, in a straight line, even walking correctly on the right side. It was as if he was off to meet a friend waiting or off to pay the electric bill. That was one of those moments. Just the joy and wonder of observing another life.
Poetry with that freshness connects me to the best of childhood: descriptive poems, ones often rooted in nature. Walt Whitman and Mary Oliver come to mind. And haiku. It's that letting go of binary judgements and quieting the monkey mind. Like we once did so naturally.
As with every post for NPM, you are welcomed to answer the question or also comment with either a poem you've found or with a poem you've written that you think will go with this day's message.
NPM 2026, Day 9, Childhood
What poems might represent "childhood" to you?
After pondering this a bit, it seemed that one of the defining characteristics of childhood is that experiencing everything for the first time. And of it coming through an open door.
Since becoming an adult, I find myself often comparing an unfolding experience with a previous experience. I almost always have a running narrative going on about unrelated things. I don't feel as "in the now" as I did as a kid.
It's not completely gone, that open door experience with no preconceived notions, but it happens rarely now, usually by an unexpected, simple experience. The other day I saw a curve-billed thrasher walking straight down my street. In the street, in a straight line, even walking correctly on the right side. It was as if he was off to meet a friend waiting or off to pay the electric bill. That was one of those moments. Just the joy and wonder of observing another life.
Poetry with that freshness connects me to the best of childhood: descriptive poems, ones often rooted in nature. Walt Whitman and Mary Oliver come to mind. And haiku. It's that letting go of binary judgements and quieting the monkey mind. Like we once did so naturally.
As with every post for NPM, you are welcomed to answer the question or also comment with either a poem you've found or with a poem you've written that you think will go with this day's message.
2TonjaE
>1 DebiCates: The first thing that comes to my mind after reading Day 9 edition of NPM is a children's book. One that I have held dear since I was very young, but there is a poem too. It's this one:
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
(Eugene Field 1850 –1895)
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe,—
Sailed on a river of crystal light
Into a sea of dew.
“Where are you going, and what do you wish?”
The old moon asked the three.
“We have come to fish for the herring-fish
That live in this beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we,”
Said Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.
The old moon laughed and sang a song,
As they rocked in the wooden shoe;
And the wind that sped them all night long
Ruffled the waves of dew;
The little stars were the herring-fish
That lived in the beautiful sea.
“Now cast your nets wherever you wish,—
Never afraid are we!”
So cried the stars to the fishermen three,
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.
All night long their nets they threw
To the stars in the twinkling foam,—
Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,
Bringing the fishermen home:
’Twas all so pretty a sail, it seemed
As if it could not be;
And some folk thought ’twas a dream they’d dreamed
Of sailing that beautiful sea;
But I shall name you the fishermen three:
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.
Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
Is a wee one's trundle-bed;
So shut your eyes while Mother sings
Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
As you rock in the misty sea
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:—
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
(Eugene Field 1850 –1895)
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe,—
Sailed on a river of crystal light
Into a sea of dew.
“Where are you going, and what do you wish?”
The old moon asked the three.
“We have come to fish for the herring-fish
That live in this beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we,”
Said Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.
The old moon laughed and sang a song,
As they rocked in the wooden shoe;
And the wind that sped them all night long
Ruffled the waves of dew;
The little stars were the herring-fish
That lived in the beautiful sea.
“Now cast your nets wherever you wish,—
Never afraid are we!”
So cried the stars to the fishermen three,
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.
All night long their nets they threw
To the stars in the twinkling foam,—
Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,
Bringing the fishermen home:
’Twas all so pretty a sail, it seemed
As if it could not be;
And some folk thought ’twas a dream they’d dreamed
Of sailing that beautiful sea;
But I shall name you the fishermen three:
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.
Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
Is a wee one's trundle-bed;
So shut your eyes while Mother sings
Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
As you rock in the misty sea
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:—
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.
3saskia17
>2 TonjaE: I have always loved this as a lullaby. Here's a favorite version by Carly and Lucy Simon in 1968: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgmKcbLJVxg.
Also, did you know there was a statue in Denver from 1919? https://denverpublicart.org/public-arts/wynken-blynken-and-nod-3/
Also, did you know there was a statue in Denver from 1919? https://denverpublicart.org/public-arts/wynken-blynken-and-nod-3/
4saskia17
Shel Silverstein always makes me feel like a kid again. For a slightly more serious take, Paul Fleischman's Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices brings a childish sense of wonder for the natural world.
5TonjaE
>3 saskia17: Gorgeous, I love that statue and Carly Simon. Thank you for sharing this.
6DebiCates
>2 TonjaE: I'm sorry this one wasn't part of my own childhood. It is really lovely and in the last stanza I can see two little shining eyes beginning to close. Did your children like this one in their childhoods?
7TonjaE
>6 DebiCates: It was nice to read it again, thank you for the prompt!
I did used to sing to my kids but not this one. You are my Sunshine and this song by The Seekers https://youtu.be/M-RkC6MYT2E?si=zZNLYBgQSuA0KzrH
I did used to sing to my kids but not this one. You are my Sunshine and this song by The Seekers https://youtu.be/M-RkC6MYT2E?si=zZNLYBgQSuA0KzrH
8DebiCates
>3 saskia17: My two youngest grandbabies live in a suburb of Denver now. I'll be going to spend a couple of weeks with them in the summer. Maybe we'll spend a day finding fun statues around the city. They do have some doozies, like this famous one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRg9Hmlvn3Y&t=432s
9DebiCates
>4 saskia17: I'm adding Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices to my To Buy list. I'm reading right now A swarm, A flock, A Host and am loving it. I'll be happy after this one to dig into some insect joy.
10DebiCates
>7 TonjaE: Isn't it lovely going back down memory lane, thinking of when our "babies" were babies? I used to sing Hush Little Baby ot mine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDuNK9y0umI (I love how the lyrics don't exactly make sense, but seems soothing anyway). Carly Simon and James Taylor even did their own 70s version of it.
When they got older, at the start of roadtrips, we'd sing a song i taught them, Joy to the World, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9uoq9gfeL0
Hm, maybe you had to be there.
When they got older, at the start of roadtrips, we'd sing a song i taught them, Joy to the World, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9uoq9gfeL0
Hm, maybe you had to be there.
12DebiCates
>11 hamlet61: that must have been lovely, painted on your wall.
I see that there is a Eugene Field House in Denver, Colorado, on the National Register of Historic Places. But I couldn't figure out why Denver, didn't see where he lived there. I'll be in Denver this summer. Might have to take the granddaughters to go see it with me.
I see that there is a Eugene Field House in Denver, Colorado, on the National Register of Historic Places. But I couldn't figure out why Denver, didn't see where he lived there. I'll be in Denver this summer. Might have to take the granddaughters to go see it with me.
