Wonderful words

Several years ago Kaye Price Hawkins and I attended a children's lit conference at Sam Houston State. We sat and ate with the poet Lee Bennett Hopkins--delightful, witty, and interesting.

He has a new compliation of poems called Wonderful Words: Poems about Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. It is beautifully illustrated by Karen Barbour, a rising illustrator in children's circles.

It contains this one by Tom Robert Shields:

I Am the Book

I'll be your friend,
stay by your side,
contradict you
make you laugh or teary-eyed
On a sun-summer morning.

I'll spark you
help you sleep,
bring dreams
you'll forever keep
On a dappled-autumn afternoon.

I'll warm you
keep you kindled,
dazzle you
till storms have dwindled
On a snow-flaked winter evening.

I'll plant in you
a spring-seedling
with bursting life
while you are reading.

I am the book
You are needing.

Now why can't I think of descriptions like sun-summer morning and dappled autumn afternoon? Lovely.