September - A Poetry Break

INTRODUCTION
The month of September marks a number of things in the life of everyone. After Labor Day marks the end of summer and the beginning of schools and there will be now holidays until Thanksgiving. September is also when we will find the first day of Autumn, which is very much a welcomed season after a hot summer. Everyone, especially for all the Texas folk right now after our hot, hot, HOT summer and the soggy week so far, love and savor the words and images in this poem from a classic poet.

POEM
September
by John Updike

The breezes taste
...Of apple peel.
The air is full
...If smell to feel-

Ripe fruit, old footballs,
...Drying grass,
New books and blackboard
...Chalk in class.

The bee, his hive
...Well-honeyed, hums
While Mother cuts
...Chrysanthemums.

Like plates washed clean
...With suds, the days
Are polished with
...A morning haze.

EXTENSION
After sharing this poem have the children volunteer to share what they think of the month of September and what it means to them. They can present their thoughts in poetic form or it could be just a list. It could even be both - a list poem!

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Andrew, Julie and Emma Walton Hamilton. 2009. Julie Andrews' Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies. Illus. by James McMullan. NY: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group. p. 32. ISBN: 978316040495.