Winterku
My breath makes mist. I
stop shivering when Mama
kisses my cold nose.
Copyright © 2005 April Halprin Wayland. From the book Robert’s Snowflakes. Viking Juvenile. Reprinted by permission of the author.
About this Poem
I wrote this poem in response to a request by author/illustrator Grace Lin for a haiku to appear with snowflakes decorated by well-known children’s illustrators.
This illustrators featured with my poem are: Joann Adinolfi, Maggie Smith, Erin Eitter Kono, Steven Kellogg, Susie Lee Jin, and Yangsook Choi.
Grace Lin’s beloved husband Robert Mercer died of cancer. 100% of the author and illustrator royalties from this beautiful book go to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
About The Author
April’s books include Scholastic’s Best Seller, To Rabbittown, a free-verse picture book, Knopf’s it’s Not My Turn to Look For Grandma! (recommended on PBS’s “Storytime”), the Sydney Taylor Gold Award-winner New Year at the Pier, and the multi-award-winning Girl Coming In For A Landing—an illustrated novel in poems for teens (Knopf). Her CD/MP3 of stories and poems won the National Parenting Publications Gold Medal for storytelling; her poetry appears in numerous anthologies, and she’s a seven-time recipient of SCBWI’S Magazine Merit Award for Poetry. April has taught in over 400 schools across America, in England, Italy, Germany, France and Poland. She blogs with five other children’s authors who also teach writing on TeachingAuthors.com is a founding member The Children’s Authors Network and has been an instructor with the Writers’ Program of UCLA Extension for over a decade. Her website? www.AprilWayland.com where you’ll discover she’s ½ author, ½ poet, ½ not good at fractions.
Where to Buy this Book
8 responses to “Winterku”
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This is lovely. External cold / internal warmth :>) And this anthology is a gem…
Aww, the power of Mama’s kiss. You capture the relief of winter’s hold perfectly so few words, April. =)
What an honor it must be to have work included in this beautiful book!
Misty breath and Mamma kisses! Love them. I have not seen this book. What a gem and such a wonderful cause.
I love it, April. So few words say so much. Just lovely.
This poem feels so real.
I gave this unique book as a gift when it first came out. Seeing your misty moment here makes me want to grab a copy for my own shelves.
As you know I read to the kiddos in sunny Florida, where my family transplanted me when I was 13, so it’s especially fun for the kids I read to, to imagine snow.
Pleased to meet Poetry Minute through you, April – brava!
I love everything about this poem, April. Thanks so much for sharing it with us!
Very short but cool