LIBRARY BLOG

The Poetry Nook

Shel Silverstein: Poetry’s Funny Man

For over 40 years, Shel Silverstein captured reader’s imaginations and tickled their funny bones with his hilarious poems and drawings. Born in 1930 in Chicago, Silverstein began writing and drawing when his dream of becoming a famous baseball player was crushed by the fact that he was terrible at the game.

Silverstein got his first gig as a cartoonist while enlisted in the Army. The cartoons that were published in Pacific Stars and Stripes were lampoons on army life and often landed him in hot water. Despite the controversy that his satirical cartoons caused, Silverstein continued to create for the paper until he left in 1955.

Out in the civilian world, Silverstein found success publishing his cartoons in magazines and even published a few books. When his friend, and children’s book author, Tomi Ungerer approached him about writing children’s books Silverstein initally wrote him off. Lucky for us he reconsidered.

Thanks to the push from Ungerer the world has been gifted with children’s books, collections of poetry, songs, and plays by Silverstein.

Below are three of my favorite poems by Silverstein. Which poems of his are your favorites? Share with me at nmagola@mytpl.org.

How Not to Have to Dry the Dishes

If you have to dry the dishes
(Such an awful, boring chore)
If you have to dry the dishes
(‘Stead of going to the store)
If you have to dry the dishes
And you drop one on the floor–
Maybe they won’t let you
Dry the dishes anymore.

From A Light in the Attic

For Sale

One sister for sale!
One sister for sale!
One crying and spying young sister for sale!
I’m really not kidding,
So who’ll start the bidding?
Do I hear a dollar?
A nickel?
A penny?
Oh, isn’t there, isn’t there, isn’t there any
One kid who will buy this old sister for sale,
This crying and spying young sister for sale?

From Where the Sidewalk Ends

It’s Dark in Here

I am writing these poems
From inside a lion,
And it’s rather dark in here.
So please excuse the handwriting
Which may not be too clear.
But this afternoons by the lion’s cage
I’m afraid I got too near.
And I’m writing these lines
From inside a lion,
And it’s rather dark in here.

From Where the Sidewalk Ends