poetry friday: what my son is reading today

The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars collected, written and
illustrated by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace. Houghton Mifflin, 2003
(0-618-26353-5) $12

Sunflakes

If sunlight fell like snowflakes,
gleaming yellow and so bright,
we could build a sunman,
we could have a sunball fight,
we could watch the sunflakes
drifting in the sky.
We could go sleighing
in the middle of July
through sundrifts and sunbanks,
we could ride a sunmobile,
and we could touch sunflakes-
I wonder how they'd feel.

Heavenly bodies are ripe with potential for imagery and this
collection of poems, though short, does them justice. From Frank
Asch's fantasy of sleighing through sundrifts and sunbanks of
sunflakes, to Patricia Hubbell's vision of a tambourine moon
reflection making fish dance, it is a lovely, fresh and beguiling
work. Simple collage illustrations featuring gentle rabbit-people
seem a surprising but ultimately effective choice.