A Poem for Banned Books Week

How many of you still remember the “Great Scrotum Debate” of 2007 that took place after The Higher Power of Lucky won the Newbery Award? I thought about it yesterday as I was compiling a list of links for Banned Books Week 2009. I thought I’d post a revised version of Book Talk 2007: A Poem, which I wrote when there was a lot of discussion going on in the kidlitosphere about Susan Patron’s book and about the censorship/banning of children’s books. BTW, I’ve left off the final couplet that was included in the original poem: Who’s got a solution antidotal/For the current row o’er something scrotal?.

Here’s my contribution to Poetry Friday—a poem for Banned Books Week (September 26-October 3, 2009).

Book Talk
by Elaine Magliaro

Dressed in uniforms of blue,

The word police arrived at two.

With laser eyes, they scanned our pages

And locked our naughty words in cages.

Then up we cried: “You’ve taken text!

Will you remove our pictures next?”

“Your pictures?” one policeman said.

“We only take the stuff that’s read.

Your naughty words must be excised.

Let all your authors be advised

To watch their words when they compose

Their poetry…and all their prose.”

Warning given…the men in blue

Then turned to leave. They bid adieu.

We books now left with words deleted

Feel somehow, sadly, incompleted.

Now…don’t go and read any banned books!

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At Blue Rose Girls I have a poem by Elaine Equi entitled Ciao Bella Chocolate Sorbet.

At Political Verses, I have Dirty Dancing with the Stars: A Poem about Tom DeLay.

Susan Taylor Brown is doing the Poetry Friday Roundup this week.