Ted Kooser’s most recent column in American Life in Poetry features California poet Ellen Bass’s “Dead Butterfly.”
Former U. S. Poet Laureate (2004-2006) Ted Kooser introduces the poem: “How often have you wondered what might be going on inside a child's head? They can be so much more free and playful with their imaginations than adults, and are so good at keeping those flights of fancy secret and mysterious, that even if we were told what they were thinking we might not be able to make much sense of it. Here Ellen Bass, of Santa Cruz, California, tells us of one such experience.”
Here’s a sampling:
For months my daughter carried
a dead monarch in a quart mason jar.
To and from school in her backpack,
to her only friend's house. At the dinner table
To read the rest of the poem, please go to American Life in Poetry: Column 164.
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