After Dark
David L. Harrison, illustrated by Stephanie Laberis
Wordsong (Boyds Mills & Kane)

Poet David Harrison has chosen twenty-one nocturnal creatures large and small with which to populate his book of poems. There are insects, arachnids, amphibians, birds, fish and mammals; and as the poet is from the USA, some may be unfamiliar to readers in the UK. Nonetheless his descriptions are fascinating and closely observed while being presented in a variety of poetic forms mostly unrhymed.

So, let’s meet some of these fauna: first coyotes in The Hunt Is On:
Shhh, listen … / Hear that howling? / Out there in the dark? / Dogs don’t howl, / not like that. // They’re on the hunt. / Better take warning – / Be you mouse or deer, be watchful. / Coyotes are near.

Here’s one about the Luna Moth that uses rhyme; it’s called The Queen:
Like regal monarch of the night / or fairy in the airy light, / richly robed in ermine white, / winged in velvet royal green. // Suitors you have never seen / find you here in words serene. / You’ve much to do before the dawn / so when your fleeting life is gone, / future queens can carry on.

Each animal is realistically captured in Stephanie Laberis’ vivid digital, illustrations and there’s a final spread providing additional factual information about each of the animals so graphically described in Harrison’s riveting poetry.

This book will surely encourage readers to go outside in the dark, observe with all their senses, and perhaps, put pen to paper.

A Hatful of Dragons
Vikram Madan
Wordsong

Vikram Madan’s collection of poems is deliciously daft and embraces a wide range of topics from time machines to twins and their tins, and taxis to tubas.

There are some recurring themes and characters – dragons being a notable example – while each of the rhymes, (which take a wide variety of forms), is hilariously illustrated in offbeat style by the poet himself who, by his own account, has since boyhood had a love of creating cartoons.

It’s pretty near impossible to pick favourites but on this day a couple that particularly tickled my fancy are Permanent Guests (ten aliens and a garden gnome) that have taken up residence in the poet’s shoe – here’s the final throwaway line …

and The Helpful Pet with this opening verse:
We are sitting in a wrangle / Of a knotty, twelve-limbed tangle – / Where we’re starting, where we’re ending / Is a puzzle through and through.

Who wouldn’t want to check out the veracity of the poet”s claim in the sub-title by turning to 13,841,287,201* Nonsense Poems in One! – err, how long have you got? This mad offering contains 12 numbered blanks and a dozen lists each of seven items to insert wherever you feel like.

Now I for one am NOT going to do the maths. I’d rather chortle my way through the other poems or find a class of primary children to introduce to the delights herein. It’s just the kind of book that even those who claim not to like poetry might well change their minds after hearing a couple from Vikram Madan’s gloriously gigglesome gallimaufry.