A list of some of our favorite kid-friendly recordings on Voca.
This poem invites listeners to notice and embrace the world around them, especially the natural world.
Differs from published version.
Nezhukumatathil, Aimee. Oceanic. Port Townsend: Copper Canyon Press, 2018.
This poem is written in the voice of a young person who loves to make up her own holidays, such as "Rainbow Celebration Day" and "Green Cloud Celebration Day."
Baylor, Byrd. I'm in Charge of Celebrations. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1986.
Ofelia Zepeda is a Tohono O'Odham poet and linguist. She performs this piece, a song of appreciation and love for the Sonoran Desert, in both O'Odham and English.
Read in Tohono O'odham and English.
Zepeda, Ofelia. Where Clouds Are Formed. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2008.
This poem uses the five senses to evoke a sense of place and of home. Read in Spanish and in English.
Alarcón, Francisco X. From the Bellybutton of the Moon / Del ombligo de la luna. Ill. Maya Christina González. San Francisco: Children's Book Press, 1998.
This poem is about feeling misunderstood--an experience to which we can all relate.
Engle, Margarita. The Surrender Tree. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2008.
Arizona State Poet Laureate Alberto Ríos was born in Nogales, AZ, on the US-Mexico border. This poem envisions that border as the seam between two puzzle pieces, bringing two countries into close relationship.
Ríos, Alberto. "Líneas Fronterizas / Border Lines." The Virginia Quarterly Review 83.2: Spring 2007, 4-5.
"Opposites" had its origins in a game Richard Wilbur played with his own children.
Wilbur, Richard. Opposites. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973.
U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón envisions herself as a racehorse in this poem: beautiful, fast, and strong.
Limón, Ada. Bright Dead Things. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2015.
Mahogany L. Browne closed her 2021 reading at the Poetry Center by leading the audience in this affirming guided meditation, which is suitable for all ages.
lead by Mahogany L. Browne
