The last most recent book I've done for kids is called Brats.
And it's a collection of little short poems, four lines
long or so, about nasty brats who get what they deserve.
But the challenge of writing a little short thing like this
is to tell a complete story in four lines
and round it out somehow, close it.
Nowadays, I know it's an old fangled view
to think that poems ought to close with definite closure.
And some people say they don't need to
and they can just peter out.
I always liked what Yeats--
Yeats said a poem should close with a click like a closing
box.
[LAUGHS] Well, the challenge is to get
the click in a very few lines.
Anyway, here's one of these Brat poems about a brat named John.
John, while swimming in the ocean,
rubbed sharks' backs with suntan lotion.
[LAUGHTER]
Now those sharks have skin of bronze in their bellies,
namely, John's.
[LAUGHTER]