"The Giraffe" -- a poem for my pocket

     I've found the poem I want to carry in my pocket (and in my head) on "Poem in Your Pocket Day" -- coming soon on April 21. It includes at least one number; here it is:

       The Giraffe     by Ron Padgett

       The 2 f's
       in giraffe
       are like
       2 giraffes
       running through
       the word giraffe

       The 2 f's
       run through giraffe
       like 2 giraffes.    

“The Giraffe” is used by permission from Collected Poems (Coffee House Press, 2013). Copyright © 2013 by Ron Padgett.  I found the poem in my copy of Talking to the Sun:  An Illustrated Anthology of Poems for Young People, Edited by Kenneth Koch and Kate Farrell (Henry Holt & Co with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985).

 Next, because I like to count syllables, here is a number-Haiku --

 one two three four five

six seven eight seven six

five four three two one

And, finally, here is a poem that gave us the poem-in-your-pocket idea.

Keep a Poem in Your Pocket    by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

Keep a poem in your pocket
and a picture in your head
and you’ll never feel lonely
at night when you’re in bed.

The little poem will sing to you
the little picture will bring to you
a dozen dreams to dance to you
at night when you’re in bed.

    So—
          Keep a poem in your pocket
          and a picture in your head
          and you’ll never feel lonely
          at night when you’re in bed.

Found in The 20th Century Children’s Poetry Treasury, poems selected by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Meilo So.  (Knopf, NY 1999).