Advice: A Book of Poems

<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">THE CHILD MEDITATES</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The oak-tree in front of my house</div> <div class="verse">Smells different every morning.</div> <div class="verse">Sometimes it smells fresh and wise</div> <div class="verse">Like my mother&#8217;s hair.</div> <div class="verse">Sometimes it stands ashamed</div> <div class="verse">Because it doesn&#8217;t own the smell</div> <div class="verse">It borrowed from our flower-garden.</div> <div class="verse">Sometimes it has a windy smell,</div> <div class="verse">As though it had come back from a long walk.</div> <div class="verse">The oak-tree in front of my house</div> <div class="verse">Has different smells, like grown up people.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">My doll hides behind her pink cheeks,</div> <div class="verse">So that you can&#8217;t see when she moves,</div> <div class="verse">But it doesn&#8217;t matter because</div> <div class="verse">She always moves when no one is looking,</div> <div class="verse">And that is why people think she is still.</div> <div class="verse">People laugh when I say that my doll is alive,</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">But if she were dead, my fingers</div> <div class="verse">Wouldn&#8217;t know that they were touching her.</div> <div class="verse">She lives inside a little house.</div> <div class="verse">And laughs because I cannot find the door.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">The colours in my room</div> <div class="verse">Meet each other and hesitate.</div> <div class="verse">Is that what people call shape?</div> <div class="verse">Nobody seems to think so,</div> <div class="verse">But I believe that lines are dead shapes</div> <div class="verse">Unless they fall against each other</div> <div class="verse">And look surprised, like the colours in my room!</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />