Poems for Every Season by Bette Westera

Today on “Take Five,” I’m recommending a poetry collection titled Poems for Every Season: A Year of Haiku, Sonnets, and More. It’s written by Bette Westera, illustrated by Henriette Boerendans, translated from Dutch by David Colmer, and published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.

I’ve lived in four states with differing climates, but they’ve all had four distinct seasons. Seasonal change has always been part of the rhythm of my life. Seasons affect how I dress, what I eat, and what types of activities I do, indoors and out. Each season feels different, tangibly and emotionally. Poems for Every Season explores those sensations using imagery from animals and nature.

March introduces a lamb, “a ball of snow-white wool that’s just been born.” May highlights woodpeckers: “hard-working hole-dwellers.” August is an ode to a “Sunflower / High on her green stem.” October sinks us deep into “withering shivering quivering” fall.

I have been writing poems since I was very young, and I remember one of my first childhood haiku: “Beautiful iris / open up your doors on top / let me peek inside.” I still find it thrilling to play with words. I love wriggling their sounds, rhythms, and layers of meaning into a neat, creative package — a poem. Westera and Colmer are masters at this. I hope you enjoy their collection as much as I did.

Five Features to Love:

1. The woodcuts. Gorgeous!
2. The organization. There’s a haiku to introduce each season and a poem for each month. Sixteen poems, simply arranged, artfully presented.
3. Broad appeal. The poems are playful, clever, and evocative. They appeal to grown-ups and children.
4. The variety of poetic forms. There are familiar forms like haiku and limerick as well as less-familiar forms such as tanka, double dactyl, and one of my favorites, the pantoum.
5. The “extra” 10 pages at the end. If you’re curious about a particular type of poem, the last pages of the book explain each poetic form and tell a bit about its history.

Here’s a sample spread, the poem for June, titled “The Longest Day.” We’ve just passed our summer solstice here in Indiana. May you enjoy all this warm, abundant season has to offer as we inch, ever so slightly each day, closer to autumn.