Shel Silverstein is a hero of mine, his writing always speaks to me with its multi-layered meanings, rhyme, and rhythm.  I think it’s hard enough having to write something with substance, but when you add rhythm and rhyme to it, it becomes genius.

Given today’s eclipse, it would be àpropos to share his poem “A Battle in the Sky” which comes from his famous book Falling Up.  I read this book regularly to my children and find the same amount of joy in it that they do.  If you haven’t read any of his poetry books recently, I highly recommend it, for adults and children alike.

A Battle in the Sky

It wasn’t quite day and it wasn’t quite night,
‘Cause the sun and the moon were both in sight,
A situation quite all right
With everyone else but them.

So they both made remarks about who gave more light
And who was the brightest and prettiest sight,
And the sun gave a bump and the moon a bite,
And the terrible sky fight began.

With a scorch and a sizzle, a screech and a shout,
Across the great heavens they tumbled about,
And the moon had a piece of the sun in its month,
While the sun burned the face of the moon.

And when it was over the moon was rubbed red,
And the sun ha a very bad lump on its head,
And all the next night the moon stayed home in bed,
And the sun didn’t come out ‘til noon.

Shel Silverstein