This year I am trying something new. I want to incorporate more poetry throughout the year so I am pairing poems with books, thus “Poetry Pairings.”
This week, I am reading Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson. Do you know the book? Each kindness done and not done affects the world. I found a great poem to pair with this story: “Something I Did” by Janet Wong. Both speak to friendship.
Something I Did
Something I did
made Alex
not like me.
Something I did —
but what?
If Alex would tell me,
if Alex would say–
then maybe
we’d fix things
and
we could play
together
at recess
like we used to do.
What did I do wrong?
I wish I knew.
By Janet Wong
Poetry Friday Anthology, K-5 Edition
Poetry Friday is hosted by Laura Shovan at Author Amok.
Happy Poetry.
Happy Reading.
MsMac
Check It Out 
Thank you for this post! I love being in the same paragraph as Jacqueline Woodson–and EACH KINDNESS is a gem!!
Wonderful poem, Janet. I haven’t read this book, but I’m putting it on my TBR list.
Thank you, Laura!
Hi there Jone, I just read “Each Kindness” to my teacher-students last week and they were very moved by it. Thank you for letting me know about Janet’s poem, I agree that it’s a beautiful pairing to the picture book. 🙂
Love the idea of Poetry Pairings. Your picks here are perfect!
Very cool. I’ve been thinking about poetry pairings too. Especially in history. Wouldn’t every history topic be richer with the addition of a poem or two?
Great match-up! I hadn’t heard of this book (or the Jane Addams awards, which I discovered when I looked up Each Kindness) but I was happy to learn about them. Liz’s idea about history pairings sounds like a nice project, too.
Poetry pairings is such a terrific idea, Jone! And so well executed with Janet’s thoughtful and heart-wrenching poem. Putting Each Kindness on my to-read list without hesitation.