January 15, 2007

One of my favorite children's poetry books is by Arnold Adoff called ALL THE COLORS OF THE RACE. (Illustrated by John Steptoe and first published in 1982 and unfortunately out of print now.) The main character is a young bi-racial girl and instead of trying to give you my long winded opinions of the writing, below is the title poem:

"All the colors of the race
are
in my face, and just behind my face:
behind my eyes:
inside my head.

And inside my head, I give myself a place
at the end of a long
line forming
itself into a
circle.

And I am holding out my hands."