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Column 409

The Softest Word

Intro by Ted Kooser
01.20.2013

It’s won­der­ful when a very young per­son dis­cov­ers the plea­sures of poet­ry and gives it a try. Here’s a poem by a first grad­er, Andrew Jones of Taco­ma, Wash­ing­ton, who, if we’re lucky, will go on to write poems the rest of his life.

The Softest Word

The softest word is leaf
it zigzags
in the air and
falls on the yellow ground

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Disclaimer

We do not accept unsolicited submissions

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2011 by Seattle Arts and Lectures, from their most recent book of poems, Our Beautiful Robotic Hearts, Seattle Arts and Lectures, 2011. Poem reprinted by permission of Seattle Arts and Lectures. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.