It’s not every day that children, on being sent to their beds, respond with shrieks of glee. In fact, as I reflect on that era in which my boys were small enough to be sent to their beds, the only shrieking that may have gone on could not have been connected in even the most fanciful imagination to glee.
And yet, when Bethany Rohde’s children went to their beds and discovered poems on their pillows, the gleeful shrieking began in earnest:
@tspoetry @EDayPoems @llbarkat I’m listening to shrieks of glee. My kids have discovered the poems on their pillows…
— BethanyR (@BethanyR__) May 6, 2015
Soon after, they began bargaining for more:
@tspoetry @EDayPoems @llbarkat 8yr old son:”Can we do this 3 times/wk so we have something to look forward to?We only get hot lunch 1/month” — BethanyR (@BethanyR__) May 6, 2015
We celebrated the first annual Poem on Your Pillow Day this week, with some folks, like Bethany, offering poems on the pillows of their children. Others, like Kym Gordon Moore, set them out for their guests in a generous and welcoming act:
Celebrating #PoemonYourPillow Day with Dreams Awakened http://t.co/FIOpExrKT3 via @KreativePen @tspoetry #pillowpoem pic.twitter.com/OlfmJc7t0B
— Kym Gordon Moore (@KreativePen) May 5, 2015
Monica Sharman took seriously the matter of the history of the pillow, sharing with us a pillow style more akin to the Chinese or Egyptian models than our fancy, fluffy things that threaten to steal our vigor:
Isn’t this a poetic pillow? Today is Poem on Your Pillow Day. You still have time to join in. @tspoetry #POPday pic.twitter.com/qBysUfEzD6 — Monica Sharman (@monicasharman) May 5, 2015
Some folks discovered their poems and pillows both missing:
#PoemOnYourPillowDay #poetry #poem http://t.co/q5V2WW1XF3 via @tspoetry pic.twitter.com/QzcqMuhTGZ
— Shimmery Mermaid (@lilMissShimmery) May 6, 2015
Which may have had something to do with Poem on Your Pillow Day’s potential dark side:
today is Poem On Your Pillow Day where you creepily hide a poem on a sranger’s pillow. the hard part is getting into their house undetected — paige van orton (@dannyglover) May 5, 2015
It wasn’t lost on some of us that Poem on Your Pillow Day coincided with Cinco de Mayo, which gave rise to poems about pillows, margaritas and Velveeta:
@tspoetry pic.twitter.com/olOCj0H2Pq — Irene Ilmonen (@IreneSez) May 5, 2015
And while bedtime may have begun at the Rohde house with gleeful shrieks, they would surely settle into quiet dreams with these delightful poem-on-your-pillowcase pieces from S Olivante:
A Poem On Your Pillow Day #pillowday #popday @tspoetry #poetry #phoetry #amwriting #micropoetry #romance #loveletter pic.twitter.com/jgopkam9FA
— S Olivante Poetry (@OlivantePoetry) May 5, 2015
A Poem On Your Pillow Day – ‘Made of Pillows’ #pillowday#popday@tspoetry#poetry#amwriting#phoetry#sleepingpic.twitter.com/qmhkQ4ryXF — S Olivante Poetry (@OlivantePoetry) May 5, 2015
Of course, one needn’t wait for next year’s Poem on Your Pillow Day to bring poetry home with a carefully chosen poem for a friend or lover, child or guest. But when it comes to the strangers, one might think about just leaving a poem at the front door.
Photo by Flavio Ronco, Creative Commons license via Flickr.
More about Poem on Your Pillow Day
It’s Poem on Your Pillow Day (plus Pillow History You Never Knew)
Get the printable collection of Poem on Your Pillow Day poem cards
Enjoy 10 Tempting Poems to Celebrate Poem on Your Pillow Day (or any other day)
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Maureen Doallas says
What fun!
I especially like Bethany’s children’s surprise at finding poems on their pillows.
Bethany says
What a joy to read this post today! I shared it with my kids. 🙂
L. L. Barkat says
That “glee” totally makes my day. How fun.
I loved putting poems on my children’s pillows, and I set the poems in the arms of the resident doll and teddy bear respectively. It was very fun to discover that my younger daughter and I had put the same poem on each other’s pillows! 🙂 I’d describe her response more as “eyes shining.”