David McCord, by Lee Bennett Hopkins

This beloved children's poet embodied the true essence of all things poetic

Over the course of many years, I had the rare privilege of corresponding and having long conversations with the beloved poet, David McCord.

Throughout my career, I've read and heard hundreds of definitions of what poetry is, what poetry should be. No one, however, ever uttered a more wondrous definition of the genre when he told me, "Poetry is so many things besides the shiver down the spine. It is a new day lying on a new doorstep. It is what will stir the weariest mind to write. It is the inevitable said so casually that the reader or listener thinks he said it himself. It is the fall of syllables that run as easily as water flowing over a dam. It is fireflies in May, apples in October, the wood fire burning when no one looks up from an open book. It is the best dream from which one ever waked too soon. It is Peer Gynt and Moby Dick in a single line. It is the best translation of words that do not exist. It is hot coffee dripping from an icicle. It is the accident involving sudden life. It is the calculus of the imagination. It is the finishing touch to what one could not finish. It is a hundred things as unexplainable as all our foolish explanations."

A poet is born
David McCord was born on November 15, 1897 in the heart of New York's Greenwich Village. As a child he was stricken with malaria and recurring bouts of fever kept him out of school quite often. This didn't stop him from pursuing an education and he graduated from Harvard College in 1921. In 1956, he received Harvard's first honorary degree of Doctor of Human Letters. John F. Kennedy, then a senator, received his LL.D at the same commencement.

McCord's first book of poetry for children, Far and Few, appeared in 1952, 25 years after his first book of poetry for adults was published. In 1977, he became the first recipient of the National Council of Teachers of English Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, an honor given to a poet for his or her aggregate body of work.

Bookshelf
Every Time I Climb a Tree (Little, Brown, 1980). This paperback treasury features 25 of McCord's poems including popular verses like, "The Pickety Fence," "This is My Rock" and the classic title poem.

McCord's poetry for children has been read, anthologized and loved for over five decades. May it continue to live on — and continue to send shivers down one's spine.

Lee Bennett Hopkins is a distinguished poet and anthologist. Recent collections include Hanukkah Lights and Christmas Presents (HarperCollins, 2004).