Judith Viorst

Judith Viorst (February 2, 1931)

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Judith Viorst Poems

If I Were In Charge Of The Wor... If I were in charge of the ...
True Love It is true love because I put on eyeliner and a ...
The Pleasures Of Ordinary Life I've had my share of necessary...
Since Hanna Moved Away The tires on my bike are flat. The ...
Mother Doesn'T Want A Dog Mother doesn't want a dog. Mother ...
Learning I'm learning to say thank you. And I'm learning to ...
Thank-You Note I wanted small pierced earrings (gold). You ...

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an American author, newspaper journalist, and psychoanalysis researcher. She is perhaps best known for her children's literature, such as The Tenth Good Thing About Barney (about the death of a pet) and the Alexander series of short picture books.

Viorst is a 1952 graduate of the Newark College of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. In 1968, Viorst signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. In the latter part of the 1970s, after two decades of writing for children and adults, she turned to the study of Freudian psychology. In 1981, and after six years of study at Washington ... more »

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Craving that old sweet oneness yet dreading engulfment, wishing to be our mother's and yet be our own, we stormily swing from mood to mood, advancing and retreating—the quintessential model of tw...
Judith Viorst (20th century), U.S. author and poet. Necessary Loses, ch. 3 (1986).
The need to become a separate self is as urgent as the yearning to merge forever. And as long as we, not our mother, initiate parting, and as long as our mother remains reliably there, it seems possib...
Judith Viorst (20th century), U.S. author and poet. Necessary Loses, ch. 3 (1986).
Somewhere slightly before or after the close of our second decade, we reach a momentous milestone—childhood's end. We have left a safe place and can't go home again. We have moved into a world wh...
Judith Viorst (20th century), U.S. novelist and poet. Necessary Losses, ch. 10 (1986).
''Adolescence involves our nutty-desperate-ecstatic-rash psychological efforts to come to terms with new bodies and outrageous urges.''
Judith Viorst (20th century), U.S. novelist and poet. Necessary Losses, ch. 10 (1986).
A normal adolescent is so restless and twitchy and awkward that he can mange to injure his knee—not playing soccer, not playing football—but by falling off his chair in the middle of French ...
Judith Viorst (20th century), U.S. novelist and poet. Necessary Losses, ch. 10 (1986).

If I Were In Charge Of The World

If I were in charge of the world
I'd cancel oatmeal,
Monday mornings,
Allergy shots, and also Sara Steinberg.

If I were in charge of the world
There'd be brighter nights lights,
Healthier hamsters, and
Basketball baskets forty eight inches lower.

If I were in charge of the world
You wouldn't have lonely.
You wouldn't have clean.
You wouldn't have bedtimes.
Or "Don't punch your sister."
You wouldn't even have sisters.

If I were in charge of the world
A chocolate sundae with whipped cream and nuts would be a vegetable
All 007 movies ...

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Judith Viorst

Judith Viorst Poems

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If I Were In Charge Of The World