The Young Poet Poem by Hannington Mumo

Tom was five and he did great rhyme,
After school he got his pencil sharp
And before had passed a lot of time
His music of words surpassed any harp.

He wrote about the little bee;
None of his age ever wrote better than he.

Again he wrote of the stubborn nanny-goat,
Thick as a sheep and stupid as a mule
That ate its master’s cloth at a grassy plot;
A story his teacher had told in school.


Tom was a little boy
So gifted in poetry and things of art,
And though he seemed to lack joy
He had clearly mastered his part.

And while five years old he won great prizes
That aged poets had pursued in vain;
So was his life full of surprises
That baffled all again and again.