Sky Scrape / City Scape: Poems of City Life
Selected by Jane Yolen
Illustrations by Ken Condon
Wordsong / Boyds Mills Press, 1996

Featuring poems by Carl Sandburg, Langston Hughes, Eve Merriam, Lucille Clifton, Myra Cohn Livingston, and other noted poets, Sky Scrape / City Scape “capture[s] the rush and rumble, toss and tumble of taxis and trains, pigeons and parks, sidewalks and street cleaners” of all the “jump-roping, roller-skating, skyscraping excitement of city life” (from the jacket description).

The anthology spans a variety of moods, from Merriam’s “Lazy Thought” on commuters to Sandburg’s intense “Prayers of Steel,” from Hughes’s rhythmic “City” to Rachel Field’s anthropomorphic contemplation of skyscrapers (“Do skyscrapers ever grow tired / Of holding themselves up high?”). Each page is illustrated with Ken Condon’s “bold illustrations evok[ing] the gritty passion of the urban scene” (from the jacket description).

* Visit the publisher’s website for more information about purchasing the book.

Kids can compose their own poems about their city or town on our Kids and Community page.