Apple Poem

This is one of my favorite seasonal poems. I first learned it in a parent-toddler class with Katherine. The teacher recited it using a basket filled with green, yellow, and red silks and apples as her props. She slowly revealed the apples from under the silks and the children sat in silence, mesmerized by the words and movement. 

There are several variations, and I think it is also a song. Here is the one we enjoy in our home.

“What hue shall my apples be?”
Asked the little apple tree.
“That is easy to decide;
Make them green,” the grasses cried.
But the crimson roses said,
“We should like to have them red,”
While the dandelions confessed
Yellow seemed to them the best.

When the apples all were ripe,
Many wore a yellow stripe.
Some were red and some were seen,
dressed in coats of softest green.

 

(Ideally one would also have a red silk and a green apple… I’ve been putting off posting this poem for weeks thinking I’d somehow acquire those things, but alas, I did not and I’m impatient and wanted to share. So here you see a quality yellow silk, green mesh, and three red apples - one with a sort-of yellow stripe. But you get the idea.)