SPEAK
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Registered Offices: Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
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First published in the United States of America by G. P. Putnamâs Sons,
a division of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, 2003
Published by Speak, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 2004
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Copyright © Jacqueline Woodson, 2003
All rights reserved
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THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE PUTNAM EDITION AS FOLLOWS:
Woodson, Jacqueline.
Locomotion / Jacqueline Woodson.
p. cm.
Summary: In a series of poems, eleven-year-old Lonnie writes about his
life after the death of his parents, separated from his younger sister,
living in a foster home, and finding his poetic voice at school.
eISBN : 978-1-440-69588-9
1. African American boysâJuvenile poetry. 2. Brothers and sistersâJuvenile poetry.
3. Foster home careâJuvenile poetry. 4. OrphansâJuvenile poetry. 5. SchoolsâJuvenile
poetry. 6. Childrenâs poetry, American. [1. Brothers and sistersâPoetry.
2. African AmericansâPoetry. 3. Foster home careâPoetry. 4. OrphansâPoetry.
5. SchoolsâPoetry. 6. American Poetry.] I. Title.
PS3573.O64524 Lâ.54âdc21 2002069779
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FOR TOSHI GEORGIANNA AND JUNA FRANKLIN
Name all the people
Youâre always thinking about
People are poems.
âLonnie C. Motion
POEM BOOK
This whole bookâs a poem âcause every time I try to
tell the whole story my mind goes Be quiet!
Only itâs not my mindâs voice,
itâs Miss Ednaâs over and over and over
Be quiet!
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Iâm not a really loud kid, I swear. Iâm just me and
sometimes I maybe make a little bit of noise.
If I was a grown-up maybe Miss Edna
wouldnât always be telling me to be quiet
but Iâm eleven and maybe elevenâs just noisy.
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Maybe twelveâs quieter.
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But when Miss Ednaâs voice comes on, the ideas in my
head go out like a candle and all you see left is this little
string of smoke that disappears real quick
before I even have a chance to find out
what itâs trying to say.
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So this whole bookâs a poem because poetryâs short and
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this whole bookâs a poem âcause Ms. Marcus says
write it down before it leaves your brain.
I tell her about the smoke and she says
Good, Lonnie, write that.
Not a whole lot of people be saying Good, Lonnie to me
so I write the string-of-smoke thing down real fast.
Ms. Marcus says Weâll worry about line breaks later.
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Write fast, Lonnie, Ms. Marcus says.
And Iâm thinking Yeah, I better write fast before Miss
Ednaâs voice comes on and blows my candle idea out.
ROOF
At night sometimes after Miss Edna goes to bed I go
up on the roof
Sometimes I sit counting the stars
Maybe one is my mama and
another one is my daddy And maybe thatâs why
sometimes they flicker a bit
I mean the stars flicker
LINE BREAK POEM
Ms. Marcus
says
line breaks help
us figure out
what matters
to the poet
Donât jumble your ideas
Ms. Marcus says
Every line
should count.
MEMORY
Once when we was real
little
I was
Maggie Brendan
Barbara O'Connor
Jan Washburn
Terri Blackstock
Norah Simone
Barry Kemp
G.P. Taylor
Alan Cumyn
Linda Barnes
Lisa Jackson