Kids' stuff?(childrens' poetry)

Jaques de Boys, ruminating in Arden on the seven ages of man, describes second childishness as a melancholy affair--toothless, sightless, flavorless--with mere oblivion crowning (and, one hopes, softening) the humiliations of old age. But what if late life constitutes not our second experience of childhood but our third or forth, second childishness occurring as an earlier, happier return to a youthful engagement with the world?

There are some who eagerly and frequently revisit the freedoms and giddy imaginings of childhood; indeed, they never leave them. They are easily identifiable, though their profiles vary widely. (Safe to say any person spending the summer ...