Finally, A Book Of Poetry For Kids Who Are 'Just No Good At Rhyming'

Who says poetry has to rhyme? Chris Harris — a writer and executive producer for How I Met Your Mother — had never written a poetry book or a children's book before, but he wanted to write something special for his own kids. So he created a collection called I'm Just No Good at Rhyming: And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups. It's a book that's completely unconcerned with the "rules" of poetry.

The titular poem starts out:

I'm just no good at rhyming.
It makes me feel so bad.
I'm just no good at rhyming,
And that's why I am blue ...

The poems are silly and surprising and full of wackiness and wordplay. The book is illustrated by Lane Smith.

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Interview Highlights

On why he wrote the book

It really started with my kids. ... I've been a TV writer for a while, but once they came around, I really wanted to write something special for them. And as parents of young kids understand, you don't get a lot of sleep. So short-form poetry was just about all that I had the brain capacity for.

On whether he had an aversion to poetry as a kid

I wouldn't say aversion. I've actually always enjoyed it and tried to absorb it. I think, like a lot of people, up to a certain point — maybe sixth or seventh grade — I would have fun dabbling with it. I can remember ... writing a really just morbid and gruesome parody of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas."...

But when you have children, there's — at least for me — I think for a lot of parents, there's a little bit of: Oh, yeah, I remember what it's like to be a kid. And I think that brought back all of those instincts to try my hand again at it.

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On testing the poems out on his own kids

I have loved creating it with them. The fact that it's seeing the light of day with many more people is a huge bonus and an honor for me. I hope people can take away this excitement that I was sharing with my own children about — look at all that you can do with words.

I remember reading and seeing some of the most formative books and TV shows and movies when I was growing up — things like The Phantom Tollbooth and even Monty Python — and thinking, oh, my gosh, I never knew that I could do that. I never knew that someone could do that. I wonder what else I can do? And I would love if X number of kids read this and also said, wow, I didn't know you could do that. I wonder what else I can do?

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Oliver Dearden and Viet Le produced and edited the audio of this interview. Beth Novey adapted it for the Web.

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