You Read to Me, I'll Read to You Quotes

“I have one head that wants to be good,
And one that wants to be bad.
And always, as soon as I get up,
One of my heads is sad.”
― John Ciardi, You Read to Me, I'll Read to You

“I ran till noon
And found the moon
Asleep in the top of a tree.
“What! Sleep all day?”
I stopped to say,
“Why don’t you shine?” Said he:

“I shine for the owl. I shine for the bat.
I shine for the fox. I shine for the cat.
I shine for the rabbits that dance in the dew.
What makes you think I should shine for you?

I shine for the sea, I shine for the land.
I shine for the frogs when they strike up the band
As they sit in the water all in a line.
Now you tell me—for whom do you shine?

I shine when the night-things come out of their den.
I shine for the fire-flies. I shine then
For the dog in the yard and the mice in the hall.
When do you shine—if you shine at all?”
― John Ciardi, You Read to Me, I'll Read to You

“What did I learn at the zoo?
Monkeys look like you.

Some are bald and some have curls,
But monkeys look like boys and girls.

Some are quiet and some make noise,
But all of them look like girls and boys.”
― John Ciardi, You Read to Me, I'll Read to You

“The way to tell a tiger is
With lots of room to spare
Don't try telling them up close
Or we may not find you there.”
― John Ciardi, You Read to Me, I'll Read to You

“The thing about cats, as you may find,
Is that no one knows what they have in mind.

And I'll tell you something about that:
No one knows it less than my cat.”
― John Ciardi, You Read to Me, I'll Read to You

“Chang McTang McQuarter Cat
Is one part this and ten parts that.
He's one part saint, and two parts sin.
One part yawn, and three parts grin,
One part sleepy, four parts lightning,
One part cuddly, five parts fright'ning,
One part snarl, and six parts play.
One part is how he goes away
Inside himself, somewhere miles back
Behind his eyes, somewhere as black
And green and yellow as the night
A jungle makes in full moonlight.”
― John Ciardi, You Read to Me, I'll Read to You

“Chang McTang McQuarter Cat
Is one part this and one part that.
One part is yowl, one part is purr.
One part is scratch, one part is fur.
One part, maybe even two,
Is how he sits and stares right through
You and you and you and you.
And when you feel my Chang-Cat stare
You wonder if you're really there.”
― John Ciardi, You Read to Me, I'll Read to You

“The Hoo-hah and the Rinky-dink
And the Automatic Chugg
Were sitting around--in a fog, I think--
Mixing chocolate mud and lemon ink
To make themselves a good cool drink
Inside a cider jug.”
― John Ciardi, You Read to Me, I'll Read to You