OUR STREET FEELS GOOD: Poems for Children

Uninteresting black and white photos illustrate flat verbal observations, speculations, and silly sessions on such topics as distributing chewing gum or running through the sprinkler. A boy's head viewed through a car window faces the comment, ""when you are inside/ the automobile/ it is good to look out/when nobody else is/ looking in/ when you are outside/ the automobile/ it is good to look in/ when nobody else is/ looking out."" Two boys at a drinking fountain are saying, ""I can't wait/ can you wait/ I'll be first/ and you be last/ no I'll be first/ and you be next/ no I'll be next/ and you be first/ I can't wait/ can you wait."" Much of this does sound, as Knoepfle intended, like children's speech, but the sharp imagery and colorful idiom that makes such speech fresh and interesting is missing -- and none of it sounds like poetry.