WATER PENNIES And Other Poems

From a noted Danish-born poet (d. 1988), a last collection of neatly crafted verse--small poems about small things, mostly insects and the like. With brief lines, deft rhymes and wordplay, and a quizzical sense of humor, Bodecker shares his amused reactions to chance encounters: ""The little/beetle/they call/pill/needs/no vet/when he/is ill./Whatever shape/you find/him/in,/he is/his own/best medicine."" Or, to an exasperating fly, ""...Not on my nose,/you nut; not on my finger,/not on my bald spot, numbskull;/leave me be!/I didn't sit on you/when you were sitting./So why on earth should you/now sit on me?"" The 32 poems are perfectly complemented by Blegvad's delicate pen drawings, on almost every page. A pleasure.