MAN WITH WOODEN LEG ESCAPES PRISON
I like this poem because it introduces young readers to the idea that poems don’t have to rhyme, and that poems can tell stories. It has a good message about perseverance and determination and adaptation. Finally, James Tate, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1993, deserves the attention.
Man with wooden leg escapes prison. He’s caught.
They take his wooden leg away from him. Each day
he must cross a large hill and swim a wide river
to get to the field where he must work all day on
one leg. This goes on for a year. At the Christmas
Party they give him back his leg. Now he doesn’t
want it. His escape is all planned. It requires
only one leg.
— James Tate