Reading Level: Grade 2
Topics: Animal Poems, Food Poems, Science and Technology Poems, Space
Poetic Techniques: Anthropomorphism & Personification, Assonance, Irony, Narrative Poems, Superlatives
Word Count: 104

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About This Poem

Many years ago, I wrote a poem called “I Have to Write a Poem,” in which I described how I couldn’t write a poem even though I had to. That, by the way, was sort of a true story. I had to write a poem that day, but didn’t know what to write about, so I just wrote down the words, “I have to write a poem” to see where it would go from there. That poem ended up being about a cow from outerspace named “AstroCow.” You’ll find it in my book The Tighty-Whitey Spider.

For this poem, I thought I would write a poem about an explorer, but I decided it would be funnier if the explorer were an animal that doesn’t usually do much exploring, such as a cow. In addition, I thought it would be fun to have the cow explore someplace unusual, like outer space. So I ended up re-using the name “AstroCow” for this poem, even though it is a completely different story.

I hope you enjoy the further adventures of AstroCow!

Worksheet

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From the book The Elephant Repairman

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