Poems are like Snickers–they really satisfy. Instead of being packed with peanuts, they’re packed with imagery and rhyme. In a few minutes, poems refresh our thoughts with beauty or humor or delightful melancholy. Take a break from this chaotic year with these wonderful mental snacks!

Picture-Books in Winter by Robert Louis Stevenson

What’s better than curling up with a book on a cold winter day? Stevenson perfectly captures the joy of reading.

Snowball by Shel Silverstein

Shel writes fun. Winter poems can be melancholy but not this one!

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Speaking of melancholy…

In the Bleak Midwinter by Christina Rossetti

The true meaning of Christmas told in AABB rhyme. The last verse may be familiar to you.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Many popular Christmas songs started as poems. I grew up with the version sung by Ed Ames, and it fostered my love of the poem itself. Longfellow penned this work of hope amid personal loss and the civil war. To read the poem’s history, click here.

Jest ‘Fore Christmas by Eugene Field

Growing up, we had a battered, red hardback book of Field’s poems. I read this one over and over, laughing every time. What kid doesn’t try and clean up their act just before Christmas?