Children respond happily and spontaneously to poetry, their natural language and the simplest form of literature. This paper presents reasons for using poetry with children, discusses the nature of children's poetry and the people who write it, explores the times and the ways in which teachers should use poetry with children in the classroom, suggests poetry that may be used with visually oriented children, and proposes ways for stimulating children to write poetry. Examples of poetry which children enjoy listening to, as well as poetry they can write, illustrate the text. (JM)