If you have a child, age zero to seven. . .

maybe even eight, I recommend that you purchase HBO's "The Poetry Show" from the network's "Classical Baby" series. There are all kinds of kid-friendly poems set to animation and read by famous people with cool voices.

For instance, Susan Sarandon reads "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost; John Lithgow reads Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussycat" and, I know, this is a controversial one--even in my mind--but Gwyneth Paltrow reads "How Do I Love Thee?" by Elizabeth Barret Browning.  (Don't worry, it's all loving annunciation and no GOOP!). Andy Gardia reads "Mariposa" by Frederico Garcia Lorca and  Gertrude Stein and William Carlos Williams read their own poems.

There are interviews with little kids talking about or reading poetry and from the earliest age, both my kids--Alex, six on December 2, and Savannah, one on December 18, have been transfixed by the kids. The kids talking about are engaging to watch for adults, too, particularly one precocious boy with an English accent who thinks and talks like an adult:"

". . .all poetry is musical, I think. Because it all has a beat, it all has a rhythm."

The best part about it is you will find your mind, no doubt packed with lots of TV jingles and pop songs but not too many poems, retaining some of these poems as you watch the DVD as a family over and over. I can now recite "The Owl and the Pussycat," for instance, to my kids at bath time or bed-time. Now that is extreme parenting! (Step by step. I will one day be a Waldorf mom. Or maybe a Waldorf grandma.)

Here is the show, for your enjoyment. I don't own the rights, this is for education only, and I can't promise it won't be taken down at some time from YouTube. If you can buy it, I do recommend you do so, because it's ever-so-worth it. And so are all of the "Classical Baby" movies--not at all cloying like some of the Baby Einstein and teaching kids about music, dance and art as well as poetry.

Bravo, HBO!