Popcorn poems are a fun way to celebrate yummy popcorn! National Popcorn Day is an unofficial national holiday celebrated every year on January 19. It may have been first associated with Super Bowl Sunday, but no exact reference can be found.

What makes more sense is National Popcorn Month is October when corn is at its end of harvesting. TIME shares some popcorn trivia: Five Things You Never New About Your Favorite Movie Snack and the NEA offers games, quizzes, and other resources for celebrating National Popcorn Day and National Popcorn Month.

Popcorn History

Popcorn has been popular in the United States over 2500 years ago when it arrived in the Southwest from the pre-Columbian area where it had been enjoyed since 5000 B.C.E. Popcorn is from a variety of maze that has very hard kernels. Hot air causes the kernels to POP! It wasn’t grown in the south-eastern United States until the early 1800s and with its amazing POP POP, it grew in popularity throughout America within 20 years. Obviously, it was named “popcorn” for the noise it makes.

Since then, lovers of popcorn have become creative with popcorn recipes in the kitchen and also plain and flavored popcorn are popular items found in snack aisles world wide. My favorite popcorn flavor is white cheddar cheese. My husband will stop by the movie theater just to buy a jumbo bag of buttered popcorn to bring home. What is yours?

9 Popcorn Poems

The first two of the popcorn poems are for kids ages 8 – 14. Love the Look of Words by Maya Angelou, uses popcorn as a metaphor for her love of the words and the ideas she finds in books as she reads. The second poem, Popcorn Popping, compares the popping of blossoms in spring to the popping corn kernels.

The next seven poems are fun to read popcorn poems for younger kids. They describe the fun of hearing and watching the popping popcorn kernels. For a fun discussion, ask your kids how would they describe eating popcorn.

Popcorn Poems #1

Love the Look of Words

by Maya Angelou

Popcorn leaps, popping from the floor of a
hot black skillet and into my mouth.
Black words leap, snapping from the white page.
Rushing into my eyes.
Sliding into my brain which
gobbles them the way my tongue
and teeth chomp
the buttered popcorn.
When I have stopped reading,
ideas from the words stay
stuck in my mind,
like the sweet smell of butter
perfuming
my fingers
long after the popcorn is finished.
I love the book and the look of words
the weight of ideas
that popped into my mind.
I love the tracks of
new thinking in my mind.

Popcorn Poems #2

Popcorn Popping

I looked out the window, and what did I see?
Popcorn popping on the apricot tree!
Spring has brought me such a nice surprise,
Blossoms popping right before my eyes.
I could take an armful and make a treat,
A popcorn ball that would smell so sweet.
It wasn’t really so, but it seemed to be,
Popcorn popping on the apricot tree.

Popcorn Poems #3

Popcorn Recipe

You pour the oil in the pot
And then you let it get hot
You put the popcorn in
And then you start to grin.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle
Sizzle sizzle, sizzle
POP!

Popcorn Poems #4

Pop the Popcorn

Pop the popcorn
Pop the popcorn
Pop it in a pot
Pop the popcorn
Pop the popcorn
Hear the popcorn pop!

Popcorn Poems #5

Popcorn

Pop, pop, pop
Says the popcorn in the pan.
Pop, pop, pop
You may catch me if you can.
Pop, pop, pop
As they scamper across the heat.
Pop, pop, pop
They are very good to eat!
Pop, pop, pop
Goes the popcorn in the pan
Pop pop pop
Try to catch me if you can
Pop pop pop
Go my kernels bright and yellow
Pop pop pop
I’m a happy little fellow
pop pop pop pop pop pop pop

Popcorn Poems #6

Pop-Corn

by Evaleen Stein

Pop! Pop!–Poppetty-pop!
Shake and rattle and rattle and shake
The golden grains as they bounce and break
To fluffy puffiness–Poppetty-pop!
Bursting and banging the popper’s top!
Poppetty-pop!
Pop! Pop!

Popcorn Poems #7

Pop-Pop-Pop Popcorn

The yellow kernels, oh, see them grow
White as cotton or flakes of snow!
Pop! Pop!
O-ho, how they frolic and fly about
And turn themselves suddenly inside out!
Pop-pop-poppetty! Pop-pop-pop!
The popper’s full and we’ll have to stop;
Pile the bowl with the tempting treat,
Children, come, it is time to eat!

Popcorn Poems #8

Flying Popcorn

A piece of popcorn
escaped from the pan
and flew across the kitchen
like Superman.

It pinged back and forth
between the oven and the freezer.
Then it shot up to the ceiling
like a daredevil trapeezer.

I tried and tried to catch it,
but it never missed a trick.
So finally I gave up
and ate a licorice stick.

Popcorn Poems #9

I’m a Little Popcorn

I’m a little popcorn in a pot
Heat me up and watch me out
When I am all white I am done
Popping corn is lots of fun