Creative overdue notice

In an attempt to get back dozens of REALLY overdue books, I have composed a poem that now goes out with notices. Feel free to copy it if you like it!

Dear friends and readers,
Please lend me your ears,
We’re looking for lost books,
From over the years.

They may be in your house,
Or under the bed,
We hope that you liked them,
We hope they were read.

But other folks need them,
These wonderful tomes,
For loaning and learning,
For reading at home.

Please look for the books,
Wherever they are,
We need them back pronto
Are they in your car?

For buying new books
We don’t have lots of cash
So please search your cupboards,
And your own bookshelf stash.

Just drop them off
In our trusty drop box for books
No questions asked,
No dirty looks.

If you have returned
the books in this note
Just give us a call,
We’re sorry we wrote. :-)

That's cute! Has it worked?

I just sent it out today. I'll give an update on response in a few weeks or so...

That's adorable!

Great poem. We'll be encouraging students to bring our books back soon. Thought I would put this up on the wall as a friendly reminder.

Very good. I'm forwarding it to MrsHouseLibrary. Perhaps she can modify it slightly to make it more relevant to elementary school libraries.

I am getting a great response from people who have been returning books in droves. :-) This is so much friendlier than our automated messages.

Great idea! Maybe I'll try this and see how it works.

This is adorable. Great poem.

Any suggestions on a different way to do the last paragraph?

The last paragraph sounded a bit rough to me (but I'm not skilled in poetry). Especially when the rest of the poem had flowed well.

The content too, - you don't actually want a call, do you? If the note happened to go out near when they returned the book, that will be fixed in the system. Calling to say "but I already returned my books and you sent me this note!" isn't going to accomplish anything. Overlap happens and some people forget that - so I understand what you're trying to say. But is there some way we can say that without inadvertently making them think they need to call us? (in a poem way)
Or to just give a slightly different ending?

Also, what name would you like to have placed at the bottom of the poem for credit?

I had to pass this on to the Librarians in charge of the school district...loved it!

I love it!! I'm going to modify it slightly for my elementary school library! I think the kids will love it too. Thanks for sharing. :) How should I source it? Wouuld "Judy Bucher, Pioneer Memorial Public Library" work?

Just found this *applauds*

Great to hear it's working, too!