Shoulders by Naomi Shihab Nye

Published on Academy of American Poets

Shoulders

We're not going to be able 

to live in this world

If we're not willing to do what he's doing

with one another

Naomi Shihab give voice to her experience as an Arab-Ameican through poetry about heritage and peace.

Paul Gorski: Immigration Poetry

How does it feel to walk into school and be called something different?  Read "Becoming Joey" by Paul Gorski and identify the raw emotions behind immigration.  This poem relates to any unit that includes immigration.  Poem was featured on LearningforJustice.org.  Here is an excerpt:

Pausing in the doorway

José clears his throat,

trying to spit away

his alien voice.

Sonia Weitz: Holocaust Poetry

Teaching the Holocaust can be a very difficult subject to discuss and teach in the classroom.  I often share images of the concentration camps and use document based questions.   Reading and analyzing the poetry of Sonia Weitz conveys the depth of horror and its devastating effects.  

Here is an excerpt from In Memory to My Mother, By Sonia Weitz

I promised I would 

Tell the world...

But where to find the words

To speak of

Innocence and love,

And tell how much it hurts...

  

Book Review: Inside Out & Back Again

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai is a great historical fiction novel written in verse.   The main character, Kim Ha, is a young girl whose tightly knit family struggled through the Vietnam War.  The Ha family is forced out of the country they love when Saigon falls and basic essentials run out.  Her family leaves Vietnam and hopes for better life in America (Alabama).  This book illustrates how hard life can be for refugees while highlighting the culture and customs of Vietnam.  The internal and external struggles of Kim offer a compelling lesson for any classroom. Here is an excerpt from the novel:

            "No one would believe me

        but at times

           I would choose 

           wartime in Saigon

        over

               peacetime in Alabama."

Louis Bonacasa: Serviceman's Poetry

Teaching and discussing the sacrifice of fallen soldiers is very important on Memorial Day.  Here is a poem written by a brave soldier who had the lines of his poem tattooed to his chest before deployment.  Read: Daddy's Little Girl  by Staff Sgt. Louis Bonacasa.

Excerpt From Daddy's Little Girl:

Your pretty smile will melt my heart

And your sad cries will always tear me apart

Daddy will be there to wipe away your tears

And there to protect you from all your fears

Your sweet little laugh will be music to my ears

Francis E.W. Harper: Slavery Poetry

Teaching and discussing the treatment of freedmen during the Reconstruction Era is very important.  I usually introduce the Mississippi Black Codes, Jacob Lawrence, lynching and segregation.  Here is a fantastic poet that I use that is often forgotten.  Read the poems from Francis EW Harper.  She was a poet, teacher, suffragette and social activist.   I prefer to read Bury Me in a Free Land.  It is easy to understand and filled with emotion.   Read some of her other poetry.---Learning to Read.


Here is an excerpt from Bury Me In a Free Land

I could not rest if around my grave

I heard the steps of a trembling slave;

His shadow above my silent tomb

Would make it a place of fearful gloom.

Morris Rosenfeld: Sweatshop Poetry

Teaching and discussing the conditions of factories is important detail of the Industrial Age.  The poems written by Morris Rosenfeld describes the factory experience with true emotion. Read In The Factory.    Morris Rosenfeld is an unsung muckraker and fits with any conversation of Ida Tarbell, Jacob Riis and Upton Sinclair.  The Jewish Daily Forward, published his poem about the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Triangle Fire Verse.

Excerpt From the poem:

Over whom shall I weep first?

Over the burned ones?

Over those beyond recognition?

Over those who have been crippled?

Or smashed?

I weep for them all.