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October
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Heather,
ReplyDeleteThis poetry anthology is a collection of poems about American Wars.
Did you see the poem, "Charms" (on p. 51), by Georgia Heard?? She is one of our poetry favorites for TEACHING poetry. She wrote "For the Good of the Earth and the Sun" and awakening the heart, which were both a huge inspiration for the lessons we created for our poetry unit. I like how she used the "charms" carried by various soldiers (pictures of the Beatles, MLK, loved ones, an oatmeal cookie, etc.) to help the reader to connect to the soldiers on an emotional level. It made me a little sad to think of soldiers so far away who are clinging desperately to these little tokens from home, their one connection with the life they have left behind, always knowing that there is a possibility they will never again see their loved ones. I think that a poem like this will help students to consider issues and themes that may parallel their own lives. Many of our students today have loved ones who are fighting a war for our county at the moment. They may connect to these poems, because the poets have been able to put their own feelings into words. The poetry may also inspire students to write their own poems for the purpose of self expression.
I liked the poem on page 55 too, "War is the Fiercest Art". I think that war is a complicated subject to teach to children. It is such a serious topic and it always results in death. How do we so often gloss over the personal tragedies and lives lost, focusing instead upon who won or lost the battle/ war and what was gained for the countries in power? This poem raises a lot of questions that are raised when one looks at war on a more personal level. Whose lives are lost? Why are we fighting? What is at stake? Do we even know the enemy that we are shooting at? Who were the soldiers BEFORE the war? Who will they be when they return? The picture that accompanies the poem is interesting as well. The artist dipping his paintbrush into a scull bone. I think that a poem like this will help our students to consider different points of view that a typical social studies textbook would not address.
What do you think? Did any poems capture your attention?
-Lauren :)
In the poetry book "America at War" I read poems written by poetry gurus such as "Charms" by Georgia Heard, which you pointed out to me in your blog Lauren. However, I also read a poem called "Myths of Glory" by John Kent from the United States Marine Corps. I find it interesting that both poetry guru Heard, who never experienced the actual horrors of war and an actual marine who went and experienced war are both authors of poems in this book. I don't think someone who never experienced war has the right to write about it. We can sit from our living rooms and watch war unfold on television, but being in the trenches and watching men and women whom you've befriended and trained with die along side you in battle is different when experienced first hand. The feelings evoked from a first hand experience are going to be very different than that of someone witnessing war third person from their living room. What do you think about this Lauren?
ReplyDeleteLauren, to answer your question about what poems caught my attention I liked the Revolutionary War section because I felt as though we could use these poems with our Social Studies unit on the Revolutionary War. What do you think about incorporating some of the poems in this unit? As far as a personal favorite of mine I would chose "Atlantic City War Time" by Nancy Wood on page 31. I enjoyed this poem because it portrayed how war affected not only the men and women who had left their countries to fight for their countries but also the average Americans who felt as though they helped from their own homes by making changes in their own lives during a war time. I also enjoyed how this poem was written from a child's eyes. The line int he poem that said, "Mama stands in line and buys meat and sugar with ration stamps. She can't get coffee or candy bards." This line shows the sacrifices that a young child feels as though he/she is making in the name of war. At the end of the poem the last line reads, "I'm helping to win the war." The child feels he/she has done his/her part to help with the war. Children are so innocent, but they can realize changes occurring in their lives as this young child has. I tend to forget how others are impacted by war as well. For example, the child in the poem says, "Mama lets out the seams of my too-small dresses and lines my shoes with cardboard when they wear out." The family obviously doesn't have enough money to buy their child new clothes during war time and are make sacrifices in the name of their country.
Sincerely,
Heather
Hi Heather,
ReplyDeleteWell, I actually disagree about who gets to write about war. I think that everyone has an opinion about war, whether or not they have fought in one. Like you mentioned in the poem, "Atlantic City Wartime", even children are directly affected by war (not having money to buy clothes that fit), and they are bound to develop feelings about their situation. Or how about the mother who loses one of her children to war? What pain she would feel, and didn't we plan a lesson in our poetry unit about using poetry as a form of expressing emotions? I think we called that lesson "Strong Feelings", and we had the students add times when they experienced strong feelings (of excitement, anger, sadness, fear, etc) add these to their heart maps.
Did you read the poem, "Alphabet", by Jane Yolen? Wow! That was no Owl Moon. It is about World War II and uses the alphabet to take the reader through some of the harsh realities of Nazi Germany, and the imagery is quite gruesome...
"the names of camps
cramping the stomach,
the stomach drained of blood,
blood, staining the ground
a last breath,
the alphabet of death."
To be honest, if we were to read this poem to our 5th graders, I don't think they would have a CLUE what it is about! They are a bit sheltered, and I don't think many of them even know that the holocaust happened. I know that we share a bit of morbid curiosity about this topic, and I would be interested in developing a way to carefully teach this delicate subject if it weren't part of 6th grade's curriculum. I think that this poem could be used to help the students connect to the experience on an emotional level.
Some of the words and places were unfamiliar to me, so I decided to do a bit of research.
Sadly, I learned that "Zondercommandos" were Jewish men assigned to search the bodies of other Jews, who were murdered in the gas chambers, for valuables. The cruelties that were endured by Jewish people during the Holocaust never ceases to amaze me. Here is one man's account that I read during my research:
"After the keynote lecture, YI member Mr. Michael Klein spoke of his own experiences during the Holocaust. His own life was saved by the Zondercommandos (Jewish men assigned to search the bodies of those murdered in the gas chambers for valuables) who blew up gas chambers at Auschwitz. He described his memory of one of the "personal acts of resistance" he saw at Auschwitz in 1944. "Why do I go back to Yom Kippur? Because it is engraved in my mind..." Though it was a work day, everyone in the Auschwitz camp decided to fast. The Nazis, at Kol Nidre, had the returning work unit stand and watch them hang a man, a friend of Klein's. Later, after the Jews were herded into the barracks, Rabbi Moshe Spitzer, a cantor from Debrecen, began the Kol Nidre prayers from memory and began them. The camp commanders somehow discovered this was occurring, and began to beat all present. All but Rabbi Spitzer ran and hid. Klein had not known what had happened after that, until recently reading the testimony from the 1952 trial of the camp commanders. According to the testimony, Rabbi Spitzer had continued standing and davening the Kol Nidre prayers until he was beaten - without physical resistance, still praying - to death. Klein asked, "Where was there a greater spiritual resistance than Rabbi Moshe Spitzer's?" "
Can you imagine... these poor people, who have managed to fast and pray in such terrible conditions are further beaten and humiliated for simply following their religious customs?! In truth, a study of the Holocaust would have to be handled very delicately at the 5th grade level, as it is clearly a very heavy subject. I have heard of other 5th grade teachers who conduct such studies, but I certainly hope it is with much thought, sensitivity, and respect, keeping in mind that there may be Jewish students in your very classroom.
-Lauren
Judenreder (Jews put in power over other Jews)
Lauren,
ReplyDeleteI never thought of it like that. I think you're right that anyone should be able to right about war as long as they are including their personal feelings and experiences with it. I just don't think someone who never went to war should be able to write a poem about a person in a war. However, they can write the poem if they are telling their feelings to how war affected them personally.
Lauren, Your research was interesting and very emotional. I cannot begin to imagine what it would have been like to be one of those Jewish people forced to live in the concentration camp who then had to go into the gas chambers and remove anything of value from their fellow Jewish comrades who had been killed. The devastation I felt reading this made me sick.
The poem on page 14 "Leter Home July, 1864" had some very interesting dialect. I liked how the author of the poem J. Patrick Lewis wrote, "We's been losin' independence, yes sir. I'm Over Joyed with battles rebbies won, But God by God takes up with our opresser Like boysenberrrys sup on noonday sun." The dialect makes the poem very believable like it actually came from a letter home from a son in war to his father. The simile comparing losing a battle with boysenberrys surup. This is an excellent example of figurative language in this poem.
Sincerely,
Heather