Poetry by an African
American Poet
Introduction: Ask the children if there
have been any women in their lives
that have been a big influence and help
to them.
Women
by Alice Walker
There were women then
My mama's generation
Husky of voice-- Stout of
Step
With fists as well as
Hands
How they battered down
Doors
And ironed
Starched white
Shirts
How they led
Armies
Headragged Generals
Across mined
Fields
Booby-trapped
Ditches
To discover books
Desks
A place for us
How they knew what we must know
Without knowing a page
Of it
Themselves.
From Catherine Clinton's book I, Too,
Sing America: Three Centuries of
African American Poetry, Houghton Mifflin,1998.
Extension: Share the story of Dr. Ben
Carson [see photo] , head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University, especially the part about his mother helping motivate him from being at the bottom of his class to the top of his class. She had her sons go to the library each week and write book reports on the books they read, all the while not knowing how to read herself.
Multicultural Poetry
Born 1944
Jackson, Mississippi
Hispanic Poet
Introduction: Play Tejano or traditional Mexican
music in the background while reading the poem.
Ask the children to shut their eyes and imagine
themselves at this park.
Kearney Park
by Gary Soto
True Mexicans or not, let's open our shirts
And dance. A spark of heels
Chipping at the dusty cement. The people
Are shiny like the sea, turning
To the clockwork of rancheras,
The accordian wheezing, the drum-tap
Of work rising and falling,
Let's dance without hats in hand.
The sun is behind the trees.
Behind my stutter of awkward steps
With a woman who is a brilliant arc of smiles,
An armful of falling water. Her skirt
Opens and closes. My arms
Know no better but to flop
On and on. And we spin, dip
And laugh into each other's faces--
Faces that could be famous
On the coffee table of my abuelita.
But grandma is here, at the park, with a beer
At her feet, clapping
And shouting, "Dance, hito, dance!"
Laughing, I bend, slide, and throw up
A great cloud of dust,
Until the girl and I are no more.
From Gary Soto's book A Fire in My Hands: A Book of Poems; Scholastic, 1990.
Extension:
Gary Soto
Born 1952
Fresno, California
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