Multicultural Poetry
Introduction: There are many students who speak at least two languages. Nikki Grimes poem "Bilingual" serves as an introduction to a discussion of things that people to to adapt to different situations.
"Bilingual"
Nikki Grimes
My girlfriend
Guadalupe knows
she's not
the only one
who speaks
two tongues.
I'm fluent in
two Englishes:
one "Black"
the other "good."
It pays to speak
both languages
in my neighborhood.
Extension: Discuss with students ways that we adapt our personal style to fit in to different situations, giving personal examples. Allow volunteers to relate their own stories of how they alter their behavior to adapt to certain situations. Encourage students to write their own stories about things that they have done to adapt, illustrating them if they want.
Grimes, Nikki. 1998. A dime a dozen. New York: Dial Books for
Young Readers. ISBN 0-8037-2227-3.
Introduction: Children love to hear adults talk of their dreams and hopes. Begin by telling your dreams for your own children, dreams that began even before they were born.
"Immigrants"
Pat Mora
wrap their babies in the American flag,
feed them mashed hotdogs and apple pie,
name them Bill and Daisy,
buy them blonde dolls that blink blue
eyes or a football and tiny cleats
before the baby can even walk,
speak to them in thick English,
hallo, babee, hallo,
whisper in Spanish or Polish
when the babies sleep, whisper
in a dark parent bed, that dark
parent fear, "Will they like
our boy, our girl, our fine American
boy, our fine American girl?"
Extension: America is a nation of immigrants. Ask students to research their own heritage by asking parents and grandparents when their families first came to America. If they came recently to America, ask what dreams brought their families to this country. Have students ask their parents what dreams they had for them when they were babies. Have students write about their own dreams for themselves, or the dreams that their parents or grandparents have for them.
Mora, Pat. 2000. My own true name: new and selected poems for young
adults, 1984-1999. Houston: Pinata Books. ISBN 1-55885-292-1.
Introduction: Grandparents play a special role in the lives of many children. Introduce this poem by relating a special story about one of your own grandparents.
"GongGong and Susie"
Janet Wong
Susie sure is good
watchdog.
Got to be.
I treat her right.
Last night
almost
kill a skunk.
Did I tell you?
Many times
I did eat
skunk
soup.
Take out them
stinky thing,
cook
with garlic, onion.
Skunk, snake, night owl,
I eat them
all.
It was Depression time.
No work, nothing
to do.
We hunt, we fish, we camp.
Hey Susie, Susie,
want to eat
some chow
mein?
Extension: Allow students to discover interesting facts about Asian American poet, Janet Wong, on her website located at: http://www.janetwong.com.
After they have found this poem on her website and read her story of its inspiration, investigate the history behind the Asians who came to California at the turn of the 20th Century to get rich in the gold mines. A great novel to pair with this poem is Laurence Yep's Traitor: Golden Mountain Chronicles, 1885.
Wong, Janet S. 1996. A suitcase of seaweed. New York: Simon and
Schuster Children's Books. ISBN 0-689-80788-0.
Yep, Laurence. 2003. Traitor: Golden Mountain chronicles, 1885.
New York: Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 0-06027-522-7.
Introduction: The reverence for nature and living things is a recurrent theme in Native American poetry. Ask students to close their eyes as this poem is read and try to form the mental image that the poet sees.
"I Watched an Eagle Soar"
Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve
Grandmother,
I watched an eagle soar
high in the sky
until a cloud covered him up.
Grandmother,
I still saw the eagle
behind my eyes.
Extension: Have students research the significance of the eagle to various Native American tribes. Look for Native American folk tales that make references to the eagle or other birds such as Adopted by the Eagles by Paul Goble.
Sneve, Virginia Driving Hawk. 1989. Dancing teepees. New York:
Holiday House. ISBN 0-82340-724-1.
Introduction: The ability to dream of a world that is better than the one that we currently live in is what has inspired people to invent, create, and change. Use this poem to introduce a discussion about what would constitute a better world in the eyes of students.
"Clouds on the Sea"
Ruth Dallas (New Zealand)
I walk among men with tall bones,
With shoes of leather, and pink faces,
I meet no man holding a begging bowl,
All have their dwelling places.
In my country
Every child is taught to read and write,
Every child has shoes and a warm coat,
Every child must eat his dinner,
No one must grow any thinner,
It is considered remarkable and not nice
To meet bed-bugs or lice.
Oh we live like the rich
With music at the touch of a switch,
Light in the middle of the night,
Water in the house as from a spring,
Hot, if you wish, or cold, anything
For the comfort of the flesh,
In my country. Fragment
Of new skin at the edge of the world's ulcer.
For the question
That troubled you as you watched the reapers
And a poor woman following,
Gleaning ears on the ground,
Why should I have grain and this woman none?
No satisfactory answer has ever been found.
Extension: Have students research life in New Zealand. Is it similar to life in America where many live in poverty, or is it as the poet paints it in the poem, a land where there is no hunger and all live like the rich? Have students brainstorm about their perfect country, what life would be like for its inhabitants, and how they would go about creating it. Encourage students to write about their perfect world.
Older students might read The Giver by Lois Lowry which depicts a supposedly perfect world, but exposes the flaws in its perfection.
Nye, Naomi Shihab, ed. 1992. This same sky: a collection of poems from
around the world. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks. ISBN 0-02-768440-7.
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Updated 09 July 2004