Poetry Packet

Wong, Janet. "Stuff." Behind the Wheel: Poems About Driving. New York: McElderry, 1999. 38.

This poem is not only perfect for a young adolescent learner, but for all ages. Everyone can relate to throwing home in the glove box of life just to know it is there in the back of your mind. We live busy, fast paced lifestyles and don’t always have the time to call home. We as college students leave it in the back of our minds under a pile of paperwork, reading, studies, friends, pets, kids, spouses, projects, grades, and so on. But when a sea of trouble comes our way, we manage to sift through the chaos of this lifestyle, and escape home, rather through a phone call, or hopping in the car and driving away. I think this poem would be perfect for my classroom for an open interpretation from my students. Everyone has their own emotions about their idea of home, so everyone will have their own belief of this poem.

Soto, Gary. "Spanish." Cantos Familiar. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994. 4-6.

I go back and forth with this poem, it really is a love/hate relationship. The first time I struggled through this poem was so difficult for me as a person who has never learned a word of Spanish. But I think it is a terrific poem for the classroom, although I would not assign it without first handing out a translation for the Spanish parts for my students. I think it would be really great for my Mexican-American students to read the entire book and grab hold of their heritage, to find passion in this book. All students, no matter what culture can understand the idea of how Spanish is used in the Mexican-American culture, and it explains the differences between the situations that use Spanish and/or English.

Ginsberg, Allen. "Sunflower Sutra." Poems Poets Poetry: An Introduction and anthology. New York: Bedford, 2002. 302.

The Beat Generation has been a huge passion of mine since I first really delved into poetry; Kerouac, Snyder, Ginsberg, Cassady, Burroughs, and so on. There passions, their beliefs, and their messages all derived from the corruption and filth of the world we had made for ourselves and all that we could do to replace it. Sunflower Sutra in itself paints a significant picture of what the industrial world has done to our green earth, describing, the filth, litter, and pollution. Ginsberg then takes nature as his defense as he picks a decaying sunflower as his sword. I’ve written paper after paper obsessing over the symbolism and messages in this single poem, so to really describe my entire thoughts on this poetry I have page after page of reviews here on my computer.

Noyes, Alfred. "The Highwayman." The Highwayman. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 1999.

I always wanted to take interest in poetry when I was a child because I didn’t like reading allot, but I still liked stories. Poetry seemed perfect because it was short, and sweet or at least I felt that would be ideal yet I never found a poem I could follow. Finally in eighth grade I had a teacher who recognized my morbid and twisted personality I had from a childhood of much chaos. She also realized what I was searching for in my poetry, it was the same thing my fellow peers searched for, the story. She introduced The Highwayman to us, and from that single moment I found that poetry could reach out and capture my interest, as did the rest of my class. From then on she would introduce poems to us, and instead of grunting we actively participated in trying to unravel all those lines and poems had to store.

Strand, Mark. "Keeping Things Whole." Poems Poets Poetry: An Introduction and anthology. New York: Bedford, 2002. 614.

This poem has a bone chilling zing to it as you move through the empty field with the poet. Mark takes you into his invisible existence, a feeling we all can relate to. He continues to move though, not for himself though, but so not to part his surroundings by his presence. This poem is so open to interpretation, and that I love. It changes it’s meaning to you as the years move on, and you experience new struggles, and face new obstacles in life. You read the poem for the first time lost as to what this guy is trying to say until the end. All the sudden that final line you find yourself holding back your own emotions, realizing what he has captured but unable to exactly put it in words.