Welcome to Poetry Friday this week hosted by the talented and prolific Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell HERE. Thank you for hosting!
Janet Clare Fagal, who is an avid fan of Poetry Friday, is sharing some poetry treasures with us this week. Enjoy!
Thank you to Janice Scully for inviting me blog again. I am glad to be back among my Poetry Friday friends. I look forward to every Friday!
Tissue alert, this is a sad post. Ukraine and those suffering there are on all our minds.
On February 13 my Facebook friend, teacher Leigh Anne Eck, asked for suggestions for poems dealing with war. Her sixth grade students were reading Grenade by Alan Graetz. I recommended a few poems, including one of my own, some songs and book titles I thought might work. We did not realize what was ahead. My heart is heavy as I ponder the assault on Ukraine and ask myself, will we ever learn?
So with a heavy heart and prayers for us all, I will share with you the following, about war.
First is my poem, Broken, written in response to a chapter of a novella by author Nancy Dafoe, Naimah and Ajmal on Newton’s Mountain. My poem previously appeared here. Leigh Anne told me she shared the poem with her students who were touched by the sadness they saw on the faces of brave Ukrainian fathers sending their children to safety, while they remained to fight.
Broken Janet Clare Fagal She sees his face, a picture etched in memory. Her child’s image. Eyes dark, piercing. Nose strong. Mouth full, hints of smile. She hears his voice. The sounds: low wails, whimpers. Her son frightened by bombs, watches through rubble and smoke. Again and again the roar of war sends them running. New shelter. Cramped hovel, temporary. The necessaries: food, water, hope, too limited. A hand, rough, calloused reaches out. Safety, come. A gesture, the truck readies. Room for one. She pushes her son, up. A mother’s heart shatters. ©2018, all rights reserved
Another poem about war is Sara Teasdale’s moving poem There Will Come Soft Rains.
(Published just after the start of the 1918 German Spring Offensive during World War I.)
(War Time) There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound; And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum trees in tremulous white, Robins will wear their feathery fire Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire; And not one will know of the war, not one Will care at last when it is done. You can read the rest here.
Next I’d like to mention this haunting book, Lois Lowry’s first verse novel, On the Horizon: World War ll Reflections.
You can find more about it here.
For those interested in more about Lois Lowry, here is a great interview. I really enjoyed it especially after I learned she was a close friend of Lee Bennett Hopkins.
The following song about war has always moved me. It is John McCutcheon’s, Christmas in the Trenches. I heard him perform it over 30 years ago. The lesson to the song? “Because on each end of the rifle, we’re the same.” Listen to it here. Read the lyrics here.
Another important book about war is, The Endless Steppe, by Esther Hautzig here. I read this book to my 5th grade students many times over the years. It is a book of history and courage. It was almost like a dream come true when I attended our local Reading Association dinner and sat with her. I had written her a letter and gotten a beautiful response. My signed copies are treasures.
Again I ask, will we never learn? I offer prayers, contributions to various caring organizations, and great hope that this war will be over soon. Hope. We all need it, along with sunflowers. Long live Ukraine. Long live the children, all of our children.
One last thing: This week’s blog from one of my favorite authors and bloggers, Avi, is HERE. It is about writing books for kids in the time of war.
Thank you, Sylvia and Janet, for hosting!
