Module 4 Book Review: The Freedom Business

Module 4 Poetry Book Review
The Freedom Business: A Narrative of the Life & Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa by Marilyn Nelson, illustrated by Deborah Dancy
Diana Stephens
Poetry 5663

The title, The Freedom Business: A Narrative of the Life & Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa, emphasizes this little book’s major theme—that is, the business of buying and selling people. Marilyn Nelson resurrects this little known primary source account, the only one to document both the capture in Africa and life as an American slave. The story of Venture (even his name connotes business) Smith, born Broteer Furro, a firstborn Prince of Dukandarra, was first published in 1798, and is a fascinating read by itself. Nelson’s interpretive poetry is placed on the right side of the page, with the narrative account on the left, and both are amplified by the sepia toned colors of brief, faded images by Deborah Dancy.

In general, I liked the narrative and the illustrations better than the poems. I went instantly to Google to read about the author, and discovered that she is well known and famous as the poet laureate of Connecticut. Then I read the reviews and found them lauding her poetry in this book, and thought, well, fine, I guess I am not as ready to review poetry books as I claimed to be in my just-submitted portfolio.

I couldn’t stop reading the narrative; it was horrific, what the man saw and suffered as a child and as an adult. That he tried to maintain his integrity, but was continually, throughout his life, abused and ripped off by white and black alike, was stunning, and I kept looking for the bitterness, which did not materialize much, only lamentation: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!” I kept wondering how he, who had been bought and sold, could continue to buy, with the desire to reap financially, his fellow black man. Each time, the ‘venture’ was unsuccessful. !!!

I found much of the free verse poetry not very poetic. In fact, the poetry often sounds just like prose: “Freeing people is good business, in principle. /You’d think they’d thank you for sixty percent /of their earnings while they repay your capital /investment,” etc. This, the last poem of the 25, contains a list, (second verse) of the three people freed by Venture, “The first person I freed cost sixty pounds, /and had repaid twenty when the fellow /stole away by night.” The third verse lists his children that he freed, again, in terms of their cost to him, “My son Solomon (seventy-five pounds) /sent on a whaler, his young life cut short /by scurvy.” The last line, “Freedom’s a matter of making history, /of venturing forth toward a time when freedom is free,” contains alliteration that helps it rise to poetic thought; however, it still feels and sounds a little trite. The theme is better stated in the last line of the second verse, “Frankly, the reward /for freeing people is a broken heart,” which makes the calculating tone understandable. Still, the prose moved me more than the poem.

Several poems did do justice to the narrative, such as “Forty-two Perfect Days,” perhaps because it contained rhythm, rhyme, imagery, and figurative language: “Like an infection which destroys /a flower beautiful and rare, /an invading army, with powdered hair, /with trumpets, muskets, and glass beads, /with lace cuffs, rum, with new-grown greeds; /like a wave of fire, like a wind all flame, /like a plague of locusts: the slavers came.” The rhythm of the lines, longer at the end of the poem than at the beginning, give the feeling of an army approaching from a distance, getting closer and closer, with the evil (appropriately compared to infection, army, fire, and a plague of locusts) released in the last three words, “the slavers came.” This one was very well done, powerful.

Deborah Dancy’s illustrations pull the book together and create a unified work. The sepia tones evoke earthy images, reminiscent of the drabness of a slave’s life. There were repeated images of chains, nooses, ropes, sticks, thorns, vines, ferns, and many splotchy places creating an old view, through time, of the pages. This adds much sad, but enduring emotion to the whole reading experience.

Nelson and Dancy have brought forth an important, creative, yet historical addition to the heritage of African Americans and all Americans. I am grateful; students will be, too, once we do our job and bring attention to it.

Nelson, Marilyn. (2008). The Freedom Business: A Narrative of the Life & Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa. Illustrated by Deborah Dancy. Honesdale, Pennsylvania: Wordsong.

Module 4 Poetry Break: Spring Poem

Used with permission: www.freefoto.com

Module 4 Poetry Break: Spring Poem
Diana Stephens
Poetry 5663

“Bud” by Kristine O’Connell George
from Old Elm Speaks: Tree Poems, illustrated by Kate Kiesler

Introduction: Welcome back from Spring Break! Did you do any ‘Spring’ things? (Allow students to share.)

Before we can understand the poem I have for you today, we need to know some synonyms for “suitcase.” Can anyone think of a synonym for suitcase? Let’s look it up in the Thesaurus. Some synonyms are: traveling bag, valise, satchel, backpack, duffel bag. Some of these will be used in our poem.

Now please remember what we have been saying about figurative language. What is the name of the comparison that does not use ‘like’ or ‘as’? (Wait for the response: metaphor.) In this poem, the whole poem is a metaphor, so we call it an ‘extended metaphor.’ What two items are being compared in this poem? Listen while I read it the first time.

“Bud”
by Kristine O’Connell George, from Old Elm Speaks: Tree Poems

(Reader 1) A tiny velveteen satchel,
the color of pale cream,
(Reader 2) is perched on the tip
of this bare branch.

(Reader 1) Snap open the clasp—
and you will find,
inside this tiny valise,
(Reader 2) one rolled and folded
neatly packed

(All) leaf.

Extension: Let’s read it again, I need volunteers to be Readers 1 and 2.
What was the metaphor? (A tree bud is being compared to a valise/satchel/suitcase).
What else did you notice or like? Alliteration? (Yes: c, p, and l sounds.)

What quality do the satchel and the bud have in common? (They both open.) Because of that quality, a suitcase opens, and a tree bud opens, the poem’s author was able to make this beautiful poetic comparison.

Let’s brainstorm other items, or things that happen in spring. Make a bubble map with the word ‘spring’ in the center bubble. We can actually make our map look like a flower with petals all around it. Next, fill in the petals with words describing spring things.

Now for each spring thing word or phrase, think of several qualities: a color, or action that that thing has, and draw bubble extensions from it, and write the description or name of the quality inside those bubbles. Do that for several spring thing words.

Now think while looking at those qualities--if there is something else, something really different, some thing that has the same quality as you are looking at in one of your bubbles. If you can think of that differing quality or thing, you can now make an extended metaphor poem.

Look at the first line of our “Bud” poem. See how the author describes the bud, “A tiny velveteen satchel.” Can you use descriptive word to describe your thing? See if you can continue your description to make a poem that is an extended metaphor, ending it with the words that describe your original spring thing. When you are finished, go back and play with the spacing.

Good job! I’ll bet you didn’t think you could write an extended metaphor poem!

George, Kristine O’Connell. (1998) Old Elm Speaks. Illus. by Kate Kiesler. New York: Clarion Books.

Module 3 Verse Novel Review: Lisa Ann Sandell

Module 3 Poetry Review

Diana Stephens

Poetry 5646

Song of the Sparrow

By Lisa Ann Sandell

Thank you for the opportunity to read a book that had been appealing to me since it came last spring, but never jumped off the shelf into my hand. Now I can recommend it appropriately.

Song of the Sparrow, an historical verse novel set in the time of King Arthur, very appropriately blends poetic language with a poetic story and setting. More character than plot driven, Elaine, the narrator, is finely drawn with enough medieval sensibilities (talented at sewing and healing) to be believable, but rounded out with enough modern feminine values (“I can protect /myself, /I know I would fight for this country,”) to maintain appeal to YA readers. Though the tome runs 383 pages, none of the other characters is as rich as she, which causes the plot to suffer at the end. True to Tennyson’s vision, this Lady of Shalott pines for Lancelot, but too quickly falls for Tristan who has been consistently mourning his own loss. Also, Gynivere’s character twists just like the plot events, shallow and mean to Elaine in the beginning, but heroic and open at the end. These are minor annoyances, however, since there is plenty of high adventure, romance, and fighting to build and sustain interest, and the imaginative reworking of the traditional ending is far more interesting than Tennyson’s.

Song of the Sparrow is beautifully written, sometimes reading just like prose: “Once I heard Lavain whisper /to Tirry that it was a good /thing our mothers lived to /see me through eight years /of life.” But mostly, it reads like poetry, often with rhythm and, in this case, consonance, (the‘d’ sound in this, the next line,) “Till I was old enough to learn /to use a thread and needle /and old enough to grow /skilled at mending clothes.”

The sparse, powerful word choices that alliterate the ‘b’ sound, reminds the reader of the violence or beatings that occur in this novel. It occurs in the beginning lines as well as elsewhere: “Motherless. /Sisterless. /I am both. /But I have brothers, /dozens /nay, hundreds /of brothers. /Only two real ones: /brash Lavain /and my biggest brother, thoughtful Tirry. /The others are not brothers by blood.”

The alliterative images are precise and descriptive: “My fingers find the trunk /of the tree I hide behind, /Grasping its warmth, /its steadiness. /On this night when the earth rocks beneath my feet, /the birch tree is solid. /But its /papery bark /peels away, /leaving a sticky sap /that coats my fingernails /like blood.” There is that theme of blood again, underscoring the constant threat or actual violence in the story. When personification is added to this rich mix, “The willow’s boughs /curve in elegant swoops, /and it feels as though she means /to protect me,” it makes reading this verse novel a pleasure and a passion.

Figurative language is used sparingly, but to good effect. Simile abounds and even combines with personification in this example, “His voice is also like water, /smooth and warm, fluidly tripping /over notes and words.” The title’s purpose becomes obvious in the metaphor of the sparrow which represents Elaine’s heart, “His fingers flutter at the nape /of my neck. /My heart flutters too. . . . /The sparrow beats her wings.”

The verses are well placed to maintain the suspense. When Elaine was kidnapped by the Saxons, I felt the very real immediate danger; then when she left in the boat, I genuinely wondered what twist would allow her to survive.

The Publisher’s Weekly reviewer of Song of the Sparrow asserts that the “poetic narrative-a mix of observations, dialogue and laments-evokes a remarkable range (and natural progression) of emotions.” I strongly concur with this assessment and note that it is this finely tuned emotional painting that will draw in and engage the readers of YA fiction and verse novels in a thrilling historical/adventure/romance.

Sandell, Lisa Ann. 2007. Song of the Sparrow. New York: Scholastic Press.

Module 3 Poetry Break: Non-Rhyming Poem

Module 3 Poetry Break: Non-Rhyming Poem

Poetry 5663
Diana Stephens

“Principal Barron”
by Terri Fields
from After the Death of Anna Gonzales

Introduction: We all know that we have lost a Union Bower family member recently; there’s been a funeral, did any of you go? I know that there is some uncertainty as to what exactly was the cause of death, and it’s not our job today to try to figure that out. How many of you knew Michael Rowe? Let’s pause a moment to remember him.

Michael’s death brings me to this book of poems, After the Death of Anna Gonzales by Terri Fields, where all the different people in the school where Anna died contribute a poem, whether they knew her or not. Here is one of the first poems, from the school’s principal. In our first reading, I would like to read the principal’s voice, and I would like volunteers to read the announcements, so I’ll need two people to read for the student announcers, A. 1 and A. 2.

One more thing, I know you have been discussing irony, related to your recent reading of A Separate Peace. I’ll be very interested to know what you find ironic in this poem.

“Principal Barron”

[Principal-this reader reads all the parts not in quotes.]

Thirty years in education.
I’ve broken up fights.
Fired a teacher.
Failed a student.
But not this.
This is too much to ask.

[A. 1] “Volleyball practice has been moved to 5:00 P.M.
The chess club will meet today in
Mr. Malkin’s room.”

Thirty years in education.
I’ve learned school law.
Listened to angry parents.
Located lost school buses.
But not this.
This is too much to ask.

[A. 2] “Congratulations to the JV football team on last
night’s 14-0 win against the Raiders.
[A. 1] Student Council will be selling spirit T-Shirts
during both lunch hours all week.”

To make a difference.
To better kids’ lives.
That was why I went into education.
So how does this happen?
How do I . . .

[A. 2] “Mr. Barron, announcements are almost over.
Do you still have a special?”

I trudge toward the camera.

[A. 1] “And now for a special from our principal.”

Words caught in unwilling voice.

[Principal] “Anna Gonzales took her life last night.
Our sympathies to her family and friends.
Grief counselors will be available all day.”

Robotlike move off camera.
As a chirpy voice concludes,

[A. 1] “And those are today’s announcements.
Have a nice day.”

Extension: What do you think? Did you like the way this announcement was made? What is the irony? (Some might suggest the contrast between the minutiae of the announcements compared to suicide, etc.) Think about how you would make the announcement, and what would be running through your head.

You have the assignment of announcing the death of Michael Rowe. How would you do it? Write a poem that alternates your thoughts with what you would say. OR, just write a poem about how you felt about or what you knew about Michael Rowe, maybe what you were doing when you heard about it, or something you wish you had said to him.

***Students are very much affected by the death of a peer. The death of a young person is always such a shock. Writing a poem about it would be an excellent and creative way of tapping into and dealing the intense emotion aroused during this time.

Fields, Terri. 2002. After the Death of Anna Gonzales. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

Module3 Poetry Break with Form Poem

Module 3 Poetry Break with Form Poem
Diana Stephens
Poetry 5663

“Dear Mom” and “Dear Hard Working Dad”
from Love Letters by Arnold Adoff and illustrated by Lisa Desimini.

Introduction to teens: Most of you know at least one parent well. Think about them for a minute. Think about your whole life with that parent, the things they did right for you, maybe some things they did wrong. What would you want to say to them? Could you write that in a poem? This author doesn’t use very many words to communicate a big message. Also, the form or format of these two poems is different. Why do you think the poet spaced the lines and words the way he does here, watch (poem projected) while I read aloud.

Dear Mom:

First: K e e p m o m m i n g.
Second:
I’m really thanking you.
Third: I’m serious.
Fourth:
Don’t laugh.
Fifth: Please kiss
only
on
the
c h e e k.

Your Big Son: The Kid Himself.

What do you like about this? Where did the poet make a verb out of a noun? Does anyone notice anything about the shape of this poem? (Maybe the curve reminds you of a cheek.) Be thinking of four or five short things you could say to your mom, and how you would sign the poem.

Now let’s look at the one to dad.

Arnold Adoff

Dear hard Working Dad:

Even when you snore
on the couch, I am
proud
with
a
full
heart for
you.

Your Son With Earplugs.

Extension: What do you like about this one? Isn’t the humor fun? Do you have any thoughts about the shape of this poem? (I am not sure. There is somewhat of S shape, but it’s not definite enough to know for sure.) In the illustration, the crooked line of the smoke of the pipe is reminiscent of the poem’s shape. What adjective describes your dad? Could it be the beginning of a poem about your dad?

Choose a parent and write a very short poem about him or her, using the “Dear/Your . . .” format. After you type it up, experiment with spacing for visual effect. Look for a word in your poem that you could emphasize with an arrangement of words, letters and spaces. Try making a verb out of a noun, as in the “Dear Mom” poem. And try to find a humorous “Your . . .” for the end.

Look at some of these other poems. Would you like to make a whole book of love poems? Let’s make one for teenagers.

Adoff, Arnold, and Lisa Desimini, ill. 1997. Love Letters. New York: The Blue Sky Press.

Module 2 Multicultural Poetry Book Review

Module 2 Multicultural Poetry Book Review
5663 Poetry
Diana Stephens

Honeybee by Naomi Shihab Nye

How does one organize emotion? When the poems zing and sting, and the tears well up, and one stops to THINK? And connect. And one wonders, and remembers, and GETS IT. And it’s so good, because the work of all that made the revelation stunning? The only solution seems to be to write the review in poetry, which would take too long.

Naomi Shihab Nye takes the plight of the honeybee for inspiration and metaphorical comparisons throughout the 82 poems and prose essays. The book is dedicated to her grandmother who is quoted: “Instead of going to heaven at last, I’ve been going there all along.” Honeybee reconfirms the impression that Ms. Nye, herself, is acquainted with the goodness of heaven, revealed in the way the bees teach her, and her readers, that: “drinking it in,” (as in “dipping and diving down into the nectar of scenes,”) is essential in order to live well, and to be able to pay attention to the reasons why we are losing the “small things that blink in our darkness” like bees and lightning bugs. The alliteration, strong images, and word choices spawn stimulating, poetic prose [Introduction].

The poems are written in free verse, with pleasing sound combinations. She uses rhyme only occasionally (“Broken,” third verse,) but finding it in the prose was surprising and especially welcome: “. . . I was a fool, and I will always be a fool, and there will never, never, be a last day of school.” Assonance occurs more often: “A bumblebee is not a honeybee. It only pretends to be.”

The second stanza of “Communication Skills” demonstrates her considerable abilities with alliteration “The strength of strangers will help us survive. /Strangers are so generous. /they don’t know our faults, our flaws, /muttering good morning. . . .”

Generating metaphor, often extended, where a subtle reference at the beginning of a poem becomes the theme at the end of it, is poetic mastery, as demonstrated in “Young Drummer Leaving Alamo Music Company.” The scene is set with “losing two friends in a week and didn’t say good-bye /to either of them, when you’re staring straight ahead /at things getting worse in the world, wishing everybody could hear.” Drum sticks are personified, becoming you (the reader) “still hitting odd rhythmic patterns on the skin of this world,” and the “rat-a-tat” is the worldly pain that “is still hitting you.” This moving metaphor produces a wallop of emotional impact.

Emotional impact is exactly where the poet excels, using sensory images to arouse emotion, as in “Pacify”: “Teenage boy lying asleep on a Toronto sidewalk . . . /baby’s pacifier tucked in his mouth. . . . /Where is his mother? /How many times all mothers fail . . . .” The plea to the human family, “please someone /protect him on behalf of /the family /(for everyone’s sake) /we need to be” is poignant.

She introduces her theme of fighting, and how people are affected by it, in “Someone You Will Not Meet.” Specific sensory details are very effectively used to bring to a young person to life: “/Gives her brother an orange because /he likes them more than she does”; “/Gives her mother a handwritten booklet”; “/Rolls her socks into balls”; “/never could she have imagined being jealous of a bee” (who can come and go freely). This character is nearly frozen emotionally by living in violence: “/Staring at the sesame seeds /she could almost give them /names.)

The theme of the child (her son, by inference,) leaving/left the nest continues throughout, but the mother’s heart is especially exposed in “Password.” “I have made so many mistakes /you might think I would sit down,” acknowledges that the mistakes are not final, “till something that might not have happened had a chance again,” and also the fact, that, as mothers, we still don’t get it, “I have slept so many times /you might think I would really be awake by now.” More of this theme occurs in “The Little Bun of Hours,” such a gem. The metaphor, comparing food to time draws attention, “Days that felt like sheet cakes in long silver pans.” Then details of a specific childhood are recounted, before the knockout punch “/And I will try to remember when you liked me more than when you didn’t. It is the butter on the bread.”

Animals are often used to various purposes. My favorite is “Running Egret,” where the “unexpected, unpredictable . . . nonpartisan egret” becomes an eloquent metaphor for man’s need to see the answers to himself in nature.

The pacing or placement of the poems is very effective, especially evidenced in touches of wit that offset the heaviness of fighting and an empty nest. “Girls, Girls,” ends with “Clover honey is most popular /and clover is a weed. /All the worker bees are female. /Why is that no surprise?” And on the very next page is “Deputies Raid Bexar Cockfight,” where I laughed with Naomi at the idea of escaping participants running away “carrying a mean rooster. One mean rooster is a huge dad-gum rooster.”

Ms. Nye’s very adept associations of the familiar with the unfamiliar also explain why her poetry succeeds poem after poem. “Our Best Selves” contrasts a machine’s shifting gears with the bees’ “waggle dance,” taking us to a world where our work puts things together “in the hopeful hour,” and “won’t be blown apart, dissolve, or disappear.” When she brings back the bees, “Did you know bees ventilate their homes by hovering outside and fanning their wings?” to contrast with, “Light passes through thinking, /helps us find the field again;” one is amazed at the ‘light’ or truth of how much we need nature to keep us focused on our humanity.

Much of this work will appeal to older teens who have matured enough to be aware of the rest of the world. They may key in on the themes of violence, or the environment, or communication. Animal lovers will be amused (“This Is Not a Dog Urinal”).

This tome feels older, wiser, freer, and more eclectic than 19 Varieties of Gazelles. The shifting themes pull the reader from animals to war to tea to presidents to school, all the time finding a reason to be encouraged, a way to hope. (These poor sentences have barely articulated how well it succeeds. And I did not even get to the really great poems, at least that’s how it feels.)

Nye, Naomi Shihab. 2008. Honeybee. New York: Greenwillow Books.

Module 2 Poetry Break 2 with Doug Florian

Module 2 Poetry Break 2
5663 Poetry
Diana Stephens

"Dog Log" and "Cat Chat"

by Douglas Florian from the book bow wow meow meow: It's Rhyming Cats and Dogs

www.swschools.org/news/photos.249

Introduction: Explain to children ahead of time, that tomorrow we will be reading poems about cats and dogs. Ask students to bring pictures of these animals, of their own pets, or any other pictures from magazines or books.

On the next day, let students show their pictures and comment on them. Then read “Dog Log” to them from a sheet that has the two poems “bow wow meow meow” and “Cat Chat” typed on it side by side. Hold up the illustration for viewing.

“Dog Log” by Douglas Florian

Rolled out of bed.
Scratched my head.
Brought the mail.
Wagged my tail.
Fetched a stick.
Learned a trick.
Chased a hare.
Sat in a chair.
Chewed a shoe—
Table, too.
Got in a spat
With a cat.
Buried a bone.
Answered the phone.
Heard a thief.
Gave him grief.
Time to creep
Off to sleep.

Students read the poem again, one line for each student. Praise the reading.Ask students if they have any questions about the poem or the illustration, and ask them to comment on what they noticed or liked about it.

“Now let’s read a poem about a cat.” Hold up the illustration.

"Cat Chat” by Douglas Florian

You have sharp claws
But velvet paws.
You chase down rats.
Race other cats.
You nap all day.
Then wake to play
With balls of string.
All night you sing.
You make a fuss.
You’re cur-i-ous.
You have soft fur
And love to purr.
You steal my chair
Then stare at the air.
You are a cat
And that is that.

Scat!

Students read the poem again, one line for each student. Praise the reading. Ask students if they have any questions, and ask them to comment on what they noticed or liked.

Extension Suggestions:

1. Divide the class in half and assign each half one of the two poems. Then direct the group reading the dog poem to read the first line, to which the other group responds by reading the first line of the cat poem, and so on, each group reading one line of their poem at a time until the last group reads, “Scat!”

2. Briefly discuss and show the other poems and illustrations in the book.

3. Introduce Sharon Creech’s Love That Dog, and have multiple copies available for silent and oral reading on another day.

4. Compare and contrast discussion: pass out an activity sheet with an outline of a dog and cat that overlap enough to create a Venn diagram. Discuss how dogs and cats are the same and different, especially referring to the qualities mentioned in the poems, and guide writing of these descriptions onto their Venn diagrams.

5. Students may use the phrases in the Venn diagram on the sheet to create more poems with illustrations, or write a compare/contrast paragraph about dogs and cats and illustrate it.

6. Have the deep thinkers explain what this quote might mean and whether they agree with it, (after you explain the meaning of prose,) “Cats are poetry; dogs are prose.”

Florian, Douglas. Bow Wow Meow Meow : It's Rhyming Cats and Dogs. New York: Harcourt Children's Books, 2003.