When will we decide
to stop squandering our home?
We act like there's time.
©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021
Nowhere Else to Go
by Linda Sue Park
Go read Linda Sue Park's poem. I'll wait. There. You understand now why I couldn't excerpt it, right? You need to read all the way to that powerful last line, which sends you back to the title, and then down through the poem again.
This was our Weekly Poem for this past week. Our routine goes like this: on the first day, I just read the poem. My students follow along on the share screen, but we don't talk about the poem. Just read it and let it start soaking in. Then, each day after that, we dig deeper into what we notice about the words, the shape, the craft. Finally, towards the end of the week, we get to possible meanings. It took most of the week, but they totally got this one. Got what Linda Sue Park was doing with the clues at the beginning and that last line that sends you back to the title.
The Last Straw: Kids vs. Plastics
by Susan Hood
Illustrated by Christiane Engel
HarperCollins, 2021
An introduction by Milo Cress, founder of BeStrawFree.org
17 poems
Facts on every page
Fabulous illustrations and quotes
Scientists and children from around the world working on the problem of plastic
AND
An author's note
A timeline
"Sources and More" to go with every poem/topic (great websites!!)
AND
Poetry notes about the forms used in each of the poems
PLUS
"For Further Reading"
Jama has this week's Poetry Friday Roundup at
Jama's Alphabet Soup.