For the second half of National Poetry Month 2017,
Malvina will Sing It, and I'll write a poem in response.
One of the strongest unifying topics in Malvina Reynolds' songs is politics and protest. The next few days will feature songs written in the 1960's and 1970's, but which are fresh and topical today.
Grass Is
People want to tame me or Eradicate me. They underestimate my Root Structure and my Indomitable Spirit. I am Tenacious. I Exist Not to please, but to break concrete and spread Truth.
For the second half of National Poetry Month 2017,
Malvina will Sing It, and I'll write a poem in response.
One of the strongest unifying topics in Malvina Reynolds' songs is politics and protest. The next few days will feature songs written in the 1960's and 1970's, but which are fresh and topical today.
We Won’t Be Nice
Cause a disruption
Form an obstruction
March and rally and chant.
Shake up the status quo
Make a line and block the flow
March and rally and chant.
Rebel with civility
Abstain from docility
March and rally and chant.
For the second half of National Poetry Month 2017,
Malvina will Sing It, and I'll write a poem in response.
One of the strongest unifying topics in Malvina Reynolds' songs is politics and protest. The next few days will feature songs written in the 1960's and 1970's, but which are fresh and topical today.
Let Them Eat Cake was recorded live in concert, November 1972.
They Can Have Their Cake, and Eat it, Too
They sugar coat the truth for us,
fake the daily news,
make us look the other way.
What could they possibly lose?
They divert to keep the facts at bay,
disguise false validations,
sweeten fibs with taradiddles,
no need for vindication.
“What could we possibly lose?” they ask,
on the brink of a nuclear war.
They’re blind to even the simplest truths,
and deaf to our uproar.
For the second half of National Poetry Month 2017,
Malvina will Sing It, and I'll write a poem in response.
One of the strongest unifying topics in Malvina Reynolds' songs is politics and protest. The next few days will feature songs written in the 1960's and 1970's, but which are fresh and topical today.
The World in Their Pocket was recorded live in concert by KQED in 1967.
Holes
They say the world is richer,
With jobs and giant bankrolls.
But their logic’s got a hole.
They say we’ll build the pipeline,
Bother with leaks and spills later.
But their logic’s got a crater.
They say the world is safe,
In their constant Twitter spasms.
But their logic’s got a chasm.
When crater, hole and chasm
Become a vast abyss,
They’ll say, “Oops, we were remiss…”
"My mother came from a long line of women who worked outside the home. Her grandmother ran a deli while her husband read Torah. Her own mother and father ran a naval tailor shop. When I was in the fifth grade, my mother’s father died, and she and my father and grandmother ran the shop together."
Language alert: if watching the video with children, be prepared to hit the mute button at :33-:38 and 4:15-4:20. Also, apologies (and gratitude) to William Carlos Williams.
This is Just to Say
I have failed
the test
that measures
my worth
and which
you were probably
planning to use
to pigeonhole me
Forgive me
I refuse your labels
I am deliciously
worthy and capable
Isn’t it funny
(not a joke
no humor
no puns)
Isn’t it funny
how war creates a necessity
that strips away all the labels
previously preventing a person’s
life work?
Isn’t it funny
(not a joke
no humor
no puns)
Isn’t it funny
how the devastation of war
creates industries
and builds an economy out of
destruction?
“My mother was writing her dissertation when I was little and got her Ph.D. in 1939. But it was the middle of the Depression; she was Jewish, a socialist, and a woman; and she couldn’t get a job teaching. But when the Second World War broke out, she got a job on an assembly line in a bomb factory, and Bud went to work as a carpenter in a shipyard.”
“...it was while doing graduate work in English there (University of California Berkeley) that she did some student teaching. She used pop songs to teach her high school students about rhyme scheme and meter, as they were not poetry readers."
Malvina Reynolds would have been at Berkeley in the 1920's, and "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue" was a popular song then. Perhaps it was one she used to teach about rhyme scheme and meter.
Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue
Words: Sam M. Lewis and Joseph Widow Young; Music: Ray Henderson (1925)
Five foot two, eyes of blue,
but oh, what those five foot could do:
has anybody seen my gal?
Turned-up nose, turned-down hose
Flapper? Yes sir, one of those
Has anybody seen my gal?
Now, if you run into
a five-foot-two
covered with fur,
Diamond rings,
and all those things,
Bet your life it isn't her
But could she love, could she woo!
Could she, could she, could she coo!
Has anybody seen my gal?
My Gal, Mother Nature
Birds and bees, rocks and trees
Oh the breeze and green green leaves
Has anybody seen my gal?
Skies of blue, rivers too
Nature? Yes we need her hues
Has anybody seen my gal?
Now if the skies are hazed
Parks are paved
Trash everywhere,
Species dead
Sewage spread
Bet your life there’s no clean air
The temps are high, could she die?
Could she, could she, could she die?
Has anybody seen my gal?
“It was while she was in high school that Malvina first met William “Bud” Reynolds, at a socialist dance. He was a merchant seaman, seven years older, handsome, and even more shy than she. He was self-educated, having left school after the eighth grade. They read poetry to each other in Golden Gate Park, but when he proposed, she refused. Encouraged by her mother, she had her sights set on college and a career.
She married someone else, and so did Bud. He ran for governor of Michigan on the Socialist ticket, with the slogan, “You provide the evictions, we’ll provide the riots!” They found each other again after she was divorced, and this time she said yes.”
Gentle and meek are things of the past. I am Ready to take on the world. To Lead, Persist, and Open doors With my own talents, my own skills, and my own Expertise. World, are you Ready for me?
Disclaimer: All blog posts, opinions, grammatical errors, and spelling mistakes are our own.
Franki and Mary Lee are both teachers, and have been for more than 20 years.
Franki is a fifth grade teacher. She is the author of Beyond Leveled Books (Stenhouse), Still Learning to Read (Stenhouse), and Day-to-Day Assessment in the Reading Workshop (Scholastic).
Mary Lee is a fifth grade teacher. She is the author of Reconsidering Read-Aloud (Stenhouse) and has poems in the Poetry Friday Anthology, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Science, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (Pomelo Books), Dear Tomato: An International Crop of Food and Agriculture Poems, National Geographic Books of Nature Poems, The Best of Today's Little Ditty (2014-15 and 2016), Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's Poems are Teachers, National Geographic's The Poetry of US, and IMPERFECT: Poems About Mistakes.
