Home of the Brave Discussion: Poetry

Again, more apologies for the lack of updates! Here in Augusta, we celebrated our 100th Anniversary with an Open House last week. We'll finish up our Home of  the Brave discussion today and start our next book, The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks (author of Evil Genius).

As I mentioned in our last post, Home of the Brave is written in a much different style than the other books we've read so far. Poetry tells the tale.

If you've ever met me, you probably know that poetry isn't really my thing, which made reading this book close to impossible for me! Hopefully some of you didn't have the same issues.

I do enjoy some poetry though. Today I'm going to share a few of my favorite poems, and I encourage you to share some of yours, whether they're from Home of the Brave or from somewhere else.

I'm Nobody, Emily Dickenson
I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us -- don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!


Where The Sidewalk Ends, Shel Silverstien
There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.


(Apollo) Rick Riordan
Dreams like a podcast
Downloading Truth in my Ears
They tell me cool stuff.


The last poem is from the Battle of the Labryinth (I think...without checking), part of the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. Percy meets the god Apollo, who among other things, is the god of poetry. Throughout the books, he continually makes up (really bad!) haiku, like the above. Haiku is one of my favorite "quick" poems and are fairly easy to make up! Just remember the 5-7-5 rule. 5 syllables in the first sentance, 7 syllables in the second sentance, and 5 syllables in the last.

Haiku were created by the Japanese, and then the form migrated over the world. Originally hauki was used to describe the weather or nature, but you can use them to describe anything! I once wrote a series of haiku about the greek underworld for a Creative Writing class (which I will begrudingly share, even though they are awful), which shows that each sentance doesn't have to be full, they can flow together.

Greek Death (A series in Haiku)

The angel of death,
Thanatos, winged death god
leads you down to hell.

Delivers you to
Charon, boatman of the River Styx
Pay him a copper

Passing through the gates,
Cerberus’s three heads watch
low growl in their throats.

“End of the line, Jack.”
Hades and Persephone
are waiting for you.


What kind of haiku can you come up with?

Happy reading (and writing!),
Samma

Edit:
I was listening to my iPod the other day and this song poped up on my shuffle. I can't believe I forgot about it! Here's a live version I found on YouTube. The band is called "Tally Hall". I encourage you to check out some of their other music; they're quite good!

Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate

Apologies for the lack of updates recently. Preprations in the library for our 100th Anniversary celebration have been underway and keeping all of us here very busy!

Our newest book, if you didn't know, is "Home of the Brave" by Katherine Applegate. (Summary from the inside cover:) Kek comes from Africa. In America, he sees snow for the first time, and feels its sting. He's never walked on ice and he falls. He wonders if the people in this new place will be like the winter --cold and unkind. In Africa, Kek lived with his mother, father, and brother. But only he and his mother have survived, and now she's missing, Kek is on his own. Slowly, he makes friends: a girl who is in foster care, an old woman who owns a rundown farm, and a cow whose name means "family" in his native language. As Kek awaits word of his mother's fate, he weathers the tough Minnesota winter by finding warmth in his new friendships, strength in his memories and belief in his new country."

Home of the Brave is written in a series of poems, which has been a fairly popular format in recent years.

As for this weeks discussion, I'd like to focus in on immigration. It's been a hot-button topic in recent years, espeically illegal immigration from Mexico, on the borders in the Southern U.S. Immigration wasn't always what it is today, that is to say: it was encouraged and expected. As you've learned in History class, America is founded almost entirely by people from other nations. The eary pilgrims came from England to escape Religious prosecution, and were followed by more and more, as the country began to develop westward.

Another big Immigration Boom happened in the 1850s and again in the early 1900s. Most immigrants at the time had to go through Ellis Island, just off the coast of New York, before they were admitted into the country. While Ellis Island is no longer used as the entry point to the US, it is still a tourist attraction for anyone who would like to know more about early immigration into the US.

Here are some informative links I found on Ellis Island and early Immigration:

Ellis Island Statistics

The Brunk Swedish-American Museum

Just Curious: Immigration Links


Today, immigration is a little different. You can enter the United States anywhere, but you need a Visa, or permission to be here. When your Visa expires, you're expected to return home. However, long-term immigrants can obtain US citizenship through several venues including marriage, or taking a Citizenship (or Naturalization) test. Below is a link to a practice test --you can choose then number of questions between 5 and 50. I did 10 questions and got 70% --you need 60% to pass. I just barely made it!

Online US Citizenship Practice Test

Share your results in the comments! Were you surprised by your score? Tell Mom and Dad to try it out and see how they fair at it.


Happy reading!

Samma