I’m looking for hopeful poems. Poems about people making changes in their life. Poems about following dreams. They need to be easily accessible/understandable to marginal students. And not super long.I’m going through all the books on my shelves but figured some of you out there might have some favorites.
Thanks.
Yeats: Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, sometimes called He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven. I love that poem.
Argh! Belated thank you for this!
Langston Hughes? Particularly the Dream ones.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15610
Argh! Belated thank you for this! Yes, indeed, Langston Hughes.
I don’t know if this will interest you, but it is a mid grade novel written in prose. It is about a city project of planting a garden…oh, you probably remember it-I blogged about it and you had commented.
Jaunita Havill’s GROW
http://www.amazon.com/Grow-Juanita-Havill/dp/1561454419/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232058708&sr=1-1
She has some other poems called I HEARD IT FROM ALICE ZUCHINNI, but those may be too young, I don’t know,
http://www.amazon.com/Heard-Alice-Zucchini-Poems-Garden/dp/0811839621/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232058708&sr=1-3
What about Nikki Giovanni’s writing? She might be a good resource too.
I’m still afraid to read GROW because I’m afraid it might be too much like Plant Kid. I need to save it for after I’m done with my book.
Nikki Giovanni is a good idea though. Belated thank you for this!
Premio Dardos Award
Sorry I don’t have poem suggestions, but
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Susan, you give so much of yourself almost daily, sometimes hourly; this new teaching is just one example of how you make life better for others and put more poetry in the world. (I love that the guys surprised you asking for love poetry!) thank you always!
x0 Jeannine
I’m on the road so don’t have access to my bookses.
But this poem of mine from THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, while not exactly what you’re looking for, might work:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1011/p18s04-hfpo.html
It’s not technically a poem, but it certainly is poetic and apropos: Martin Luther King, Jr’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech.
Oh I forgot a few others:
Maya Angelou, “Still I Rise”
Bernard Shaw, “A Dream”, “A New Start”