My son in middle
school spends a lot of time searching for Major League Baseball information on
the internet. But recently I found him searching for poetry.
He was looking for a
poem by Maya Angelou to recite in literature class for extra credit. I was
thrilled.
“Maya Angelou read a
poem at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration. Are you going to read that one?”
I asked.
He settled on “The
Lesson,” a much shorter poem which points out that as we live and endure
hardships, we are also dying. But because life is so sweet, we want to stay
alive and continue living. At least, that was our lesson from reading the poem.
“How did it go?” I
asked him the next day.
“They thought it was
depressing,” he said of his classmates.
“Well, what did the
other kids read – the inaugural poem ‘On the Pulse of Morning’?” I asked.
“No.”
“’Still I Rise’?” I
guessed.
“I don’t remember,”
he answered.
It turns out that
only a handful of kids in his class recited poems.
I couldn’t believe
it! All they had to do was Google Maya Angelou, print out one of her poems and
read it aloud to add points to their grades.
My surprise turned to
hope when my son said, “Mom, listen to this. I’m going to rap her poem,
‘Phenomenal Woman.’”
My son started
reciting the brag poem like it was a rap song. He was smiling and having fun. I
wondered what Maya Angelou would think.
By the end of the
night, he had re-written some of the lines in her poem and titled his new
version, “Phenomenal Man.”
“I want to rap this
for the class tomorrow,” he said.
Poetry is a challenge
to write and must be difficult to teach. I applaud my son’s instructors for
exposing their students to Maya Angelou’s words and presenting them in a form
that speaks to teen-agers. Young people need more exposure to poetry.
Stopping to look at
the words of a poet can reveal many principles in life just like viewing the
veins of a leaf under a microscope. Poems teach and entertain. They make
readers think and see the world from different points of view. They can be
serious, romantic, humorous and dark. They can be as short as tweets or written
in more complicated patterns.
Many students see
reading poetry as a struggle. After nursery rhymes, they barely glance at
poetry until they are deciphering Shakespearean sonnets or Homer’s “Odyssey,” which
can seem like an odyssey in itself.
Another obstacle is
the idea that poetry is “for girls.” When my son was in second grade, he wanted
to attend Poetry Night at his school. Before agreeing to take him, I hesitated,
worrying that only girls would show up with their parents. To my delight, the
poetry that night was recited by the principal, a police officer, the mayor,
other dignitaries and teachers. All were male, and my son was not the only
little boy in the audience.
Last week, hundreds
of boys and girls were gathered with their parents, coaches and friends in the outfield at our local park for Little
League Opening Day ceremonies. For the first time, someone read a poem at the
event, which kicks off spring baseball and softball.
I expected to hear
the classic “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Thayer. But the poem was called “Just
a Little Boy,” written by Chaplain Bob Fox. The words were a gentle reminder that
the fine young athletes committed to playing ball are kids, something easy to
forget in the throes of competition.
I was struck by what
a firm and strong message such a “light” piece of poetry could provide. I
wonder how it sounds in rap.
-- cawk
