Friday, October 24, 2008

Poetry Friday - Geography

I've been immersed in the study of geography this week. There's quite a bit of poetry in geography, both in maps and poetry of place. Today I'm sharing two poems related to this theme.
My Father's Geography
by Aafa M. Weaver

I was parading the Côte d'Azur,
hopping the short trains from Nice to Cannes,
following the maze of streets in Monte Carlo
to the hill that overlooks the ville.

Read the rest of the poem. You can also listen to the author read it!
This second poem is an excerpt from Lines Written for Gene Kelly to Dance To. You can find the entire poem in The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg (pp. 704-705).
Why we got geography?
Because we go from place to place. Because the earth used
   to be flat and had four corners, and you could jump off
   from any of the corners.

But now the earth is not flat anymore. Now it is round all
   over. Now it is a globe, a ball, round all over, and we
   would all fall off it and tumble away into space if it wasn't
   for the magnetic poles. And when you dance it is the
   North Pole or the South Pole pulling on your feel like
   magnets to keep your feet on earth.
And that's why we got geography.
And it's nice to have it that way.
If you want more poetry for geography, check out this post from National Poetry Month entitled Poetry in the Classroom - A World of Wonders.

The round up is being hosted by Kelly over at Big A little a. Do stop by and take in all the great poetry being shared this week. Before you go, be sure to check out this week's poetry stretch results. Happy poetry Friday, all!

4 comments:

  1. Ooh -- that first one. Hadn't heard of him before, that was great. What an amazing view of Gibraltar that must be, to just look and see another country across the water.

    I especially love the name of the second collection!! The words do dance, don't they?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love that Carl Sandburg. He's got the rhythm of the dance.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love that Sandburg excerpt. This is a nice reminder to read more of his Stuff for Adults, which is what I think every time I see his works for children.

    ReplyDelete
  4. In my family, it's my mom who loves geography and maps. She even brings a map of my neighborhood when she comes, so she can show me around. :)

    ReplyDelete