As we are wrapping up our adventures through various genres,
we have final arrived at poetry week.
After this we only have one blog left, then the term is over and we can
return to reading whatever we want. (I am hoping we all continue to read; it
will break my heart if someone decides that not reading anything is the better
choice.)
This week I have focused on the Dust Bowl, so travel back
with me to a time when there was " nothing to buy and no money to buy it
with" (Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird).
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| Poetry Foundation |
Dust Bowl by Langston Hughes
The land wants me to
come back
To a handful of dust
in autumn,
To a raindrop
In the palm of my hand
In spring.
The land wants me to
come back
To a broken song in
October,
To a snowbird on the
wing.
The land wants me to
come back.
I always enjoy Hughes' work ("The Negro Speaks of
Rivers" is simply amazing). The poem reminded me more of my friend Dean
than the Dust Bowl. Dean is a kind, gentle man, but the dirt of the fields
calls to him season after season. The line, the
land wants me to come back, is exactly the way I see Dean; it is as if he
and the land breathe together. I don't understand farming, but I understand the
without the land, Dean wouldn't know how to get through the day. I also was touched by the lines, To a raindrop, In the palm of my hand.
One of the most glorious places in Tipton County is the post office. There is a
beautiful Depression era mural above the postmaster's door. In the bottom right
corner of the mural is a man holding out his hand in hopes of feeling a raindrop.
Hughes' imagery vividly brings that painting to mind.
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| Amazon.com |
Since my Hughes' poem is only nine lines long I needed more.
I reread Karen Hesse's novel in verse, Out of the Dust. Since ECA tests are in two weeks, I
appreciated the poem "Tested by Dust."
While we sat,
Taking our six-week
test,
the wind rose
and sand blew
right through the
cracks in the schoolhouse wall,
right through the gaps
around the window glass,
and by the time the
tests were done,
each and every one of
us
was coughing pretty
good and we all
needed a bath.
I hope we get bonus
points
for testing in a dust
storm.
April 1934
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| Amazon.com |
I have also read a couple of picture books this week. Potato:
A Tale from the Great Depression by Kate Lied is a cute picture book about
eating potatoes day after day since that is all the family could afford. Having
just finished Whose Names are Unknown by Sanora Babb, I know this was a
common survival food. As the situation became more dire even the potato skins
were kept to make a pot of water into soup.
There is also a great primary source book over the Dust Bowl, free for downloading, at the Library of Congress.
Next week is Thanksgiving, so no blogs for us! But the
following week is our last blog. I still haven't reviewed a movie, so that is
in the works and I need to finish discussing my books. I plan to wrap up with
some work on Dorothea Lange's iconic image Migrant
Mother.
