There are just so many things that can be said about poetry! To begin with, I used to love poetry when I was younger. Not any kind of poetry, but reflective and thoughtful poetry. I loved poetry that made ponder for hours and hours until I reached a deeper meaning. For the most part I use to read poetry in Spanish because I found it more interesting and with such passionate wording. I used to read poems by Jose Garcia Velazquez Daniel Allaria Oriol, Antonio de Benito, Antonio Machado, Gabriela Mistral, Alicia Herreros, and Juan Guinea among others. Most of these authors wrote poems especially for children to inspire them and even guide them on certain aspects of life. I just loved sitting down and reading them out loud to myself again and again and again. Every time I re read them I seemed to gain a deeper well-founded meaning out of them and this I enjoyed very much. I loved “El Angel Guardian” because it talked about something that my parents mentioned to me ever since I can remember. It said that there indeed existed a guardian angel and it described it in a very exciting way. The author, Gabriela Mistral, incorporated analogies between his features to candy, which I guess at the time, caught my attention. I remember also reading “La Madre Triste/The Sad Mother”, “Con Desconocidos No/With Strangers No”, “Compartir/Sharing” and others which I really enjoyed. I remember my mom telling me to go to sleep at night and I begging her to let me read one more and then one more. I guess reading these types of books kind of foreshadowed the type of literature I like in the future. I mean these poems where all about concepts in real life and this is the path I have taken ever since. Even today, it is safe to say that I enjoy inspirational/reflective types of poems. Having said this, I would also like to say that I learned to love and enjoy English literature. I have been exposed to many poets here and there but my favorite of all times has to be without a doubt Edgar Allan Poe. He is the best poet I have ever read. Poe’s description and narration in his poems is so well rounded that is impossible to put his poetry down or at least in my case.
Having shared this, I really enjoyed A Family of Poems. I loved them because their narration was complex and with a deeper meaning to be searched for, just like I like them. I have to accept that the poems were not all that straight forward with their meaning and so re reading them helped a lot but I don’t think they are appropriate very young children. Interestingly, over the summer I read literary pieces by Emily Dickinson and found her style a bit high leveled. By this I mean that it is not extremely hard to follow but not the easiest as well. A Family of Poems had one by her that just didn’t click right away for me and so I wondered if it was something a child would grasp to which later on I convinced myself that it is not. I am not saying that she is not appropriate at all, I guess what I’m saying is that we have to tell the child that it is a literary piece that must be read to eliminate initial confusions. I guess taking this in consideration; I would most definitely like to have this book in my classroom because it challenges kids to search for the deeper meaning and therefore become enlightened. This decision makes perfect sense considering I liked and enjoyed this type of poetry when young and still do. A Family of Poems might not be a poetry book that should be shared with kids are they first poetry book but later on as challenge to them. I am a strong supporter of challenging kids as much as possible so they reach their highest potential and I think this book would do the job to a large extent. I guess it’s needless to say that I loved and enjoyed A Family of Poems very much and am excited to make use of it in my classroom in the future. =]
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