Erin, I love this poem by Pat Mora called "Elena". Also, check for Gary Soto poems, or, more strikingly Jimmy Santiago Baca.

Most schools teach IHAD and in fact, most students know him as the man who gave that speech. So this year, we've agreed, within my department, to teach the Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Not poetic though. But beautifully written.

This is one of the Baca poems that might work. Oppression by Jimmy Santiago Baca.

Megan, I hope you feel better soon, as well.

Erin!

Most schools teach IHAD

Obviously UnAmerican, so I'm coming to this from a different context, but I've only very recently actually read the whole speech. A friend who TAs a class in communication and political science asked me to translate it into Hebrew for an exam of her students. It's so beautiful, I had tears in my eyes almost all the way through. All that Erin said, only I probably missed most of the connections, due to said UnAmerican-ness.

Mmm, Nilly, I don't think you missed many of them. Two, off the tops of my head are Biblical and Shakespearean.

It's a wonderful speech.

Kat, I love "Elena!" I will definitely be using that in my class; after sitting through P/T conferences, trying to communicate with many parents with little to no English, with my pidgin Spanish, I think my kids will really get this poem.

Thanks!

Thanks Nilly. I made some pear green tea to soothe myself. I also closed the blinds on my windows so now I feel like I'm in a little cocoon.

Megan, I find many times a cup of coffee with a couple of spoonfuls of sugar helps a migraine. I don't usually sugar my coffee, but the caffiene (if I remember correctly) constricts blood flow to the brain, and the sugar...well, does something pyhsiologically therapeutic, too.

And yo, a pillow over my face, and silence.

delicious soup for lunch. Soup Man rocks.

Biblical and Shakespearean

You assume I know anything about Shakespeare beyond copying the way you spelled his name from your post. That's already assuming too much, I'm afraid.

[Edit: well, I know that there was a Hamlet with a "to be or not to be" and that he died, that there were a Romeo and a Juliet with a being in love and that they died, that there was a midsummer night's dream in which nobody died, that there are sonnets and I have no idea regarding the mortality rate in them, and that's really all that I know about him. Embarrassing but true.]

Soup Man rocks.

"The" Soup man? Of Seinfeld fame?

there are sonnets and I have no idea regarding the mortality rate in them

NATLBSB!