Free Range Readers

Nurturing Self Reliant Readers and Writers in K-6 classrooms

Poetry Friday: Under This Sky

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Poetry Friday!

Poetry Friday this week is hosted by Donna at Mainely Write

So many people shared Emma Lazarus’s iconic poem this week, The New Colossus. It was a reminder of the power of poetry, of words put together on a page with intention and passion. I was reminded of a favorite anthology of mine, This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems From Around The World, by Naomi Shihab Nye.

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If you are looking for inspiration today, check out this podcast with Nye from On Being with Krista Tippett, Your Life is a Poem.

The poem I want to share this week comes from the anthology by poet Zia Hyder, and is a reminder of our likenesses and differences in this great, big world:

 

UNDER THIS SKY

There’s an enormous comfort knowing

we all live under this same sky,

whether in New York or Dhaka,

we see the same sun and same moon.

 

When it is night in New York,

the sun shines in Dhaka,

but that doesn’t matter.

Flowers that blossom here in spring

are unknown in meadows of distant Bengal —

that too doesn’t matter.

There’s no rainy season here —

the peasant in Bengal welcomes the new crop

with homemade sweets

while here, winter brings mountains of snow.

 

No one here knows Grandmother’s hand-sewn quilt —

even that doesn’t matter.

There’s an enormous comfort knowing

we all live under this same sky….. (read the rest of the poem in the anthology)

 

Have a poetic weekend!

Author: mnosal

I have been in education for all of my life, in one way or another. After teaching 5th grade at an urban public charter school, I have decided to return to the public schools and to literacy coaching K-5. I also teach and mentor preservice teachers.

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