BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hopkins, Lee Bennett. 2017. Traveling the Blue Road: Poems of the Sea. Ill. by Bob Hansman and Jovan Hansman. Lake Forest, CA: Seagrass Press. ISBN 978-1-63322-276-2

SUMMARY/ANALYSIS

The attention-capturing cover of this topical poetry collection offers a glimpse of the depths contained inside. Hopkins shares 14 commissioned poems related to the migration of different peoples during the 15th-21st centuries across the oceans of the world. Though not exhaustive, the poems represent historic movements, both forced and voluntary, that stand out for various reasons. Included are Jewish, Pilgrim, Cuban, and Mediterranean refugees, British convicts, African slaves, explorers, hungry Irish, and travelers.

The language in each poem evokes emotion and gives history flesh.  The vastness of the sea and the direness of circumstances are seen when the Mayflower is described as a “fragile fleck” in “WITH FEARLESS FAITH AND EVERYTHING TO LOSE” by Allan Wolf.  Alternatively, a Sama boy praises “Mother Sea” as “an open road” and contrasts it with the land that “does not breathe / Like the ocean” in “MEN OF WAVES AND SEA” by G. Neri.

Poems are shared using historically reflective fonts and coupled with compelling quotes about the sea. Accompanying artwork captures the darkness of the fear the ocean inspires in Spanish sailors, the starlit night that swallowed the Titanic, and the hard ash grayness that stole the hope of Jewish refugees.

The styling is absolutely stunning: deep indigo, sapphire, navy, royal, and lavender blues, aged parchment golds, black silhouettes. A sort of dappled spotted effect mimics the expanse of starry night that must punctuate the sky at night in the middle of the ocean. But it is the poems and the history they contain that shine from the pages. A talented pool of contemporary poets effectively captures the hope, the fear, the desperation, the wonder, and the faith that sailed from shore to shore.

Good luck reading these history- and heart-stirring poems aloud.

POEM PLUS “TAKE 5” ACTIVITIES

This is one of two poems about the MS St. Louis with more than 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler’s Germany in 1939. The phrase “blue road” from this poem was used to give this collection its title and to capture the topic of migration on the paths of the sea. Repeated lines (last of each tercet and first of the next tercet) provide emphasis.

Blue color of hope

Take 5 Activities

  1. Share the photograph that inspired the artwork for this poem (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27373131) and a little background that led to this exodus. If possible, have a Jewish prayer shawl with tzitzit to show and a slate or small chalkboard with Hebrew writing (alef bet) on it. This poem should be read with melancholy: a balance of the hope in the unknown its subjects would have felt coupled with the fear that prompted their travel. Pause between triplets.
  2. Divide the group into 6 groups. If possible, arrange groups in a large circle. Begin with one group reading the first triplet, then have the second join to read the second, and continue adding groups, so the poem starts quietly and gets louder and louder with the addition of voices until it crescendos for the final stanza.
  3. Ask students to describe how they would feel if they had to leave their home, their town, everything, tomorrow and go to a place they had never been to live.
  4. Pair this poem with Oskar and the Eight Blessings by Tanya and Richard Simon (2015). The main character in this graphic novel is a young Jewish boy who leaves Germany for the United States in the same time period as the travelers on the St. Louis.
  5. Share the accompanying poem that shares the rest of the story of the voyage in “Return to the Reich: On the Ship St. Louis.” poems that explore the sights, sounds, and smells of the sea. Examples from the National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry include “Until I Saw the Sea” and “What are Heavy” (Lewis 2015). Or share “The Butterfly” (1942), a poem written by Pavel Friedman, a Jew, who was put in a Jewish ghetto in Germany and eventually died in Auschwitz.

References

Friedman, Pavel. 1942. “The Butterfly.” Retrieved from https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/foundation_gr6/blms/6-2-4b.pdf.

Lewis, J. Patrick. 2015. National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry. Washington, D.C.: National Georgraphic.

Simon, Tanya, and Richard Simon. 2015. Oskar and the Eight Blessings. Ill. by Mark Siegel. New York, NY: Roaring Brook.

Yolen, Jane. 2017. “Return to the Reich: On the Ship St. Louis.” In Traveling the Blue Road: Poems of the Sea by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Bob Hansman and Jovan Hansman. Lake Forest, CA: Seagrass Press.