A Poet a Day 10: Shaindel Beers
Saturday, April 10th, 2010
Day 10 brings us a poem from Shaindel Beers, “After a Photo of a Chechen Girl on a Train,” from a collection entitled The Children’s War: Poems on Children’s Artwork of War. The poem appears in the most recent issue of Corium Magazine. The photo to which the poem relates is included below.
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE POEM
Working with images as prompts is a wonderful way to access poetry. Shaindel takes it a few steps further, working specifically with images of children’s art, as they describe their relationship and view of war through drawings, paintings and pictures. In the following poem, the child herself is the image, and the poem communicates the narrative that’s going on behind the girl’s pensive, wondering stare, and the outcomes for which she is being prepared.
After a Photo of a Chechen Girl on a Train
I am four, almost five, and I am beautiful.
I have my red hat, my red coat; I ride
on my mother’s lap. People smile at me.
I make them happy. When my mother looks
at them, they look away. My mother has
brown eyes. I have blue. I have only seen
my father in pictures. We have to practice
my mother says. Where are we going?
To visit Grandma in the country.
What will you do there?
Help Grandma gather eggs and be brave
even if the hens peck me.
Ride Doishka, the pony. I look out the window
at the wildflowers speeding by.
And you mustn’t cry says mother if we get there
and there is no Grandma, no pony.
**
A Poet a Day is a month-long celebration of poets and poetry, in honor of National Poetry Month. Writers reserve all rights to their work, and all work appears with their permission.
**
