Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems by Young Poets

Naomi Shihab Nye, ed.

pictures by Ashley Bryan

Cover by Barnes & Noble

Nye, Naomi Shihab. Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems by Young Poets. Ill. Ashley Bryan. New York: Greenwillow Books, 2000. ISBN: 978-0-688-16193-4.

Poetic Elements

This anthology is chock full of poetic elements, all a testament to the teachings of Naomi Shihab Nye, who collected these poems over a period of twenty-five years, while teaching poetry workshops to children in various school systems around the country. Similes, alliteration, assonance, and personification abound in the poem “Monday Mornings”: (On Monday mornings I feel like/ a miserable mouse, more miserable/ than a monkey on Monday mornings.) and (On Monday mornings I feel like / a miserable millionaire, more miserable/ than money, more miserable than/ midnight). Others, although simple, reveal the truth and pain a young poet is feeling: (The mean is on me./ The family is on me./ The eyes of a dragon are on me./ The scream of my brother is on me./ The smoke of the chimney is on me./ The school is on me./ The wall is on me./ Well everything is on me, I don’t know/ why. Anyway I’m gonna get/ on them too, like they got on me./ I’m gonna scream on them./ I’m gonna be mean on them./ Well I’m gonna do everything / they did to me.) The age or grade level of the individual poets with a short note about their life or chosen profession at the time the book was published would have been a nice addition to this anthology. In Nye’s afterword, she only reveals that the poet of “Patterns” became a dentist.

Appeal

Although this collection is mostly free verse, it includes many poems with graphical elements such as “Whispers”, in which the word “waving” is shaped as to imitate the “whisper of a flag/ waving/ in the wind.” There are also a few shape poems such as “For My First-Grade Teacher”, whose lines will stimulate the emotions of readers and prod them to reflect back upon their own first-grade experiences: (I remember the time when you made/ me and some/ other kids/ stand in/ front/ of the / class/ But now it doesn’t matter at all/ because/ I/ don’t see/ you/ anymore). Although Salting the Ocean is recommended for grades three through eight, it may be better suited as a teacher’s resource rather than reading for pleasure. With that being said, many young readers may gather confidence and be inspired by seeing published works by poets their own age.

Overall Quality

The poems are as consistent in quality as one might expect from one hundred different school children ranging from grade one through twelve over a span of twenty-five years. However, they could be the perfect tools in which to spark a young poet’s imagination, and give them the confidence they need to write their own poetry.

The Poet

This anthology is a collection of poems by one hundred different poets never previously published, nor famous. They were selected from over twenty-five years of classroom led poetry workshops Nye conducted in many of the fifty states. The poets are now dentists and dancers and teachers and students and construction workers, and still others-- Nye was never able to reach. Nye is a poet, songwriter, novelist, and anthologist who has won many awards and fellowships, among them four Pushcart Prizes, the Jane Addams Children’s Book award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, and many notable book and best book citations from the American Library Association.

The illustrator, Ashley Bryan, earned a degree in philosophy at Columbia University after studying art at Cooper Union in New York City. He has created more than thirty books for young people and earned numerous awards, including several Coretta Scott King Honors and a Fulbright Scholarship. Bryan currently resides in Islesford, Maine.

Layout

At the front of the book, a note about the poems reveals the circumstances surrounding the manner in which Nye selected the poems, categorized into four groups:

·       The Self and The Inner World

·       Where We Live

·       Anybody’s Family

·       The Wide Imagination

The three part introduction was lengthy with the first titled “To Anyone, and to a Couple in Nova Scotia” with personal information about the author and the kindness a couple showed her in Nova Scotia. The second is advice to teachers, librarians, parents, and other friends who may pick up the book. The third introduction is basically a thank you to the young poets along with further encouragement for them to write. Bryan’s bold, vibrant, tempera-paint illustrations spice up the young poets work at the beginning of each section, and lend a generous helping of multicultural imagery. Salting the Ocean concludes with an “Afterword, Acknowledgements, Suggestions for Further Reading, Index to 100 Poems, and Index to 100 Poets.”

Spotlight Poem

My Mind Is an Empty Jug

      by Alex Lagunas

I wonder where it went.

In the morning I felt like

an empty jug so I felt

my pillow it was not wet

but my mind was empty

I wonder where it went.

Poetry Break

Introduction: Introduce this poem by displaying a large empty jug in full view, and asking for a few guesses at what it could represent.

Extension Activity: After reading the poem a few times, suggest a topic and have students write ONE line of poetry relating to the topic onto a strip of paper and drop it into the jug.

Afterwards, for fun, display the lines of poetry and let students arrange them into the most logical order to write a class “Jug Poem.”