Oceanic

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We might say a poem is a bit like a boat, a vessel borne aloft by rhythms that surge or eddy. It is also like the sea itself, with its deep places and ever-receding horizon. “The sea has many voices,” observes Eliot in The Dry Salvages. More than anything, the many voices of oceanic poetry declare the vitality of life even in the midst of crisis. “There is a lullaby in all of us,” Burnett writes, “a call of sea”. If only we would listen. Fig. 5. AC 82-7/8, “On this wondrous sea – sailing silently –,” about summer 1858. Courtesy of Amherst College Archives & Special Collections. For link, see: https://acdc.amherst.edu/view/asc:15595/asc:15604 Poetry is unique because there is no word limit or specific formula that must be followed, so children can get creative and have free reign. It teaches children that you can say a lot in a few words, and it encourages them to think about the impact and importance that each word has within a poem.

In such moments, Nezhukumatathil unabashedly embraces the –ic of her collection’s title and insists that “oceanic,” properly understood, far surpasses a definition as “of or relating to the ocean.” Invoking the “boundless” and the “limitless,” Nezhukumatathil sets out a simple, yet profound, argument about our relations with the natural world: the more we feel the ocean’s embrace, the sooner we sense its particular “hum” everywhere.There’s no disputing that contemplating and fantasizing about the ocean offers us joy and tranquilly, and genuinely calms our spirit. In moments of stress, we look to the ocean for wise words delivered in the form of poetry. Here are some classic ocean poems for you. 1. Ocean – Mysterious Mistress

Her poems invoke a sense of connectedness… Nezhukumatathil weaves meditations on parenting and family-making among her lavishly rendered evocations of flora and fauna… Nezhukumatathil’s voice is consistent in its awe.” — Publishers Weekly Poetry, both old and new, not only reveals the oceans’ uncanny beauty, it also frames the monstrous dilemmas of rising seas, pollution, and declining biodiversity. This colourful under the sea poem about ocean life is great for introducing your children to the kinds of creatures that can be found in the sea. It is a great introductory poem if you are planning on teaching a few lessons about ocean life and what happens under the sea. Is this the greatest English poem about a sea-voyage? Coleridge’s friend and collaborator was sceptical about its merits, and toyed with removing it from subsequent editions of their landmark collection Lyrical Ballads (1798).

The loss of indigenous cultures washes away whole worlds. Among the Inupiaq of Alaska, seals, whales and seabirds are people. Even “Oil is a People,” writes Inupiaq poet dg nanouk okpik. Throughout her collection Corpse Whale, okpik uses a split pronoun, “she/I”, to express this sense of shared personhood. “Will they crawl around her / me, sink their eyeteeth in the sea,” she asks in If Oil is Drilled in Bristol Bay. But poetry isn’t science; not bound simply to report on the state of things, poetry is free to imagine what could be

In “Secrets of the Sea,” Assan provides commentary on the Syrian refugee crisis. The poem is for Alan Kurdi , a three-year-old Syrian boy whose name made global headlines in 2015 after he drowned in the mediterranean sea, but it is also for all the other refugees that lost their lives. Assan says Kurdi’s name changed the world, while others’ names remain “secrets of the sea.”The simple vocabulary and rhymes paired with the colourful images of sea life make it an easy poem for children to follow. It will also hopefully help them to use their imaginations to visualise some of the creatures that can be found under the sea!