Poetry Blog 14

"How to Write a Poem about the Sky" by Leslie Marmon Silko is not only about the sky, or writing poems about the sky, but about perspective in general. The first stanza describes a white cloudy sky in winter. This stanza demonstrates imagery in the lines "little birds/ walk across it." In the next stanza, Silko shows how another person could see the sky as melding into the landscape, bringing the cold with it, and suggesting that there is snow on the ground beneath a white sky, possibly even a snow storm. The third stanza shows more of a literal interpretation with the lines "the moment/ the wind shifts" shifted to the left to emulate clouds parting. This stanza is an extension of the previous one, but not only describes the sky and the earth as the same body, but then expands to describe the clouds parting. This perspective is a little more optimistic. The last phrase, "You see the sky" uses the word "You" as a general term that embodies everyone's different interpretation of something we all see everyday--the sky. I like that the dediction of the poem is included, because this poem makes sense to help show middle schoolers how to find their own individual voice in poetry. I also like that the location in Bethel, Alaska is included because it helps with creating an image of what that particular sky looked like physically, because it was interpreted in different ways throughout the poem.