Healing Within by Martha E. Baltazar-Reyes

Remembrance day gives us the opportuinty to refelct on all those who sacrificed to ensure that we would be able to enjoy the lives we live today.
Who in your life has made sacrifices for you?

We Carry On By Jacqueline Black

This poem serves as a harsh reminder of the toils of war; suffering and death is universal, and "shrapnel does not discriminate". Black emphasizes the broad aftermath of war, detailing the struggles faced by citizens and veterans alike. Finally, the poem ends with a message found commonly in war-time writing: Remember those who fought and gave their lives in battle. But the title also leaves an optimistic print, for we can learn to "Carry On" despite it all.

Remembrance Day by Evelyn Lau

Content warning: Violent and disturbing imagery, not suitable for younger students.

Vancouver born Chinese-Canadian poet Evelyn Lau is no stranger to suffering. Although she found early successes in writing (she was first published at age 12), her traditionally minded parents were unsupportive of her creative pursuits, wanting her to be a doctor. Her deeply unhappy relationship with her family and social isolation at school led Lau to run away from home at age 14. She spent the next few years homeless, addicted to drugs, frequently suicidal and supporting herself through prostitution. In the end, writing was her salvation as her first book 'Runaway: Diary of street kid' became a bestseller. In her poem 'Remembrance Day', Lau transports us into an uncomfortable moment of silence at Winners on a dark, soggy November day ("the sky has swallowed all the light"), in which the distant realities of war are brought into vivid and horrific focus through the memory of a street urchin's dark fate. Ms. Lau's own experiences with homelessness lend further weight to the shattering climax of this piece. In her book of autobiographical essays 'Inside Out', Lau writes: "There has always been this strange urgent need in me to make the private public, to turn things inside out so that what typically lives hidden in darkness is exposed to the light." Evelyn Lau was the city of Vancouver's poet Laureate from 2011-2014. She has won numerous litarary awards, and been nominated for a Governor General's Award. She has also worked as Writer in Residence at the University of British Columbia, Kwantlen University and Vancouver Community College, and was Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Calgary. How has your life experience influenced your writing? This remembrance day, can you find a personal connection to the themes of war and peace, darkness and light, and channel that connection onto the page?

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga

Other Words for Home tells the story of Jude, a girl living in Syria at the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War. Fleeing from the violence, she and her mother go to the United States to live with relatives, leaving her father and her older brother behind. At first, the America that Jude experiences is far different than the America she experienced through movies, but she begins to find her place at her new country and her new school.

Written entirely in lyric poetry, Other Words for Home is Jasmine Warga's first middle grade novel and was the recipient of numerous awards, including being a Newbery Honour Book in 2020. This book reminds us of the effects that war has on everyday people and asks the reader to reflect on what it means to belong to a place they call home.

What does home mean to you?

No Explosions by Naomi Shihab Nye

Naomi Shihab Nye is a teacher, editor, essayist, and a prolific poet, having published dozens of poems for both children and adults. Her father was from Palestine, turned refugee after the creation of Israel in 1948. He came to America, where Naomi was born in Missouri in 1952. She spent a year as a teenager living in the West Bank, just before the Six-Day War occurred, before returning to the US, where she has since lived in Texas.
Nye calls herself a “wandering poet”, as her work is influenced by her past travels, and is rooted in the experience of different cultures. She’s won numerous awards, including being named the Young People’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. In this very short but powerful poem, a sampler of her work, she asks the reader to consider how the same event can be experienced very differently by people with different backgrounds.

What is something that other people consider “fun” that you don’t like? Why not?

A Downed Black Pilot Learns How To Fly by Horace Coleman

The practice of writing one’s experience of war is as old as literature itself; Julius Caesar penned the Commentarii more than 2000 years ago, and since then we’ve had many more. But few of those memoirs of battle are written in poetic form, and few are so gripping and haunting as Horace Coleman’s In the Grass. Serving as a lieutenant in the US Air Force, Coleman returned to America and became a writer and a teacher, as well as a committed member of both Veterans for Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
His poetry is dense and compact, steeped in first-hand awareness of the awfulness of war and its impact on the minorities and poor people who too often end up fighting it. In his “Notes for the Veteran’s War Protest”, he wrote, “We are sorry we murdered our souls. We did as told but we learned how to say NO!” His strength of will is apparent in his verse, and his morality was ever present in his words.

Some war poems emphasize heroism, patriotism, honour and the like, while others emphasize suffering, death, fear and loss. What do these two perspectives on war tell us?

Winter Waves by Samantha Chong

Every Year the Royal Canadian Legion facilitates Remembrance Contest for Children and Youth where students can submit either writing (poetry and prose) or a poster design. The literature is inspiring in both the messages that are conveyed as well as the quality of the writing. It was writing from this contest that inspired a BASA student, Samantha Chong, to create her own refelect on Remembrance Day.
Perhaps you will find inspiration from either this poem or past winners of the national contests which can be found here: https://lnfcanada.ca/how-you-help/remembrance-contests-for-children-and-youth/

Raccoons in Garbage from Notes on Arrival and Departure By Rachel Rose

“Raccoons in Garbage” is a poem from Rachel Rose’s collection Notes on Arrival and Departure. She is a poetry mentor at SFU and actively seeks to inspire young artists. She takes small moments and sees them through a romantic lens. Write about a small moment from your day and give it detail through a romantic lens.

One Vote by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is a New York times best-selling author who teaches English and creative writing. One vote is a poem about how one vote can change the world. In this case, that vote comes from Harry T. Burn who had the deciding vote to ratify the 19th amendment of the U.S. Constitution giving, women the right to vote. This vote was a big milestone of the protests that had been taking place around America for decades.

The Forest from Living Under Plastic by Evelyn Lau

Evelyn Lau is a Vancouver author, and was a Poet Laureate for Vancouver from 2011 - 2014. Her work centers around emotions and the ways in which we feel them. In her poem “The Forest,” with precise diction and syntax, she details her dream.
Tell a story about a dream or old memory you had, focusing on an inanimate object. Use figurative language to the best of your ability.

Worth BY Marilyn Nelson

Marilyn Nelson was born in Cleveland, Ohio, into a military family: she is the daughter of one of the last of the Tuskegee Airmen. Her mother was a teacher. Nelson spent much of her youth living on different military bases and began writing poetry in elementary school. An accomplished poet and translator, Nelson has also written numerous books for children and young adults.

Nelson’s work for both children and adults deftly manages lyric tradition and historical truths, examining complex issues around race, feminism, and the ongoing trauma of slavery in American life in narratives poised between song and speech.

What determines the worth of a human life? Does it lie in their actions or accomplishments? Or does it have to do with their pedigree and the achievements of their ancestors? Can we sell and buy ourselves? How?

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls By Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo

In Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, authors Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo tell the stories of a wide range of the world’s most interesting and incredible women, including those alive today and those who changed history in the past.

Here, we read about Yusra Mardini, whose courage and determination not only saved the lives of many fellow refugees, it also propelled her to become an Olympic athlete.

WRITING PROMPT: What does courage mean to you? Write about a woman who inspires you with their courage and persistence.

"B" or "If I Should Have a Daughter" by Sarah Kay

An ode to motherhood. A whimsical love letter, a shared promise, a thank you note, and a whispered secret to mothers and daughters everywhere. The perfect gift, "B" celebrates the bond that exists between a parent and a child. Short, touching, and lovingly illustrated, it is a family tradition waiting to begin.

I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed (Sonnet XLI) by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Millay was one of the most respected poets of the 20th century. She was well known for her passionate public poetry readings. What I love about her story is that she was a strong woman raised by an equally strong and independent woman. Her mother raised three daughters on her own, encouraging them to be ambitious and self-sufficient. From an early age, her mother fostered an appreciation for music and literature urging Millay to enter one of her poems into a contest in 1912, which lead her to win acclaim early on and a scholarship to Vassar College.

This Little Trailblazer by Joan Holub

In This Little Trailblazer, we meet ten incredible women who accomplished remarkable feats that changed the world--and had often never been done before.

Joan Holub is the author and illustrator of over 170 books for children, including numerous picture books and the popular Goddess Girls series of chapter books.

A trailblazer is someone who does something new that has never been done. What is something you hope to do one day that has never been done before?

Welcome & Poem by Christie Charles

“Welcome & Poem” is a TEDx talk which shows the spoken word and coastal hand drum performance, written and performed by Christie Charles in her native tongue and in English. She is a Vancouver local who was the 2018-2020 Poet Laureate and centers her work on uplifting Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh voices and art.

Write about ways in which you can add to your performances through mixed media. How would you put your skills and talents to use within the spoken arts as a medium?

Princess Prunella by Margaret Atwood

Perhaps the most famous Female Canadian poet of all time, Margaret Atwood has contributed greatly to the cultural fabric of Canada. She has published best selling novels among which include The Handmaids Tale and Cat's Eye, poetry anthologies and most entertainly several books for young audience written in alliterative prose. Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanuts is a entertaining exploration of sound and sense.

Can you write a passage of alliterative prose? Can you contribute to the further adventures of Princess Prunella?

How to Triumph Like a Girl By Ada Limón

Ada Limón is the author of poetry. She earned an MFA from New York University. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including the New Yorker, Harvard Review, Pleiades, and Barrow Street.

Where do we see our strength? What do we as people connect to, what gives us understanding of where our power comes from?

Let Them Not Say by Jane Hirshfield

Photo credit: Nick Rozsa

Jane Hirshfield was born in New York City on February 24, 1953. A poet, translator, essayist, and editor, she received her BA from Princeton University in its first graduating class to include women. In recent decades, Hirshfield has become increasingly known as a poet working at the intersection of poetry, the sciences, and the crisis of the biosphere.

This poem presents a call to action, a desire to ensure that we will not accept the status quo. Write about something that you hope to see change in your lifetime.

Tula["Books are door-shaped"] by Margarita Engle

Books Are Door-Shaped is a poem from the verse novel The Lightning Dreamer by Margarita Engle. The poem depicts a girl whose parents forbid her from reading, believing it isn’t a “proper” activity for girls. Despite her parents' rules, the girl imagines marvelous and magical stories of her own, and especially loves tales with female main characters.

Margarita Engle is the author of numerous novels, memoirs and picture books. Born in Los Angeles, much of her poetry is influenced by her mother’s Cuban heritage.

Imagine a book series you know with a male main character, like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. What if the main character was a girl instead? Write a story set in that world with a female main character!