HUMAN FAMILY BY DR. MAYA ANGELOU

HUMAN FAMILY (POEM BY DR. MAYA ANGELOU) 

I note the obvious differences 

in the human family. 

Some of us are serious, 

some thrive on comedy. 

Some declare their lives are lived 

as true profundity, 

and others claim they really live 

the real reality. 

The variety of our skin tones 

can confuse, bemuse, delight, 

brown and pink and beige and purple, 

tan and blue and white. 

I’ve sailed upon the seven seas 

and stopped in every land. 

I’ve seen the wonders of the world, 

not yet one common man. 

I know ten thousand women 

called Jane and Mary Jane, 

but I’ve not seen any two 

who really were the same. 

Mirror twins are different 

although their features jibe, 

and lovers think quite different thoughts 

while lying side by side. 

We love and lose in China, 

we weep on England’s moors, 

and laugh and moan in Guinea, 

and thrive on Spanish shores. 

We seek success in Finland, 

are born and die in Maine. 

In minor ways we differ, 

in major we’re the same. 

I note the obvious differences 

between each sort and type, 

but we are more alike, my friends 

than we are unalike. 

We are more alike, my friends, 

than we are unalike. 

We are more alike, my friends, 

than we are unalike.

THE KITE BY HARRY BEHN

THE KITE BY HARRY BEHN 

(All of us like to fly kites. Have you ever tried to fly one? Read this poem about a kite as it flies in the sky.)

How bright on the blue 

Is a kite when it’s new! 

With a dive and a dip 

It snaps its tail 

Then soars like a ship 

With only a sail 

As over tides 

Of wind it rides, 

Climbs to the crest 

Of a gust and pulls, 

Then seems to rest 

As wind falls. 

When string goes slack 

You wind it back 

And run until 

A new breeze blows 

And its wings fill 

And up it goes! 

How bright on the blue 

Is a kite when it’s new! 

But a raggeder thing 

You never will see 

When it flaps on a string 

In the top of a tree.

HARVEST HYMN BY JOHN BETJEMAN

Harvest Hymn by John Betjeman 

Getting Started 

List the things that we get from Nature. What do we give in return? 

What is likely to happen if there is no land to cultivate in the future? 

We spray the fields and scatter 

The poison on the ground 

So that no wicked wild flowers 

Upon our farm be found. 

We like whatever helps us 

To line our purse with pence; 

The twenty-four-hour broiler-house 

And neat electric fence. 

All concrete sheds around us 

And Jaguars in the yard, 

The telly lounge and deep-freeze 

Are ours from working hard. 

We fire the fields for harvest, 

The hedges swell the flame, 

The oak trees and the cottages 

From which our fathers came. 

We give no compensation, 

The earth is ours today, 

And if we lose on arable, 

The bungalows will pay.