From: Barbara Tobin <barbarat>
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2003 16:02:31 -0400

I'd like to recommend Betsy Byars' little chapter book, Beans on the Roof, as a possible way to inspire families to believe that poetry is not beyond their grasp. For those new to the book, Anna Bean is allowed to go up on the usually out-of-bounds roof of the family's urban home to compose a poem, which she hopes will be selected into the school anthology. Young George promises to write a poem if he also is allowed up to those giddy heights, and pretty soon the whole family is up there writing 'roof poems'. Although Anna's poem doesn't make the cut, her loss if her family's gain, as by now they have created their own family poetry collection. Dad comforts Anna: "You are the first person in the Bean family to write a poem. That is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened in the history of the Beans. Children, my father could not read. He could not even write his name. And here, forty years later, is a Bean who can write a poem, a poem as beautiful as a song. That makes me very, very proud."

These are working class people with no evident literary background, and the 'poems' are as simple as the story. I think there's a powerful message here. Last year, I watched a class of first and second graders perform this story, readers theatre style (scripts in hand), to their parents as a finale to their poetry unit. I thought that was a clever strategy of the teachers, to promote this idea of 'accessiblity' of poetry writing to the families. I have always felt there is a lot of potential to get families involved in the poetry process, but haven't seen it happen.

I have had such an amazing experience with my own family that I feel this idea could surely be adapted for use in some classrooms. About ten years ago I began to notice there were a lot of little scraps of poems lying around (I save everything!), written over a long period by various family members-- little ditties penned by my mother when my kids were little; a 'hospital lament' from my big sister awaiting brain surgery; an angry poem written by my daughter when she learned in 6th grade that cosmetics companies tested new products on rabbits; etc. I decided to gather these diverse verses and create a 'family poetry anthology'. By thus honoring our humble attempts, this repository sparked a flowering of poetic offerings. Closet poets emerged from the shadows-- the most astounding being my mother, who had been writing since she was 9 years old and none of us knew! Encouraged by the trust set up by the anthology, she produced a thick file of poetry that she had used to write through the pain of the tragedies she has faced in her long life
(she's 87). She let me copy (not have) two battered, folded poems she had written and carried in her wallet for 25 years, since my brother went to fight in Vietnam. No one had ever seen them before.

The anthology also inspired some family members to write new poems (and send them to me for inclusion, sometimes). I don't know if these poems would have been written if 'the book' had not existed. The book is now full, but I promised my father-in-law I would start a new one. His last poem he sent me just two months ago, his body wracked with cancer, and barely able to get to his computer. He died last week. His poems live on in the family anthology.

Perhaps simple books like Beans on the Roof could spark seeds for something magical happening in families other than mine. I'd love to see it happen.

    Barbara Tobin (barbarat at gse.upenn.edu)
Received on Sun 13 Apr 2003 03:02:31 PM CDT