Learning by Heart: Contemporary American Poetry About School [Hardcover]

Maggie Anderson (Editor), David Hassler (Editor), Robert Coles (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1999

Learning by Heart brings together a unique and diverse collection of poems about the experience of school as seen through the eyes of America's best contemporary poets. These poets capture the educational process not only in the classroom but as it takes place in the libraries and hallways, on playing fields, and at dances. Alternately joyous and defiant, they demonstrate how it is that young people come to find their place in the world.

Most of the poems in this anthology were written between 1970 and 1995, a period that encompasses both the halcyon years of the poets-in-the-schools programs and the primary and secondary school years of many of the poets included. Their poems define school in that most contemporary sense--with a multitude of voices--reflecting perspectives from African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, and Native American as well as Anglo American backgrounds, from both public and private schools in rural and urban environments.

Learning by Heart offers a profound and timely statement about schools and learning as well as the role of art in education. Finally, these poems validate that most important lesson: even the most common of experiences is worthy of creative expression.

Contributors include Gary Snyder, Louise Glick, Eamon Grennan, Donald Hall, Audre Lorde, Gary Soto, Mark Doty, Paul Zimmer, Jane Kenyon, Li-Young Lee, Jorie Graham, David Wojahn, Louise Erdich, Toi Derricotte, Philip Levine, William Stafford, James Wright, Sherman Alexie, Cornelius Eady, Rita Dove, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maxine Kumin, Edward Hirsch, Robert Bly, Sharon Olds, and Brigit Pegeen Kelly.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I would wager that you have forgotten 90% of the academic lessons you learned in school. I would also wager that you remember 100% of the lessons you learned about yourself--from your teachers and your classmates. And I am certain that whether you were the teacher's pet or the pariah of the playground, you will find yourself in Learning by Heart, walking those familiar hallways, hiding in those familiar corners, wishing on the stars and stepping over the cracks in the sidewalk in front of your own school." -- LouAnne Johnson, author of Dangerous Minds

Beating Up Billy Murphy In Fifth Grade by Kathleen Aguero
At Navajo Monument Valley Tribal School by Sherman Alexie
Spitting In The Leaves by Maggie Anderson
The Thing You Must Remember by Maggie Anderson
Spanish Lessons by Rane Arroyo
Saving The Crippled Boy by Jan Beatty
A History Of Sexual Preference by Robin Becker
Hockey Season by Robin Becker
Gratitude To Old Teachers by Robert Bly
Gee, You're So Beautiful That It's Starting To Rain by Richard Brautigan
Uncle Seagram by Gwendolyn Brooks
How Steel Shapes Our Lives by Jeanne Bryner
Recess by Christopher Bursk
Lecciones De La Lengua, 1970 by Brenda Cardenas
Soul Make A Path Through Shouting by Cyrus Curtis Cassells
David Talamantez On The Last Day Of Second Grade by Rosemary Catacalos
Dojo by Thomas Centolella
Ode by Thomas Centolella
Cheerleaders by Lisa Coffman
The Pageant by Michael Collier
The History Teacher by Billy Collins
Schoolsville by Billy Collins
God's Stopwatch by Jim Daniels
Passing by Jim Daniels
Class Reunion by Ann Darr
Fears Of The Eighth Grade by Toi Derricotte
St. Peter Claver by Toi Derricotte
Words by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
In The Elementary School Choir by Gregory Djanikian
Field Trip To The Rolling Mill, 1950 by Patricia Dobler
Beginners by Mark Doty
Flash Cards by Rita Dove
The Sacred by Stephen Elliott Dunn
The Supremes by Cornelius Robert Eady
Faggot by Thomas Sayers Ellis
Stayed Back by Thomas Sayers Ellis
Indian Boarding School: The Runaways by Louise Erdrich
Bully by Martin Espada
Public School 190, Brooklyn 1963 by Martin Espada
Marcus Millsap: School Day Afternoon by Dave Etter
Room 19, Eakin Elementary by Diane Gilliam Fisher
Name Giveaway by Phillip William George
First Practice by Gary Gildner
Letter To A Substitute Teacher by Gary Gildner
Stuart Rieger by Mel Glenn
The School Children by Louise Gluck
Learning Spanish by Sara Goodrich
Penmanship by Jorie Graham
Taking My Son To School by Eamon Grennan
Plum-dark Humor by Maurice Kilwein Guevara
Directions For Resisting The Sat by Richard Hague
Spring Glen Grammar School by Donald Hall
Busing by James Harms
Field Trip To My First Time by James Harms
Lunch by Marc Harshman
Reaching To A Sky Of Soba by David Hassler
The Schoolroom On The Second Floor Of The Knitting Mill by Judith Page Heitzman
Instruction by Conrad Arthur Hilberry
Execution by Edward Hirsch
The School by David Huddle
The Beating by T. R. Hummer
Bonfire by Paul B. Janeczko
Day-tripping by Allison Joseph
Junior High Dance by Allison Joseph
Catholics by Julia Spicher Kasdorf
How My Father Learned English by Julia Spicher Kasdorf
The Teacher by Brigit Pegeen Kelly
Learning In The First Grade by Jane Kenyon
Trouble With Math In A One-room Country School by Jane Kenyon
Schoolyard In April by Kenneth Koch
School Buses by Frank Kooistra
The Nuns Of Childhood: Two Views: 1. by Maxine W. Kumin
The Nuns Of Childhood: Two Views: 2. by Maxine W. Kumin
Homecoming by Dorianne Laux
Persimmons by Li-young Lee
Among Children by Philip Levine
M. Degas Teaches Art & Science At Durfee Intermediate School by Philip Levine
Childhood Ideogram by Larry Levis
Raising Their Hands by Julia Lisella
The Grade School I Attended Was Next To A Slaughterhouse by Chris Llewellyn
Brother Alvin by Audre Lorde
Teacher by Audre Lorde
School Days by William Matthews
Schoolboys With Dog, Winter by William Matthews
Hotel Nights With My Mother by Linda Mccarriston
For The Cheerleaders Of Garfield High by Colleen Johnson Mcelroy
Recess by Colleen Johnson Mcelroy
Waiting by Peg Mcnally
Barbie Says Math Is Hard by Kyoko Mori
Third Day Of Spring by Susan Murray
Home by Marilyn Nelson
Escape by Naomi Shihab Nye
Rain by Naomi Shihab Nye
Autobiographia Literaria by Frank O'hara
Nostalgia by Joyce Carol Oates
Mrs. Krikorian by Sharon Olds
The Spelling-bee As Foreshadowing by Carole Simmons Oles
Advice To Young Writers by Ron Padgett
Pass/fail by Linda Pastan
Our Room by Molly Peacock
Sunny Days by Molly Peacock
Diction by Hilda Raz
The Sandhills, Early Winter by Hilda Raz
Catatonia; In A Classroom For The Slow To Learn by Clenn Reed
Going Full-court by John Repp
Sex Ed by Elizabeth Neary Sholl
Learning To Read by Thomas R. Smith
Painting The North San Juan School by Gary Snyder
Cruel Boys by Gary Soto
Dropout by William Edgar Stafford
First Grade by William Edgar Stafford
Shapes, Vanishings by Henry Splawn Taylor
The Truant Officer's Helper by David Wagoner
Miss Goff by Ronald W. Wallace
Mr. Glusenkamp by Ronald W. Wallace
Mrs. Goldwasser by Ronald W. Wallace
Mrs. Orton by Ronald W. Wallace
What Saves Us by Bruce Weigl
Poet In Residence At A Country School by Don Welch
The High School Band In September by Reed Whittemore
The Teacher Said by Dara Wier
The Boy In The Park by Rosemary Willey
Drawing Hands by Greg Williamson
When Your Father Is Also Your Wrestling Coach by Andrew L. Wilson
Drill, 1957 by Nance Van Winckel
Two-room Schoolhouse by Nance Van Winckel
Sunglasses; Air Raid Drill At Wildwood Elementary, November 20, 1963 by David Wojahn
Autumn Begins In Martins Ferry, Ohio by James Wright
Teaching by Albert James Young
Zimmer In Grade School by Paul Zimmer
Zimmer's Head Thudding Against The Blackboard by Paul Zimmer
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

About the Author

Maggie Anderson is the author of four books of poems, most recently A Space Filled with Moving and Cold Comfort. She taught for ten years as poet-in-the-schools in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. She is associate professor and director of the Wick Poetry Program at Kent State University. David Hassler is the author of Sabishi: Poems from Japan and editor of April Seeds Dreaming of the Sky, an anthology of poetry by first and second graders. He works as poet-in-the-schools for the Ohio Arts Council and is associate artist for the Shaker Heights High School theater department in Cleveland.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 228 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Iowa Press (April 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877456623
• ISBN-13: 978-0877456629
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,723,834 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for everyone who's ever been to school, May 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Learning by Heart: Contemporary American Poetry about School (Paperback)

This collection includes some of the best poems of our time--all related to school. The pain and poignancy of school-age experiences in the classroom, on the playground, or on the athletic field, are captured in this volume with the resonance of shared life. The names of teachers--Mrs. Krikorian, Mrs. Smythe, and the rest--bring back our own teachers' faces and even their "sausage arms." Teachers themselves speak here as well, with humor, sadness, or a sense of loss about the classrooms of children they have known. This volume, with work by our best contemporary poets, is a must-read for anyone who teaches or learns or who has ever been in school.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars School., May 15, 2000

By 

Susan R Murray - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learning by Heart: Contemporary American Poetry About School (Hardcover)

School continues to be one of the most traumatizing/wonderful experiences of my life. This book talks about school from all angles .. highly recommended.