Courage in a Poem
This wildly colourful anthology digs deep and spreads wide to celebrate different forms of courage and empowerment, from the more familiar – being true to yourself, fighting injustice – to fresh expressions of bravery, such as swirling in a sari and letting Afro hair ‘grow/the way it wants to grow:/ confident again.’
Through metaphor and musical metre, twenty poets from around the world explore the language, nature, challenges and rewards of courage. Some poems, such as To Be a Man by Jay Hulme and You’re Never Too … by Laura Mucha, champion inner strength and resilience, while others look beyond. In Unfurling People, Elizabeth Acevedo describes immigration as ‘learning to stretch/ into a bridge,/ backward and forward,/ one limb in each place …’ And in reading My Heart Soars by Chief Dan George, young hearts will soar too, at the beauty of trees and mountains, sea and sky in his Canadian home. Illustrations explode from the page, bright and bold, funny and fierce. From the darkly defiant colours of Dislexic Poim by Joe Cook to the vivid, chunky figures in You Can Do It Right Now by Janet Wong, each image teams up energetically with its words.
This collection is a blast of rhythm and hope; a beautiful introduction to poetry for young readers, and an inspiring bedtime read for parents and carers.
