Is this Forever, or What?: Poems and Paintings from Texas

Bibliography

Nye, N.S. (2004). Is this forever, or what?: Poems & paintings from Texas. New York: Greenwillow Books. ISBN 0060511788.

Review

In the introduction to this anthology, Naomi Shihab Nye explains that the poets and the painters that contributed to it “represent the beautiful diversity, the multiplicity of our state”.  This rings true in multicultural poems by poets such as Pat Mora and Sandra Cisneros. Many of the poems are nostalgic, reflecting life in small Texas towns such as “And Every Town it’s Dairy Queen” and “El Ice-Creenero/The Ice-Cream Man”. The topics and poetic formats are also diverse. Some poems are written using rhyming stanzas while others are strictly free verse. “At Sixteen” is written in four line stanzas where the second and fourth line of a stanza become the first and third line of the following stanza creating a playful repetition. The paintings also celebrate diversity showing Texas landscapes as well as abstract pieces. Readers can learn more about the artists that contributed to the book by reading the epilogue.

Classroom/Library Connection

Recommended audience: High school students

Before reading: Discuss the term imagery and how it relates to poetry.

During reading: Read the poem “Earl’s” by Andrea Greimel aloud. Put the poem on the document camera so that students may re-read it to themselves. Here are the first three stanzas:

The blue-haired ladies

mash at the crust

of their red cherry pie

with the backs of forks

sip at watery Sanka

all dolled up

with NutraSweet

talk over the gravest faults

of their daughter-in-law

out of the sides

of latticed lips

After reading: Give students art materials such as charcoal pencils, oil pastels, or watercolors and allow them to create this scene as they see it.