This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness

Bibliography

Sidman, Joyce. 2007. This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness. Ill. by Pamela Zagarenski. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 9780618616800

Plot Summary

This is Just to Say is a collection of poems about saying sorry written by a class of sixth graders. The class to the project one step farther and asked the recipient of each apology poem to write a poem back in response. The poems are both touching and funny as we are taken into the minds of new, young poets.

Critical Analysis

This collection of poems is written by many different people, giving the readers a variety of rhythms to enjoy. It is obvious that the students had studied several different types of poems, and were able to pick a rhythm to match the tone of the poem they were going for. In Kyle’s poem “Dodge Ball Crazy” the short, zig zagged lines reminds the reader of the balls being thrown back and forth across the gym. In the poem “What Girls Want” written by Maria, The repetition of lines gives a steady rhythm that is broken up in the end with a few short, staccato lines that adds a coyness every young girl wants to get across when writing a poem to the one they like. An impressive aspect of this collection written by such young students is that the traditional format of rhyming lines, most often written by young authors, was not included in the collection. The students stepped out of this comfort zone and explored poetry without the use of rhyme.
It is apparent that the sound and language of the collection was taken into consideration for the age that wrote the poems. This being said, finding an example of onomatopoeia or alliteration is not represented in the collection. The poems’ language has shown careful consideration in the placement of lines, some starting halfway across the line, the phrases chosen to represent the tone of their parents’ voices and the use of punctuation to show both excitement and disappointment.

The imagery and emotion found in these short, simple poems was touching. A young girl named Jewel wrote a poem to her father apologizing for making him want to leave her, touching on the fact that she doesn’t forget the number of times he’d left because of crying, messing up at school and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The response was written by the same little girl after reading a letter from her father. We learn through such a simple choice of words that her father considered suicide, “leaving this world” as she put it until her poem “called him back.” In other poems older brother and sisters wrote back, making it clear that they were keeping the upper hand with such simple, to the point poems as “Roses are red, violets are blue, I’m still really, pissed off at you” and “Little brother, You are one weird kid.”

My one complaint about the book would be the organization of the poems. The book is set up with the apology poems in the first part of the book, and the response poems in the second. The way I read the book, and friends that read it as well, was to read the apology and the response immediately following. I would have preferred to have those poems next to each other in the collection. Regardless, the illustrations, theme, topic and age of the authors all worked together to create an enjoyable read I would recommend to others.

Review Excerpts

“…the poems successfully navigate the complicated terrain for those who seek forgiveness.” –Publishers Weekly

“Mrs. Merz assigns her sixth-grade students to write poems of apology, and what emerges is a surprising array of emotions, poetic forms, and subjects from dead pets and biting hamsters to angry siblings and betrayal of trust. The children decide to create their own book of these poems, complete with an introduction and occasional notes by editor Anthony K…. This is an important book both for its creativity and for its wisdom.” –School Library Journal

Connections

A poetry-inspired writing lesson
Create your own class book of poems and responses
Joyce Sidman official website

Other Books by Joyce Sidman:
-Dark Emporer: And Other Poems of the Night
-Just Us Two
-Meow Ruff
-Song of the Water Boatman