THIS IS JUST TO SAY: POEMS OF APOLOGY AND FORGIVENESS

Sidman, Joyce, and Pamela Zagarenski. THIS IS JUST TO SAY: POEMS OF APOLOGY AND FORGIVENESS. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2007. 0618616802.

This is
         Just
             to
                Say
Poems of Apology and Forgiveness

This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness by Joyce Sidman and Pamela Zagarenski is a sincere and honest look at something that is so difficult to say:  “I’m sorry.”  In this book, a class of sixth graders write poems of apology to people they have wronged along the way.  Each piece is an honest account of the incidents that lead up to needing to apologize.  Some of the topics are humorous, like “Dodge Ball Crazy” and some are quite serious like “Fashion Sense” but all are honest and straight forward from the heart.  Each young poet worked to refine his/her piece to its finest form to have the piece published.  Along the ay, they came up with the idea to have the person receiving the apology to write back to them about the poem.  These pieces became part of the collection of poetry that went into the book.  Each of the pieces shows the hard work and command of poetic elements each student possessed in writing the pieces.  A variety of poetic forms are used along the way and shows the evolution of some of the writing.  The Introduction, like the poems, is artfully honest about the struggle of 6^th graders producing a book.  The second half of the book contains the responses to the apologies.  The piece that responds to Carmen’s heartfelt remorse in “Fashion Sense” shows the genuine nature of forgiveness.  This would be a nice piece to use when teaching a character lesson to students.  It’s important to realize that apologies are important but accepting the apology is also important. 

Haiku for Carmen

Just these few words,

And spring sunlight fills the room;

My dress turns to sky.

The accompanying artwork shows the freeing nature of the piece.  Each illustration in the book lends itself to the theme of the poem and leads to reader to a deeper understanding of each piece.  Students could expand o the concept by creating their own apology poems and creating and decorating cards of apology to someone or something they feel they have wronged.