Watch the short animation called “Whale Fall.”
The following activities and questions are designed to help your students use their noticing skills to move through the poem and develop their thinking skills so they understand its meaning with confidence, using what they’ve noticed as evidence for their interpretations. Read more about the framework upon which these activities are based.
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Warm-up: Listen to the song, “Mother Earth” by Neil Young & Crazy Horse. What stands out to you in the song? Why?
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Before Reading the Poem: Watch the short animation called “Whale Fall.” After watching this video, join with a partner or small group and discuss something that stood out to you in the video. Then discuss the following questions with the class: What other ecosystems can you think of? What role do humans play in these ecosystems?
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Reading the Poem: Silently read the poem “A dead whale can feed an entire ecosystem” by Rachel Dillon. What do you notice about the poem? Note any words or phrases that stand out to you or any questions you might have.
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Listening to the Poem: Enlist two volunteers and listen as the poem is read aloud twice. Write down any additional words and phrases that stand out to you.
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Small Group Discussion: Share what you noticed about the poem with a small group. How might this be similar to or different from the resources from the beginning of class? What do you make of the title and the first line? How might the poem be different without it? Reread the lines, “Please, someone— / tell me a poem can coax // oil from a sea bird’s throat.” What can a poem do to address major societal issues? Why might this matter?
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Whole Class Discussion: What is the relationship between the speaker and the natural world? What is your relationship to the natural world? The poem uses anaphora in the lines, “Come hurricane, come rip current, / come toxic algal bloom.” What might this line mean?
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Extension for Grades 7-8: Write your own poem, exploring humans and our relationship to our individual ecosystem. Share your writing with the class. You can find more poems and inspiration about the environment.
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Extension for Grades 9-12: Read more poems about the environment and the Treehouse Climate Action Prize. The prize honors poems that “help readers recognize the vulnerable state of the environment.” Write your own poem concerning the environment. (Teachers, you may wish to partner with science teachers to sponsor a school-wide poetry contest that honors a poem in this same vein.)
The poet, Rachel Dillon, writes about the poem, “This poem began as an exploration of the tension between my two selves: the poet self who wanders the wilderness, and the real-world self who lives in a city and tends to be more fearful. Poetry allows me to create worlds in which I am brave and gives me a chance to visit spaces I don’t normally have access to. This poem reminds me that if I can explore what scares me on the page—from the passage of time to the climate crisis—then it’s possible to confront what scares me in life, too; and that a poem ending with a question can offer a kind of answer. It also owes a debt of gratitude to H. R. Webster’s poem ‘Dog Bite,’ which begins with the line, ‘At the end of this poem the dog dies.’”