View artworks from Yale Climate Connections that imagine a new future for the the climate.
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: Journal or draw what comes up when you hear the phrase: “A Prayer to Talk to Animals.” Share your writing or drawing with a classmate. What did you want to say to animals? Why?
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Before Reading the Poem: (Teachers, we suggest making this article into a digital or printed gallery walk so that students can easily view all of the images.) View artworks that imagine a new future for the the climate. Stop and look closely at each piece of art. What do you notice? What stands out and why? Look again. What else do you see? After viewing all of the images, share with your class what patterns you noticed. What does this tell you?
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Reading the Poem: Silently read the poem “A Prayer to Talk to Animals” by Nickole Brown. 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. You might want to watch this video of the poet reading the poem.
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Small Group Discussion: Share what you noticed about the poem with a small group of students. How does the art you observed connect to the poem? How is this poem a prayer and/or a call to action? What does the speaker hope for?
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Whole Class Discussion: What do the following lines imply? “Would you let me / tell your creatures how sorry / I am, let them know exactly / what we’ve done?” What is the relationship between the speaker and animals and/or nature? Read the “About the Poem” statement. How does it inform your understanding of the poem?
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Extension for Grades 7-8: Respond to this poem by writing your own poem titled “Prayer to Talk to Humans.” What might an animal want to say to humans? What might an animal need to tell us about the world right now? Share your poem with your class, and if you feel inspired, create a drawing to accompany your picture.
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Extension for Grades 9-12: Work with your school and science teacher(s) to plan a climate day of action for your school community. What activities might you want to include? What actions might you add? Find poems to read on the day of action.
In her “About This Poem” statement, Nickole Brown writes, “‘A Prayer to Talk to Animals’ is an incantation that opens a forthcoming collection with its eye to animal sentience and behavior, and ultimately, it’s my attempt to give voice to what we’re bound to lose in the face of climate change and continued ecological devastation. I’ve been researching for this project for some time—reading every biology text I can but also volunteering at a farm sanctuary and a nature center, trying to get close to animals and observe them. Once finished, this project will result in a kind of a bestiary, I suppose, but it won’t consist of the kind of pastorals that always made me (and most of the working class folks I know) feel shut out of nature and the writing about it—these poems speak in a queer, Southern-trash-talking kind of way about nature beautiful, but damaged and dangerous.”