"Once in Awhile A Protest Poem"
A Poem by David B. Axelrod
About the Author
David B. Axelrod was born on July 29, 1943 in Beverly Massachusetts and is a well-known poet and educator. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts, a Master of Arts degree from The Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, a M.F.S. from the University of Iowa Writing Workshops, and his Ph. D. from Union Institute. Axelrod lived on Long Island for forty years before moving to his current home in Daytona Beach, Florida, and has spent most of his career traveling all over the world reading his poetry and teaching writing skills. He speaks ten languages, and has written nineteen books, along with numerous articles. He is the recipient of three Fulbright Awards and is the first Fulbright Award recipient to win back-to-back awards in two separate areas. He is the current Director of his own organization, the Creative Happiness Institute, and is also the founder and vice president of Writers Unlimited Agency, a non-profit educational service. CJF
Relation to "Becoming a Adult"
As children grow up, they will develop their own worldview. Axelrod's poem introduces the power and influence the media has over the American society and helps teenagers take a step back to consider how much media controls their responses to the world.CJF
"Once in Awhile A Protest Poem"
Over and over again the papers print
the dried out tit of an African woman
holding her starving child. Over
and over, cropping it each time to one
prominent, withered tit, the feeble
infant face. Over and over to toughen
us, teach us to ignore the foam turned
dusty powder on the infant’s lips,
the mother’s sunken face (is cropped)
and filthy dress. The tit remains;
the tit held out for everyone to see,
reminding us only that we are not so hungry
ogling the tit, admiring it and in our
living rooms, making it a symbol of starving
millions; our sympathy as real as silicone. CJF
the dried out tit of an African woman
holding her starving child. Over
and over, cropping it each time to one
prominent, withered tit, the feeble
infant face. Over and over to toughen
us, teach us to ignore the foam turned
dusty powder on the infant’s lips,
the mother’s sunken face (is cropped)
and filthy dress. The tit remains;
the tit held out for everyone to see,
reminding us only that we are not so hungry
ogling the tit, admiring it and in our
living rooms, making it a symbol of starving
millions; our sympathy as real as silicone. CJF
Discussion Questions and Activities
1. As a class, have students discuss how media has influenced their lives growing up. Have them talk about significant life events like 9/11,the Boston Marathon Bombing, the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting, Katrina, and the Colorado Theater Shooting; how has the media controlled the focus of the American public?
2. Do the starving children in Africa affect your every day life? Do people really care about helping others who are stuck in poverty?
3. Have students compare their life and possessions to people in a third world country. The idea behind this activity is to give students a different perspective on poverty and have them realize how blessed they are at home. CJF
2. Do the starving children in Africa affect your every day life? Do people really care about helping others who are stuck in poverty?
3. Have students compare their life and possessions to people in a third world country. The idea behind this activity is to give students a different perspective on poverty and have them realize how blessed they are at home. CJF
Essay and Response Questions
1. How does the author’s repeated use of “over and over” again embody the idea that when people repeatedly look at media they become dull to the reality of what they are seeing? Do you believe that people grow up seeing too many SPCA and starving Children commercials that they lose sympathy or enough motivation to help?
2. Obviously the poem is talking about a picture that would rarely appear in public media because censorship protects us from seeing the horrible truth. Do you believe censorship is necessary to protect the public from being offended by certain images, or is it really just blinding people to the true need behind the photo?
3. Do you feel that the poet is attacking western people in trying to prove that the public focuses purely on the mother and completely ignores the starving child? Why is the mother the symbol of starvation, when the malnourished child is in the same situation? How does the tit distract the public from the child?
4. Examine the significance of the last line in the poem. What is ironic about the fact that their sympathy is comparable to silicone? CJF
2. Obviously the poem is talking about a picture that would rarely appear in public media because censorship protects us from seeing the horrible truth. Do you believe censorship is necessary to protect the public from being offended by certain images, or is it really just blinding people to the true need behind the photo?
3. Do you feel that the poet is attacking western people in trying to prove that the public focuses purely on the mother and completely ignores the starving child? Why is the mother the symbol of starvation, when the malnourished child is in the same situation? How does the tit distract the public from the child?
4. Examine the significance of the last line in the poem. What is ironic about the fact that their sympathy is comparable to silicone? CJF
Formatting by: RLS