Soaring Earth Read online

  Somehow, confusion often leads

  toward clarity.

  GROWTH

  Dr. H. stands in front of the botany lab

  as we dissect potatoes.

  Each “eye” is the bud of a stem

  that can grow into an entirely new

  separate plant.

  You poor city kids,

  Dr. H. says with a sigh,

  you think strawberries sprout

  from those little green boxes

  at the supermarket.

  Don’t you?

  She’s right.

  I’ve been away from Cuba’s farms for so long

  that I’ve forgotten about soil, roots, shoots,

  flowers, fruit, and seeds.

  Now I need to start over,

  learning all that I knew so well

  when I was little.

  EVERY BREATH COMES FROM SOMETHING GREEN

  The poetry of botanical language

  helps me feel hopeful.

  Without plants, human life

  is impossible—oxygen, not just food,

  photosynthesis seems miraculous,

  a magical transformation of sunlight,

  the chemistry of molecules altered

  by radiant rays.

  In lab, we slice through plant organs,

  then examine tissues under the lens

  of a dissecting microscope

  so that we can grasp

  a clear view of membranes

  and cell walls, all the places

  where amazing reactions occur.

  It’s like peering into the not-so-distant past,

  seeing a time when no human tribe survived

  without understanding useful plants.

  THE KINSHIP OF TREES

  On walks around campus

  there’s taxonomy,

  the relationships between species

  found along pathways, all the trees,

  shrubs, weeds, and flowering vines

  equally fascinating—so many ways

  to belong

  on earth.

  INSPIRATION

  Dr. H. is Chinese American, her Japanese surname

  the result of a marriage that enrages both their families.

  She’s a specialist in the tropical ferns of Costa Rica,

  while he’s a researcher studying magnetic fields

  in Antarctica.

  How easily my botany professor

  defies

  expectations!

  She teaches me tidbits

  of commonsense wisdom

  that help me feel

  prepared for life

  on this planet,

  as if I’m a creature

  that has just arrived

  from outer space.

  Mangoes are related to poison oak,

  so that’s why the delicious fruit’s peel

  leaves a rash on my lips.

  The sticky pollen of colorful blossoms

  rarely causes hay fever, because those flowers

  are pollinated by hummingbirds, butterflies, bees. . . .

  Windborne pollen grains

  are the real culprits,

  rising from blooms

  we barely notice,

  the greenish flowers

  of grasses and ragweed.

  But the most important fact I absorb

  during a thrilling series of botany lectures

  is the history of agriculture, a skill invented

  by women, while men were roaming

  far and wide, hunting

  or waging war.

  Women and girls

  were the creative gatherers

  who harvested seeds,

  then experimented

  by planting.

  Trying something new

  came so naturally

  to nomads who were always

  hungry.

  AN URGENT CAUSE

  A green world.

  Healthy seeds

  in fertile soil.

  Food for billions

  of hungry strangers.

  More and more billions

  every few decades.

  Desertification.

  Trees are disappearing

  dry regions spreading

  geography changing

  and once the trees

  vanish

  rainfall

  decreases

  the climate

  is altered.

  No way

  to turn back.

  I FIND MY FUTURE AT THE LIBRARY

  Leafing through thick college catalogs

  I choose a polytechnic university

  and a major:

  Agronomy.

  Crop production.

  This time, I won’t give up.

  I need to learn how to help feed the hungry

  with roots, shoots, seeds, fruit,

  and perseverance.

  TRANSFER

  The names of the classes

  sound like a poem of plant growth—

  vegetable production, irrigated pastures,

  range management, weed identification,

  cereal production, and just for fun—equitation,

  riding horses!

  But it won’t be easy.

  I’m one of the first two female

  agronomy students

  on this campus

  and the only Latina.

  I need student loans

  and help from my parents,

  as well as a job on the college farm crew,

  hoeing weeds because the professors think

  women shouldn’t operate heavy equipment.

  I can put up with their old-fashioned ideas

  if it means having a chance to break

  this glass ceiling.

  POETRY REDISCOVERS ME

  Once I know what I want to do with my life,

  words, verses, and rhythms

  return!

  I start scribbling poems, and soon

  I’m reading a slim bilingual volume

  by Tomás Rivera—Y no se lo tragó

  la tierra/And the Earth

  Did Not Swallow Him.

  I love the way verse and prose

  Spanish and English

  childhood

  and growing

  are all interwoven

  in such a natural way.

  Rivera’s book is unique and familiar

  at the same time, like an ocean wave

  approaching from a distant island

  where I existed long before I became

  an adult.

  Enchanted Earth

  1973

  PERSISTENCE

  So much has changed.

  Poetry miraculously returned

  to my lonely soul, and sometimes

  I’m almost

  actually brave.

  I’ve volunteered with a Quaker project

  in an earthquake-ravaged village

  on the high plateau of central Mexico.

  I’ve wandered through Guatemala alone,

  and joined a Sierra Club expedition

  to study a wild mountain

  in Montana.

  I’ve spoken about farmworker rights

  to a room full of the hostile sons

  of farm owners.

  Most of all, I’ve studied

  and learned

  without dropping out

  when college life

  grows confusing. . . .

  And along the way

  two separated halves

  of my mind have floated

  a little bit closer together

  now that Abuelita, my grandma,

  is a refugee in the US,

  merciful asylum granted,

  her Freedom Flight to Spain

  just a detour on her way

  to making our divided family

  whole

  again.

  WHILE THE EARTH SPINS

  Introduction
to Arthropods.

  It’s a class about insects, spiders,

  centipedes, millipedes, crustaceans,

  and other invertebrates

  with segmented bodies

  and hard exoskeletons

  outside their soft flesh

  instead of within.

  The eccentric professor

  decides to experiment

  by leaving the room

  and instructing us

  to figure things out

  on our own.

  Even though I’ve read the chapter

  about insect mouth parts, I don’t know

  what to say in a small discussion group,

  so instead

  I listen

  to travel stories

  told by a handsome veteran

  who was lucky enough to be stationed

  in Oklahoma, instead of Vietnam.

  He recently returned from a whole year

  of wandering

  all over the world,

  from Portugal, Spain, and Morocco

  to Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan,

  India, Thailand, Singapore. . . .

  A loyal dog named Flo

  follows Curtis

  from class to class.

  I imagine that anyone

  who is so patient and gentle

  with a trusting animal

  must be honest and kind

  to people too.

  I’m right.

  EACH YEAR IS ONE SWIFT JOURNEY ALL THE WAY AROUND THE DISTANT SUN

  Over the next few years

  while we finish college

  and graduate school,

  we become best friends,

  then eventually more. . . .

  Our lives turn into

  a love story.

  Hope follows

  wherever

  we go.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  I never imagined there could be another time as turbulent as the 1960s. The Vietnam War, which seemed to last forever, should have served as a warning against the quagmires of twenty-first century, US-led conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. American high school students today have never known a single minute when their country was not at war. Peace, civil rights, freedom of expression, environmental causes, and all the other goals of my generation’s protests are once again under threat. Defending those rights and freedoms is necessary, but protests sometimes grow violent, and when they do, it’s confusing.

  College is hard work, even in quieter times. Distractions and discouragement are common. Chaos and other challenges such as homesickness, hostile relationships, substance abuse, family pressures, or financial hardships can lead to dismay, even depression. More than half of all college students drop out.

  Community college saved me. The classes were small enough for personal interaction with professors who loved to teach. Fees were low, giving me time to experiment by studying different subjects until I found one I truly loved. I wrote Soaring Earth because I hope that high school and middle school students who are already dreaming of college might realize that it’s fine to follow any one of a variety of pathways. Big, famous campuses aren’t the only ones that can offer an inspiring education. All that matters is choosing a place to start, and then persevering. I ended up working as an agronomist, botanist, and water conservation specialist, as well as a poet, novelist, and journalist. I have been married to the handsome guy with the dog for forty years, and I still feel like hope follows wherever love goes.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I thank God for hope.

  I’m grateful to Curtis, Flo, and the rest of our family for love.

  For my thrilling role as the national 2017–2019 Young People’s Poet Laureate, profound thanks to the Poetry Foundation. For ongoing encouragement, I’m grateful to Jennifer Crow, Kristene Scolefield, and the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature. For help with a phoenetic depiction of Hindi phrases, I am thankful to Gauri Manglik, Jaskaranjit Singh, and Kristi Miller. Thanks also to Mila Rianto, Sandra Ríos Balderrama, Angelica Carpenter, Joan Schoettler, and Ann Caruthers. As always, I’m deeply grateful to my agent, Michelle Humphrey, and to my editor, Reka Simonsen, and the entire publishing team at Atheneum.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Margarita Engle is the national Young People’s Poet Laureate and the first Latino to receive that honor. She is a Cuban American author of many verse novels, including The Surrender Tree, a Newbery Honor book, and The Lightning Dreamer, a PEN Literary Award for Young Adult Literature winner. Her verse memoir Enchanted Air received the Pura Belpré Author Award and was a Walter Honor Book, Younger Readers Category, and a finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults, among other accolades. Her picture book Drum Dream Girl received the Charlotte Zolotow Award. Margarita was born in Los Angeles, but developed a deep attachment to her mother’s homeland during childhood summers with relatives. She continues to visit Cuba as often as she can. Visit her at margaritaengle.com.

  Visit us at simonandschuster.com/teen

  Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Margarita-Engle

  Atheneum Books for Young Readers

  Simon & Schuster, New York

  ALSO BY MARGARITA ENGLE

  Enchanted Air:

  Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir

  Aire encantado:

  Dos culturas, dos alas: una memoria

  Jazz Owls:

  A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots

  Forest World

  Lion Island:

  Cuba’s Warrior of Words

  Silver People:

  Voices from the Panama Canal

  The Lightning Dreamer:

  Cuba’s Greatest Abolitionist

  The Wild Book

  Hurricane Dancers:

  The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck

  The Firefly Letters:

  A Suffragette’s Journey to Cuba

  Tropical Secrets:

  Holocaust Refugees in Cuba

  The Surrender Tree:

  Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom

  The Poet Slave of Cuba:

  A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  This work is a memoir. It reflects the author’s present recollections of her experiences over a period of years. Certain names (or first initials) have been changed.

  Text copyright © 2019 by Margarita Engle

  Illustrations and hand-lettering copyright © 2019 by Edel Rodriguez

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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  Book design by Debra Sfetsios-Conover

  Jacket design by Debra Sfetsios-Conover

  Jacket illustration and hand-lettering copyright © 2019 by Edel Rodriguez

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Engle, Margarita, author.

  Title: Soaring earth : a companion memoir to Enchanted Air / Margarita Engle.

  Description: First edition. | New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, [2019]

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018003603 | ISBN 9781534429536 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781534429550 (eBook)

  Subjects: LCSH: Engle, Margarita—Juvenile literature. | Cuban Americans—Biography—Juvenile literature. | Women authors, American—20th century—Biography—Juvenile literature.

  Classification: LCC PS3555.N4254 Z46 2019 | DDC 811/
.54 [B]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018003603