what do you think of when you hear the word Lumberjack do you think of two stocky dudes with thick beards and red and black checkered shirts pulling one of those long twers saws back and forth that's a common image you might think of but today we'll learn a lot more about Lumberjacks Michigan's known for automobile assembly lines Motown sand dunes and lakes but did you know there once was a thriving Lumber industry here in fact from 18 69 to 1900 Michigan was the leading producer of Lumber in the United States of America today the industry is smaller but it's still present and we still need Lumberjacks hi everybody I'm Jeff Cass and today we're going to explore the history of Michigan's Lumberjacks by learning a form of poetry called a blues poem Blues poems come from the distinctly American Music form known as the blues this genre were Tye of Music developed in the south after the Civil War among formerly enslaved African-Americans and their descendants Blue songs generally featured a solo artist who plays guitar and sings they're inspired by religious hymns folk songs that have been sung during fieldwork but mostly just the idea that sometimes life is hard and singing about it can be a way to work through that struggle some of the most famous Blues practitioners include Robert Johnson blind lemon Jefferson Lead Belly and BB King most of the songs followed a simple lyrical pattern where each verse consists of three lines the first line introduces the topic the second line repeats the first line sometimes with a slight variation the third line comments on expands or offers an idea in conflict with the two previous lines and the last word in the third line rhymes with the last word in the two previous lines an example of a verse from a blue song it might go something like this my dog got lost last night in the storm oh I said my dog got lost last night in the storm wow I sure hope she found some place to keep warm you see how line one introduces the topic last night my dog got lost in a storm then line two repeats line one but with a little remix then my third line expands the topic in line one my dog was lost in a storm and I hope she found somewhere warm as you can also see the last word in line three warm rhymes with the last words of lines one and two storm so now let's talk about the blues poem this form was popularized by Langston Hughes the famous poet from the Harlem Renaissance it imitates the form of the blue song and creates several three-line stanzas that explore a particular struggle or challenge so what's a stanza a stanza in a poem is a little chunk of lines that belong together kind of like a verse in a song or a paragraph in a book now let's think about Lumber Jackson Michigan we want to write a blues poem about them but first you're going to have to do some research to understand the struggles they might have encountered some things I learned about Lumberjacks from my research were that most of the tree cutting happened in Winter and that there were no roads through the forest so people couldn't just drive in from their houses for the day cut trees and then go home for their families for dinner what do you think they might have done instead if you guess they had to stay at the work site you're right loggers built camps that The Lumberjacks would live in for months at a time and they wouldn't be able to see their families that sounds hard and we're talking about the 1800s here so there wasn't any electricity in the camps or running water or anything like that the men work long hours often waking at 400 in the morning and working until 8:00 or 9 at night it was also very dangerous loggers were killed every year by Falling trees landing on them by axe or saw mishaps disease or sometimes even by freezing to death not that it was all miserable the food in the camps was apparently plentiful bread potatoes beans tea and pork and men would spend down time telling stories singing songs are playing cards all this research has got me ready to start my Lumberjack boo poem first I made a list of words that are related to Michigan Lumberjacks how about this road cold logs trees saw axe Camp tent alone boots and wood then I thought about words that rhyme with my first set of words and I added them to my list for example snow rhymes with Road and cramp lamp Stamp Those are all words that rhyme with camp now I'm going to work on an opening stanza for our Blues poem keeping in mind the lyrical pattern to write it I think I'll write something about the camp itself how about this Michigan Lumberjack Blues poem I feel so lonely in this Frozen camp oh man I feel so lonely in this Frozen camp can't even read at night he ain't got no land now it's your turn to connect some of this Michigan history while writing a Blues poem write your own Lumberjack Blues poem that describes what Michigan Lumberjack life was like for your first stanza talk about Camp life go ahead and use the stanza that we wrote together if that helps you get started or write your own if you prefer for the second stanza write three lines describing how Lumberjacks may have missed being home with their families for the third stanza write three lines about food at Camp make the last stands a topic that you choose once you're done with your Blues palem read it to a friend or a family member pretend you're in front of a campfire sharing your writing with Bellow Lumberjacks while they're hands hover over an open flame let your words keep them warm