Kimii Nagata

Kimii Nagata was a high school senior who spent Christmas 1944 with her family at the Gila River concentration camp when she wrote the poem "Be Like the Cactus."

Be Like the Cactus

Let not harsh tongues, that wag

in vain,

Discourage you. In spite of

pain,

Be like the cactus, which through

rain,

And storm, and thunder, can

remain.

Published:

None

Length:

Shorty

Literary Movements:

Japanese-Internment Poetry

Anthology Years:

2024

Themes:

Strength & Resilience

Literary Devices:

Rhyme

correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, especially when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry

Simile

a comparison between two unlike things using the words “like” or “as”