Lucille Clifton

Lucille Clifton reading Homage to my Hips

http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=3656

Poem # 2 for 2-16

(attempt at performance poem, which morphed into something else)

Stand up

I have an urge to feel what it is like on stage,
watching the faces below contort in laughter
wondering if that guy’s face looks just like this during sex
or if that woman knows she has lipstick smeared all over her teeth.

I want to be adored, told what a funny bitch I am.
Not crude and bizarre like Sarah Silverman waxing on about her grandmother’s vagina
Or goofy and endearing like Ellen dancing onstage.
Or cynical, like Roseanne grabbing her crotch and spitting at the end of the anthem.
I don’t wanna hear, “Oh, she’s funny. For a girl.”

I want people bent over, gasping, laughing so loud I can’t even go on.
Hoping my show will last for hours.
Texting their friends during my bit, “omg … shes so funny!!”

I want my family to admit I am hilarious, not caustic.
And to make that horrible Vatican-I-Catholic-Priss at my work to laugh
in spite of the stick in her ass.

So when I find the courage, I will stand up there.
Promise me you’ll be there? And that you'll be laughing.

Performance poem 1: 2-16

So I made not a very good recording, but it is late, and I couldn't figure out how to host it online in an easy way because my brain is fried. It you are DYING to hear it, e-mail me. :P


Here is the text of the poem:

Misery. Man, she’s become like a bad friend to me
Insidiously fighting any moment of hope stealing my free-
wheeling, eye-flashing, happier self, or even killing
me, inside to the out, smiling as she lied about having my best interests, willing
to “help” me, each assist a razor-sharp nick.

Classic frenemies. It’s sick
how I hate her but I still let her stick
her talons into my gut, seating them deep within.

She’s an itching, pinching undergarment of doubt
still that I fear to appear without.
Her biting remarks and undermining ways
are a yardstick to cling to, besides they don’t faze
me.

Better to have someone to give measure to the now and here
even if she brings super-sized pain and discontent and fear.
Better to take her crap, really.
It is the one thing I have that is offered freely.

Because Misery and I? We need each other.
With me to hold down and her to cling to
My life morphs from nothing to something to get through.

Performance Poetry Review: wallybsomebody

This is a video of Wally B Somebody performing at the Southern Fried Poetry Slam. There are a lot of reasons that this piece works very well as a piece of performance poetry. Truly, I am not sure it would work as written poetry even half as well. First, there is the booming emotion with which Wally shares his piece. You can feel the anger and disillusionment in his words, but also in his tone, his gestures, the way he paces. It makes the emotion larger than life, and it leaves no questions about how the author feels or his intent.

Next, I think this pieces works because Wally is a performer. He uses pauses, inflection, drawn out words and humor to his advantage. He draws his audience in and helps them feel his words, making them laugh, gasp and groan on cue. I also think his choice of subject, poetry slams, is relevant to his audience. This makes it easier to generate the reactions he wants.

I admire how Wally seems to know himself so well, and be willing to talk about how he feels he has failed himself. I like how he talks about the process of writing, memorizing, etc., and you can hear the self-deprecation radiating from him onstage.
What doesn’t work in this poem, for me, is that while Wally is impressive with his energetic, tongue-twisting flow, it sometimes overwhelms me and makes me lose his point. Also, while I admire the energy and passion he displays, the performance is, at times, bombastic. Oh, poor you that you are so successful at performing poetry. Boo hoo!

As I mentioned previously, I do think that this works more as a written performance, rather than a poem, but it does have poetic elements. There is a definitely rhythm/rhyme to the poem, and it takes more poetic approaches to thoughts (short, staccato thoughts, not like prose). I like some of his vocabulary, and find it poetic, such as calling himself an alchemist. And the way the poem takes such raw emotions and tries to give them context to me, is an important aspect of poetry (versus ranting or diary keeping).

My Whole

When I am dead, my dearest
Please speak the truth of me.
Do not say I was an angel, hauntingly lovely and as pure
As our child’s half-open mouth as he sleeps.
Instead, shout loudly of my hammering anger,
My scalpel-fine meanness
My earth-flattening depression
The loneliness I carried in my mouth.

I no longer care to hide.

Then, spare a moment for the rest:
My room-illuminating smile
My irresistible humor
The heart-hurting compassion I kept mostly hidden.

In death, let me be more real and complete than in life.

Two Assignments for HS Writers - For class 2-9-10

Writing your life: A lesson in autobiography
This is a good activity with which to begin the school year, both because students get to write on something about which they are experts (themselves), and because it helps them to get to know other students.

UNIT OBJECTIVES

1. Students will grow better at the writing/edit process.
   
2. Students will create an autobiography product.
   
3. Students and teacher will get to know each other.

Lesson 1: Prewriting

Students will create a visual representation of key aspects of their lives. Using the questions below, they will draw a life map or create one on the computer.

• Technological option: Use Inspiration software to create a mind map, including pictures
  
• Non-technological option: Use colored pencils and paper to draw images

Step 1: Tell the students that they will be writing an autobiography later in class. Build on prior knowledge and ask if any of them have written an autobiography before and have them share their experience. Remind them that an autobiography contains information about one's own life written by that one person. Briefly introduce some autobiography titles, and encourage students to read one of their choice during their independent reading time. Tell the students that they will first pre-write that autobiography by creating a life map.

Step 2: Hand out your life map questions to the students. Remind them that they do not have to write anything on their Life Map and that their entire life story (past, present, and future) will be told in pictures. Have the students clear everything from their desks. Give the students their blank sheets of paper and colored pencils. Let them begin.

1. Where you were born?
   
2. Where was your first house?
   
3. Where did you go to kindergarten?
   
4. Where did you go to middle school?
   
5. Where are you going to high school?
   
6. Who are the members of your family?
   
7. What did you want to be as a grown up when you were little?
   
8. Did you have any special pets?
   
9. What was your favorite toy?
   
10. Who were/are your best friends?
    
11. What was one thing you were afraid of as a kid?
    
12. Name a favorite piece of clothing you once owned.
    
13. What was your favorite book as a child?
    
14. What chore do you dislike the most?
    
15. What is one place you have traveled or want to travel?

Step 3: After completing the visual life map, students will share with the class or a small group.

Lesson 2: Writing your Autobiography

Warm up: Reviewing the concept taught the previous day, ask students to respond to this journal prompt with one single drawing.

Prompt: Project yourself twenty years into the future. What are you doing?

Then, have them respond to that same prompt using a few sentences.

Students Will:

1. Write a strong introduction for their autobiography.
   
2. Write an autobiographical draft that accurately reflects their life map.
   
3. Use the peer editing process.

Step 1: Remind students that an autobiography contains information about one's own life written by that one person. Remind students of the various autobiography titles you have been reading throughout this unit and discuss how each author told their own story. Share with the students that they will begin their autobiography drafts today, that they are just collecting all their thoughts, and need not worry about doing everything correctly.

Step 2: Remind the students that each picture they drew represents a paragraph in their autobiography. Brainstorm a variety of strong introductory sentences with the students.

Step 3: Have the students work on their autobiography drafts, to just write their ideas on paper. Upon completion, instruct students to do a "re-read" of their draft and make any initial changes before the peer editing process.

Step 4: Have each choose a partner for the next steps of the writing process - revising and editing. Distribute a peer editing checklist to each student to use as a guide while they read each other's draft and make suggestions for revisions.

Step 5: Finally, have each student do a read-through of his or her own and identify some ways to make the draft strong. Then, take those ideas and incorporate revisions from the other student to create a final draft.


Developed from: “Writing an autobiography” by Elizabeth Ramos: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/lessonplan.jsp?id=24

Creative Writing Assignment

Assignment for 2-2-10

Teacher gives out this assignment in pieces. The students don’t get the next piece of the puzzle until they have finished the prior one. This both helps them to be less overwhelmed as well as to keep them from tailoring their writing and choices to fit the final products, thereby making them stretch more.

1. Choose three pictures:

• Old family photo
  
• Magazine clipping
  
• Recent shot

2. Jot down some observations for each item. Start with the aesthetics and what you notice. Then, move on to how they make you feel or personal associations.

3. Next, write a short and dirty sketch of what is going on in each photo, using some of the ideas you prepared above.

4. Finally, starting fresh, see how you can create a narrative that relates these three items in a natural and easy way. You can choose to write it in poem or prose form. Students should focus more on making a natural, easy, creative connection between the items more than worry about the form the narrative takes.

About Emily, who can't even look at me now

Around 1989 I buy a lime green body suit one-piece cut out that

showed my whole stomach and which my mom thinks is racy. It disappears halfway through summer. I think she stole it.

Around 1998 I visit Emily in London. I drink too much cider,

which no one told me was not like beer. I do regrettable things. I don’t remember what they were.

Around 2000 I become taken with firefighter Rick Alm in line

at the grocery store. I find his fire house and drop by with a rose and my phone number. When he actually calls, I am floored and babble incoherently about television for 5 minutes. He never calls back.

Around 1993 I move to Stillwater and meet Emily. I fall in love

with her long red hair, her translucent skin and the purple smudges below her eyes.

Around 1986 Petra Bauer and I rent Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

for our Friday slumber party. We repeatedly rewind the tape to watch Jeannie kick Mr. Rooney in the face again and again.

Around 2008 I push my baby girl Moira out into the world.

I finally feel whole again.

Around 1991 I get a job at the Renaissance Festival.

I serve Root Beer to tourists. I discover that when I don’t wear a bra, I get better tips. I stop wearing a bra.

Around 2003 I realize my dream to become a teacher. It only

lasts three years.

Around 2005 I see Emily at a tournament. She still has

long, long red hair. She won’t even look at me.

Around 1985 Mom starts working for a law firm downtown.

She dons power suits and tight high heels, dyes her hair and paints her face. She comes home late some nights, wine on her breath.

Around 1990 Chad Callendar presses his warm, full lips

against mine and slides his tongue into my mouth while we wait for the bus after school. It is my first French kiss. It is amazing.

Around 1996 I take Approaches to Literature from Cecilia

Konchar Farr. I suddenly see the whole world through a Marxist Feminist lens.

Around 1988 I toot in my math class. For the next six years,

every time I see Chad Poppler, he makes farting noises at me.

Around 2010 I go to the Midtown Market for lunch

with my family. In the mash of people, I see a flash of long red hair and still think of her.