"Mother" script

Mother
By Grace Paley

Narrator
Mother
Father

Group 6

Scene: A man is listening to the radio and begins to reminisce about his mother. He recalls her words while standing in doorways and in the living room with his father. Man is in his teens in first memory and all of the characters get older with each memory. Music is playing.

Narrator: One day I was listening to the AM radio. I heard a song: “Oh, I Long to See My Mother in the Doorway.” By God! I understand that song. I have often longed to see my mother in the doorway. As a matter of fact, she did stand frequently in various doorways looking at me. She stood one day, just so, at the front door, the darkness of the hallway behind her. It was New Year’s Day.

Mother: If you come home at 4 A.M. when you’re seventeen, what time will you come home when you’re twenty? (Asked without humor or meanness)

Narrator: She had begun her worried preparation for death. She would not be present, she thought, when I was twenty. So she wondered. Another time she stood in the doorway of my room. I had just issued a political manifesto attacking the family’s position on the Soviet Union.

Mother: (bedroom door) Go to sleep for godsakes, you damn fool, you and your Communist ideas. We saw them already, Papa and me, in 1905. We guessed it all.

Narrator: And at the door of the kitchen…

Mother: You never finish your lunch. You run around senselessly. What will become of you?

Narrator: Then she died. Naturally, for the rest of my life I longed to see her, not only in doorways, in a great number of places—in the dining room with my aunts, at the window looking up and down the block, in the country garden among zinnias and marigolds, in the living room with my father. They sat in comfortable leather chairs. They were listening to Mozart.

(Music gets louder)

Narrator: They looked at one another amazed. It seemed to them that they’d just come over on the boat. They’d just learned the first English words. It seemed to them that he had just proudly handed in a 100 percent correct exam to the American anatomy professor. It seemed as though she’d just quit the shop for the kitchen. I wish I could see her in the doorway of the living room.

(She stands for a minute, then sits beside him)

Narrator: They owned an expensive record player. They were listening to Bach.

Mother: Talk to me a little. We don’t talk so much anymore.

Father: I’m tired. Can’t you see? I saw maybe thirty people today. All sick, all talk talk talk talk. Listen to the music. I believe you once had perfect pitch. (Pause) I’m tired.

BLACKOUT

Narrator: Then she died.

Sestina

Against the windowpane the rain
Falls, waking her from sleep
She knows in the morning
She will greet a new life
But she won’t promise to go happily
Or without a fight

Oh, how she will fight
Like the sun with the rain
Right now she lives happily
Listening to him sleep
She can’t leave him for her new life
But soon it will be morning

When the sun rises in the morning
The storm will lose the fight
And, for now, end the life
Of the persistent, heavy rain
Tonight she cannot sleep
Knowing she will not wake happily

For no one could rise happily
With the light in the morning
They, too, would refuse to sleep
With minds racing of the fight
To be had, like the struggle for life
Between the sun and the rain

Her thoughts pause to listen to the rain
She knows he’s dreaming happily
Unaware how his life
Will change in the morning
On her own she will fight
Unwilling to interrupt his sleep

She longs to hold him and sleep
But her mind refuses to forget the rain
And her inevitable fight
That she prays will end happily
How long until morning
And the end of this life?

Now the rain is humming her to sleep
And she happily curls into him, for a moment forgetting life
Soon it will be morning and she will remember her fight.

found poem and dear sherly

Found Poem

Wrongfully accused
Legally blonde mean girls
Stuck on Joe Dirt
Ride the Green Mile
Over the Hedge



Dear Sherly

Dear Sherly,
This is a letter for you
Explaining my apologies
For the last couple problems
With the dogs

We are in the prosses
Of training them
To remain in the backyard

Also, we will getting
The fence nailed up
To minimize their escape routes
Also, we apologies,
For the tresh we had built up
In the back alley
We will remain to keep that clean
And enough room for fire trucks.

Thank you.

my poem

She walked across her abaculus
But that first line was buffaloing
This will be no decastich
Not a lot of diphthongs
Some see this as egregious
Its been a funambulate putting this together

Word list

Abaculus- small mosaic tile made of glass or marble
Buffaloing- to decieve or hoodwink
Decastich- ten line poem
Diphthong-complex vowel sound that begins with the sound of one vowel and ends with another vowel sound
Egregious- outstandingly bad
Funambulate- to tightrope walk

Word Poem and Poetry Questions

Word Poem


A few interesting words...

purblind
sunder
squall
carnage
plexus
recumbent
clay
quaff
pukka
vitriolic

His vitriolic gaze was obvious, even by his profile.
He seemed to be purblind in his rage and nothing else existed.
She remained recumbent in the corner behind him.
Her fear was pukka and she was powerless to hide it.
Each of them could see the squall ahead and sunder was the only way out.


and my questions...

Page 748
"The Victory" by Anne Stevenson
1. The speaker describes her son like a regret or a downfall she has. She sounds like she resents him. It almost appears that she had hoped to live her life's dreams through her child, "I thought you were my victory," but he possibly let her down or caused her pain in some way, "you cut me like a knife." I think she sounds bitter about his accomplishments, "The stains of your cloud of glory bled from my veins."

2. The speaker might call him "antagonist" because in her mind, he is her opponent; they work against each other. He could be in the way of making her dreams a reality in that he doesn't turn out the way she had hoped he would. The two could be competing for something; glory, power, love or affection.

3. This could be called "The Victory" because the child was supposed to be that for his mother. It could also be a insincere title, like he is the supposed "victory" of her, one that never worked out. It seems to have a sarcastic tone.

4. The mention of the knife as she "brought you out of my body into your life" suggests the baby was born by cesarean. As a not-so-literal meaning, I think it says she resents him and his needing her when she says the "bladed cries." The knife symbolizes the pain the boy has caused her.

Slam Poetry

http://www.virtualpoetryslam.net/main/

This is a website that had some sort of contest of slam poetry. Some of the entries on the site are just typed, but there are a lot of videos, and some are really cool. See what you think!

3 things due today.

p. 730 #4 Write a 5 line poem...
WORDS: eccentric, plethora, magnificent, giggle, awkward

The quietest giggle
is a magnificent sight
An awkward smile
makes for a plethora
of eccentric endings...


QUESTIONS: Jennifer Reeser, p. 738. "Winter-Proof"
1. The word calendula in the poem gives contrats to the other flowers mentioned, violet, camellia, and rose.
2. Mentioning graveyard in there gives meaning to the violet, camielia, and rose because unlike the others, they will die in the winter, while the calendula and others will live through the winter.


p.755 Robert Bly, "Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter"

It is a cold and snowy night. The main street is deserted.
The only things moving are swirls of snow.
As i lift the mailbox door, i feel it's cold iron.
There is a privacy i love in this snowy night.
Driving around, i will waste more time.

IN MY OWN WORDS:
Mainstreet was cold and snowy at night
Snow was the only thing moving
i open the cold mailbox
i love private snowy nights
i waste time driving.

Homework stuff

Hey, I think we were supposed to post both the questions from the stories and our questions about the syllabus. I was kind of thinking it makes the most sense to post them on our perosnal blogs, but I don't think Dr. Hepworth cares which place they go.

fine! :D

Hey....ok ok, i added myself as an author. Were we supposed to post the answers to all those questions when we finish?

Hey again!

Hey, I was just thinking, Keicia you should probably add yourself on here as an author, too with your other account so we can look at your personal account from here. I can log in as me and see my own blog and the team one, and from there I can also look at Chris' so it might make things easier to be able to get everywhere from one place. Just an idea :)
Enjoy your Friday!

Me too!

Hey guys, I'm added on here now too. :)

I'm on

I'm added as an author now

first one!

HEY GROUP! this is the starter blog.