'Night Mother by Marsha Norman

Please read Marsha Norman's 'Night Mother for Monday, June 1. There will be a test on this play when you arrive to 7th period.

As you read, consider Aristotle's requirements for a play. How is this play a plot driven by its characters? Do you feel Marsha Norman is successful in creating an interesting or socially relevant play? Take special note about how with only two characters and a single set, the story unfolds. Pay attention to character development and conflict.

A note about the seriousness of this play's theme:
Suicide is a potentially preventable public health problem. It accounts for more than 1% of all deaths in the U.S. each year. In 2001, suicide was the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S.

Among young people aged 15 to 24, suicide is the third most common cause of death. Four times as many men die by suicide as women. And 73% of all suicide deaths are white males.

Risk factors for thoughts of suicide can vary with age, gender, sexual orientation, and ethnic group. And risk factors often occur in combinations.

Over 90% of people who die by suicide have clinical depression or another diagnosable mental disorder. Many times, people who die by suicide have a substance abuse problem. Often they have that problem in combination with other mental disorders.

Adverse or traumatic life events in combination with other risk factors, such as clinical depression, may lead to suicide. But suicide and suicidal behavior are never normal responses to stress.

Other risk factors for suicide include:

One or more prior suicide attempts
Family history of mental disorder or substance abuse
Family history of suicide
Family violence
Physical or sexual abuse
Keeping firearms in the home
Incarceration
Exposure to the suicidal behavior of others

Are there warning signs of suicide?
Warning signs that someone may be thinking about or planning to commit suicide include:

Always talking or thinking about death
Clinical depression -- deep sadness, loss of interest, trouble sleeping and eating -- that gets worse
Having a "death wish," tempting fate by taking risks that could lead to death such as driving fast or running red lights
Losing interest in things one used to care about
Making comments about being hopeless, helpless, or worthless
Putting affairs in order, tying up loose ends, changing a will
Saying things like "it would be better if I wasn't here" or "I want out"
Sudden, unexpected switch from being very sad to being very calm or appearing to be happy
Talking about suicide or killing one's self
Visiting or calling people to say goodbye

Be especially concerned if a person is exhibiting any of these warning signs and has attempted suicide in the past. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, between 20% and 50% of people who commit suicide have had a previous attempt.

Back to Plays - The basics - Part 1

For homework, please continue to scratch about for an idea for play scripts. These should include characters in a place doing something (character + place + action). Complicate your situation by adding a "Whoops", "Uh Oh!" "When...", "Oh, no!" or "But..."

This is an effective way to get yourself out of writing ruts as well.

When stuck, use a complication.

Form Poetry

Choose one of the forms you examined last class or the villanelle. For homework, due Tuesday, May 26, please create one form poem draft.

3rd Annual Rochester Grand Slam Off

Monday, May 25 the Countywide teen poetry slam finals will be held from 2:00 to 7:00. The event will include teen poets representing SOTA, Wilson, Monroe, West Irondequoit, and Writers & Books. Admission is free (with suggested donation) and refreshments will be served. The event will be located at 142 Atlantic Ave.

Come support our school and performance poetry!

Extra credit available for those who attend.

Closed or "fixed" Poetic Forms

We spend a lot of time talking about free verse. But poetry has a tradition steeped in form and structure. Structure is harder to do well, but often more challenging and rewarding when done. It is definitely a craft-lover's art.

Using the internet, define the following terms and learn their patterns (I will be collecting this at the end of class on a separate sheet of paper):

• Form poetry (Fixed forms of poetry or closed forms of poetry)
• Poetic meter
• Sestina
• Pantoum
• Rondeau
• Cinquain
• Terza Rima
• Triolet
• Villanelle
• Haiku
• Sonnet

Go to these websites and find out what you can about form poetry. Try to play around with some poetic forms. Take notes of how to construct the form, then try writing a few form poems in various styles: (copy and paste address)

http://www.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Poetry/Forms/Fixed_Verse_Forms

thewordshop.tripod.com/forms.html

http://poetry.about.com/od/poeticforms

http://www.uni.edu/~gotera/CraftOfPoetry

http://www.noggs.dsl.pipex.com/vf/index.htm

Also: please type up (no need to turn in yet) your nature poetry from last class.

Nature Walk, Nature Poems, & Homework

Please enjoy our nature walk today.

From this exercise, it is hopeful that you create a few nature poems (or confessional/political poems, or love poems, or poem-poems). Whenever you get antsy, go take a walk in nature. You will find your mind clearing and the urge to create rising from an uncluttered, unworried mind.

And now the stress:

Homework: please read the packet on Robert Frost. Select one poem from the collection and analyze it. Answer the question posed to you on the handout. Turn in Tuesday, May 19. Come to class with the work done, as we will be on to something else.

Also, please read T.S. Eliot's Old Possum Book of Cats. Nature doesn't always have to be outside in the rain or snow looking at flowers. Nature poetry includes observing animals or natural beings in our artificial human environments. Usually there is conflict here, but not always. Animals make us human, and aware of our place in nature. It's good to enjoy their company. Enjoy the collection.

As you read Eliot, recall the musical Cats, if you can, and also count those syllables. Notice how meter and rhyme give these poems a sing-song quality. Meter and rhyme is difficult to do well in poetry (hence our advice about avoiding it), but can be a lot of fun, too. As you read, pay attention to craft elements and literary devices utilized by Eliot. Yes, you can write your own ode to an animal poem in a similar style, if you'd like.

Nature Poetry

What is a nature poem?: A poem in which nature plays an important role, emphasizing terrain and life (including the life of humans)in a natural setting, season, metaphor, symbol, situation or theme.

Types of Nature Poetry

1. Tribute to the season: (Ode/Pastoral) – Praising or welcoming a season.
• Nature-Human Celebration: The poet or speaker celebrates himself or herself as part of nature.
• Essence of Nature: An aspect or element of nature is described (usually to show its beauty or essence)

2. Nature as conflict:
• Nature against human. A man or woman is in a dangerous or difficult situation concerning nature.
• Human against nature: A man or woman overcoming a dangerous situation or destroying some aspect of nature.
• Isolation from Nature: The speaker describes how he or she feels apart from nature or the natural world.

3. Human-nature Relationship: A person who contemplates (thinks about) some aspect of nature. Often the speaker is longing for nature’s qualities.
• Human encountering nature: The speaker witnesses or beholds an element or aspect of nature as if for the first time (the speaker is “in the moment” and acutely aware).
• Nature as Reflection of Mood: The setting is usually out doors and the speaker describes a feeling. Nature or natural images reflect the mood of the speaker.
• Nature as Metaphor for the Human Condition: The poet makes a comparison between human qualities or subject matter and some aspect or element of nature (usually to express how it feels to be mortal or at peace).
• Nature as Symbolic of the Human Condition: Like the Metaphor poem (above), it uses a symbol instead of a metaphor.

4. Nature as a Reflection of God: Another common nature poem type. Some aspect or element of nature shows or reminds the speaker of God’s power or artistry.

Forms:

• Ode: an open poem form that praises its subject (in this case something in nature)
• Elegy: an open poem form that laments or mourns a subject that is gone or passed away (this can also be found in love poetry).
• Pastoral: An open nature poem form in which rural life or objects are romanticized or idealized.

Labwork/homework: Write a nature poem (due Friday, May 15)

Beat Poetry

Related to political poetry, Beat poetry evolved during the 1940s in both New York City and on the west coast throughout the 50's. The end of World War II left poets like Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jack Kerouac, and Gregory Corso questioning mainstream politics and culture. These writers would become known as the Beat generation, a group of writers interested in changing consciousness and defying conventional writing.

The battle against social conformity and literary tradition was central to the work of the Beats. Among this early group of poets, hallucinogenic drugs were used to achieve higher consciousness, as was meditation and Eastern religion. Buddhism especially was important to many of the Beat poets; Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg both intensely studied Buddhism and it figures into much of their work.

Allen Ginsberg's first book, Howl and Other Poems, is considered representative of the Beat poets. In 1956 Lawrence Ferlinghetti's press City Lights published Howl and Ferlinghetti was brought to trial the next year on charges of obscenity. In a hugely publicized case, the judge ruled that Howl was not obscene and brought national attention to Ginsberg and the Beat poets.

Besides publishing the Pocket Poets Series, Ferlinghetti also founded the legendary San Francisco bookstore City Lights. Still in operation today, City Lights is an important landmark of Beat generation history. Several of the surrounding streets have been renamed after Beat poets as well, contributing to the cultural landscape of San Francisco.

Other Beat poets included Diane di Prima, Neal Cassady, Anne Waldman and Michael McClure. Although William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac are often best remembered for works of fiction such as Naked Lunch and On the Road, respectively, they also wrote poetry. Kerouac is said to have coined the term "Beat generation," describing his generation's down-and-out or tired status during the post-war years.

On the link page, please visit Allen Ginsberg's reading of HOWL. Please use headphones when listening to this poem. The audio track is divided into two sections to include the entire poem.

You may also use POETS.COM (also on the link page) to search and listen to (or read) other poets' work including: Robert Lowell, Wallace Stevens, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Ted Hughes, Robert Pinsky, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maya Angelou, Mary Oliver, Lucille Clifton, Amiri Baraka, Carl Sandburg, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and a whole host of others.

Political/Confessional Poetry

Types of Political Poems

1. The Revolutionary Poem
•Poems which advocate (support) an overthrow of a government or a culture

2. The Patriotic Poem
•Unlike the revolutionary poem, the patriotic poem supports or advocates an aspect of a government or a culture. Reflects an attitude that recalls fundamental principles of a government or culture.
•You may find a lot of this kind of poetry written by minorities (they are supporting a particular culture). Women’s lib poetry; black, Asian, latino, etc. poetry; gay poetry, etc. Any poem celebrating a culture would fall into this category.

3. The Protest Poem
•A poem of criticism that challenges basic concepts of important human issues (censorship, freedom, democracy, pursuit of happiness, etc.)

4. The Universal Political Poem
•Everything else.

Confessional Poetry

Confessional poetry: reveals a personal secret or feeling. This is the only type of poem you can consider the author to be the speaker. Confessional poetry is the poetry of the personal or "I." This style of writing emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s and is associated with poets such as Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and W.D. Snodgrass.

• Confessional poetry is often controversial or even unsettling to read.

• The confessional poetry of the mid-twentieth century dealt with subject matter that previously had not been openly discussed in American poetry. Private experiences with and feelings about death, trauma, depression and relationships were addressed in this type of poetry, often in an autobiographical manner. Sexton in particular was interested in the psychological aspect of poetry, having started writing at the suggestion of her therapist.

• The confessional poets were not merely recording their emotions on paper; craft and construction were extremely important to their work. While their treatment of the poetic self may have been groundbreaking and shocking to some readers, these poets maintained a high level of craftsmanship through their careful attention to and use of prosody.

• The confessional poets of the 1950s and 1960s pioneered a type of writing that forever changed the landscape of American poetry. The tradition of confessional poetry has been a major influence on generations of writers.

Due: May 11 - 1st draft of a political/confessional poem.

Draft 3 & 4 - Hemingway

Required: Post a comment about Hemingway. What did you learn from reading Hemingway?


Draft Three: Stream of Consciousness

1. Examine your flashbacks. Find moments where your character can include digressions, get stuck on topics, trail off, etc. You are trying to replicate or reproduce how the character’s mind works.
2. Write these flashbacks using stream of consciousness.

Draft Four: Sentence length

1. Keep your sentences short and declarative in your non-flashback section of the story. Remember dialogue sounds more realistic when you speak in short sentences or fragments.

2. In your flashback scenes, find moments where you digress and create long, complex sentences. Use em dashes to indicate digressions. Use semi colons ; to connect related clauses (but don't over use these). Use commas to make a simple sentence into a complex one. Use an ellipsis … to indicate trailing off. Use repetition of phrase to expand a comment.

Ex: “They knew who had shot their fathers, their relatives, their brothers, their friends…”;

Use conjunctions to add phrases to your independent clauses (and, or, but, etc.)

3. Try to find a rhythm in your writing. Most paragraphs start out with short sentences. This allows for a certain length of speed. Then as your sentences get longer and more complex, you can slow or speed the eye of the reader. Usually, you want important information to be delivered slowly. The use of repetition helps create a meter and rhythm for your sentence structure.

Try to stop at each draft # and save your work as that draft #. Turn in all four “drafts” of your story by the end of this week (Thursday, May 7).

Coffee House Performance - May 18

Our last coffee house of the year will be held on May 18 at 7:00 (usually lasts an hour or an hour and 1/2.) This coffee house performance we will be saying "goodbye" and good luck to our senior Creative Writing majors. Please join us for coffee, cookies, and original poetry/fiction.

Sophomores who attend and read or perform their original work to the audience will get extra credit in Ms. Gamzon and Mr. Craddock's classes. We would love to see you there!