May 8 & May 9; Monday &Tuesday

We checked the vocab and answers from 2.2 of Raisin in the Sun.

We read Raisin in the Sun 2.3. Tonight do the vocab and questions over this scene for next class.

We looked at two poems:


BY LANGSTON HUGHES
Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

Langston Hughes, “Mother to Son” from Collected Poems. Copyright © 1994 by The Estate of Langston Hughes. Reprinted with the permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated.




What does this poem have to do with our time and place in life now? What does it have to do with this class? The second poem is below:



A Tribute to My Mother
David L. Weatherford

http://www.davidlweatherford.com/tribute.html

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Your gentle guidance has immeasurably influenced
all that I have done,
all that I do,
and all that I will ever do.

Your sweet spirit is indelibly imprinted on
all that I have been,
all that I am,
and all that I will ever be.

Thus, you are a part of all that
I accomplish and all that I become.
And so it is that when I help my neighbor,
your helping hand is there also.

When I ease the pain of a friend,
they owe a debt to you.
When I show a child a better way,
either by word or by example,
you are the teacher once removed.


Because everything I do reflects values learned from you,
any wrong that I  right,
any heart I may brighten,
any gift that I share,
or burden I may lighten,
is in its own small way a tribute to you.


Because you gave me life, and more importantly,
lessons in how to live, you are the wellspring from which flows
all good I may achieve in my time on earth.
For all that you are and for all that I am,

THANK YOU , MOM.

My sister Tonya wrote on the author's webpage and told about our mother and how this poem reminded us so much of her. The author David Weatherford responded to my sister:


Hi Tonya:

Thanks for signing my guestbook.  I was particularly touched by your note because my own mother, for whom I wrote the poem, also has dementia.   Ironically, I have since written another poem for her, and I have struggled with whether I should read it to her or not, as she has a limited attention span, and I have no idea how much of the message she would fully grasp.  I got your note right before I went home for Mother's Day weekend;  it made me decide to read the poem to her over that weekend, and I did.   I honestly don't know what it meant to her to hear it, as she cannot speak, and does not demonstrate a lot of emotion.
But at least now, i will never ask myself if I should have read it to her when I had the chance.
Thanks!

sincerely,
David L. Weatherford