Family
My Grandmother Is Waiting for Me to Come Home
by Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)
My Grandmother is waiting for me to come home.
We live with walnuts and apples
in a one-room kitchenette above The
Some Day Liquor Gardens.
My Grandmother sits in a red rocking chair
waiting for me
to open the door with my key.
She is Black and glossy like coal.
We eat walnuts and apples,
drink root beer in cups that are broken,
above The
Some Day Liquor Gardens.
I love my Grandmother.
She is wonderful to behold
with the glossy of her coal-colored skin.
She is warm wide and long.
She laughs and she lingers.
Questions
*Read through the poem once. Then try to answer these five questions
without looking back at the poem.
1. Describe the room where the grandmother is waiting.
2. What does the grandmother look like?
3. Where is the grandmother sitting?
4. What do the grandmother and the grandchild eat?
5. Where does the grandmother live?
*For the remaining questions, you may look back at the poem to help
answer.
6. What did you remember/forget? What made you remember certain
things and not others? What made certain things stand out to you?
7. Who is the speaker in the poem? (In other words, who is telling the
story?)
8. How old do you think the speaker is? Why do you think this? Support
your answer with information from the poem.
9. Are the grandmother and grandchild wealthy? Why do you think this?
Support your answer with information from the poem.
10. Is there any rhyme scheme/pattern?
11. Count the number of syllables in each line. Is there any kind of pattern?
12. Write a free verse poem (no rhyme or syllable pattern) about someone
close to you that is no longer with you. This person does not have to be
deceased. Maybe they moved away, are away at college, etc.
Sports
Slam, Dunk, & Hook by Yusef Komunyakaa (1947-Present)
Fast breaks. Lay ups. With Mercury's
Insignia on our sneakers,
We outmaneuvered to footwork
Of bad angels. Nothing but a hot
Swish of strings like silk
Ten feet out. In the roundhouse
Labyrinth our bodies
Created, we could almost
Last forever, poised in midair
Like storybook sea monsters.
A high note hung there
A long second. Off
The rim. We'd corkscrew
Up & dunk balls that exploded
The skullcap of hope & good
Intention. Lanky, all hands
& feet...sprung rhythm.
We were metaphysical when girls
Cheered on the sidelines.
Tangled up in a falling,
Muscles were a bright motor
Double-flashing to the metal hoop
Nailed to our oak.
When Sonny Boy's mama died
He played nonstop all day, so hard
Our backboard splintered.
Glistening with sweat,
We rolled the ball off
Our fingertips. Trouble
Was there slapping a blackjack
Against an open palm.
Dribble, drive to the inside,
& glide like a sparrow hawk.
Lay ups. Fast breaks.
We had moves we didn't know
We had. Our bodies spun
On swivels of bone & faith,
Through a lyric slipknot
Of joy, & we knew we were
Beautiful & dangerous.
QUESTIONS
1.
This poem is clearly about basketball, but it never actually mentions
the word “basketball.” List all the words/phrases that let you know
the poem is about basketball.
2.
Who are the players? (Hint: boys or girls? young or old?) Support
with information from the poem.
3.
How does playing affect them/make them feel? Support with
information from the poem.
4.
5.
The poem mentions someone named “Sonny Boy.” Explain the
significance of basketball to Sonny Boy.
A simile is a comparison between two things using the word “like”
or “as.” (EX: “Your eyes are as bright as the sun.” or “She smells
like a freshly-picked flower.”) Find any similes in this poem.
6.
A metaphor is a comparison between two things when the writer
claims that one thing is another. (EX: “He is a cool drink of water on
a hot summer day.”) Find any metaphors in this poem.
7.
Look at how the lines are arranged in this poem. Are they long or
short? Are they full, complete sentences or choppy/broken up?
8.
How might the arrangement of the lines in the poem mimic the
action of a basketball game?
9.
Komunyakaa uses unique verbs to describe the actions in the
poem. List some of these unique verbs. What images do they bring
to mind?
10. Imagine
you are a sportscaster. Write a poem from the point of
view of a sportscaster describing the action of a game.
Readers/listeners should be able to tell what sport you are
commenting on without you ever actually naming that sport.
Dreams
Dream Boogie by Langston
Hughes (1902-1967)
Harlem by Langston Hughes
(1902-1967)
Good morning, daddy!
Ain't you heard
The boogie-woogie rumble
Of a dream deferred?
What happens to a dream
deferred?
Listen closely:
You'll hear their feet
Beating out and Beating out a -You think
It's a happy beat?
Listen to it closely:
Ain't you heard
something underneath
like a -What did I say?
Sure,
I'm happy!
Take it away!
Hey, pop!
Re-bop!
Mop!
Y-e-a-h!
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten
meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Questions
1.
What dream do you think Langston Hughes is referring to in his
poem “Harlem?”
2.
What does it mean to defer something?
3.
What do you think Langston Hughes is talking about when he refers
to a “dream deferred”?
4.
Hughes uses very descriptive language to ask questions about
what might happen to a dream deferred. Here is a list of examples
of Hughes’ language. Underneath each line, tell what you think he
is saying:
a. Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?
b. Or crust and sugar over — Like a syrupy sweet?
c. Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.
d. Or does it explode?
5. What is the theme of the poem “Harlem?”
6. What is rhythm? (Think about what it means to “dance to the
rhythm” or to say “I have rhythm.”)
7. Where does “Dream Boogie” borrow from “Harlem?” Does “Dream
Boogie” sound more hopeful than “Harlem?” Why or why not?
8. Write a poem that “borrows” from other poems/lyrics that you enjoy.
The poem should be partially made up of borrowed words and partially
made up of your own words. Underline everything that is being
borrowed from another source.