Thanks, Peter.
Leave it to a poet to read Gertrude Stein to his elderly mother!
Be well, and, by the way, I enjoyed your last series of images.
Stephen
http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
> So genuinely honest, Stephen.
> Thanks for sharing this.
>
> -Peter Ciccariello
>
>
>
>
> On 4/1/06, Stephen Vincent <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> As I have no doubt previously mentioned, I occasionally take care of my
>> 90-year old mom. Even though her 'marbles' have begun to roll, she
>> continues
>> to lament that she never was able to achieve a dream to become a writer (4
>> sons, an activist political life, etc.) Since I spent a small chunk of my
>> life in either directing or teaching in poetry-in-the-schools programs, I
>> have taken to making up writing exercises for her. Since she can no longer
>> write well, I take down what she dictates in response to whatever may be
>> our
>> 'starting idea'. Last night I read her short passages form Gertrude
>> Stein's
>> "Tender Buttons" and then asked for her response:
>>
>> "A single charm a single charm is doubtful."
>> What do you think that means, Mom?
>>
>> "A single charm does not last long."
>>
>> We then get talking about rhymes.
>> What rhymes with April, Mom?
>> She cannot think of anything.
>> Can you start a sentence with "April?"
>> "April will break my heart."
>>
>> Why don't we do all the months like that. Begin with January.
>> I start to write down one sentence after another:
>>
>> January will open the horrible threat.
>> February will break off a few of the wicked.
>> March the winds will blow and frighten everybody.
>> April will break my heart.
>> May will come whisking through.
>> June is hard to decipher.
>> July will never stop to say hello.
>> August is jolly and happy for people like me.
>> September is hard to take.
>> October is full of joy for very few.
>> November marks the worst that could ever come.
>> December for many it's love and joy
>> But not for me.
>>
>> I must say the language brings me frightenly close to her particular
>> experience of the "end points" of her life. Unlike my dad, who was upbeat
>> and open to pleasure down to the very end. My mother, on the other hand,
>> who
>> wants to please her son, thinks she has not well enough, that I am not
>> pleased.
>>
>> "I think I am driving you crazy because I cannot take you to a point where
>> you can tell the reality of what I want to say."
>>
>> In "reality" I think she - in her versions of the months - has taken me as
>> close as I want to get. It is so dark. Thank goodness she still has some
>> language to get to it.
>>
>> Stephen Vincent
>>
>
>
>
> --
> http://invisiblenotes.blogspot.com/
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