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A - Student poem based on the first line of Bill Stafford's "Thinking
for Berky"
"In the late night listening from bed"
I hear angry voices screeching.
I close my eyes real tight trying to keep the sounds from my head-
The voice of a man filled the air it was loud and direct like preaching.
I listened to sobs muffled by the blanket next to me. I knew the tears.
This night the tears were not my own, but of my good friend maddie,
Frightened for many reasons, but the sounds at night are our greatest
fears-
Her cries were because she knew the noises were her mommy and daddy
THINKING FOR BERKY
In the late night listening from bed
I have joined the ambulance or the patrol
screaming toward some drama, the kind of end
that Berky must have some day, if she isn't dead.
The wildest of all, her father and mother cruel,
farming out there beyond the old stone quarry
where high-school lovers parked their lurching
cars,
Berky learned to love in that dark school.
Early her face was turned away from home
toward any hardworking place; but still her soul,
with terrible things to do, was alive, looking out
for the rescue that—surely, some day—would have
to come.
Windiest nights, Berky, I have thought for you.
and no matter how lucky I've been I've touched
wood.
There are things not solved in our town though
tomorrow came:
there are things time passing can never make
come true.
Student discussion of Bill Stafford's "Thinking for Berky"
From the first four lines I get the impression that Berky is a very
dramatic person who requires a lot of attention. "If she isn't dead" tells
me she has had a very hard life. It sounds like she had horrible parents
that made her work alone in the quarry instead of going to school. Maybe
Berky's "learning to love," seeing all those kids in their cars loving
each other, made her realize there was something else out there. Maybe
something for her, a way out, and someone to love who will love her back.
I think things were not changing, so Berky buried herself in hard work
so as to not think of anything else. All she could hope for was for her
prince to come. I think Stafford was saying no matter how lucky we sometimes
get we all fall now and then and get hurt. Things sometimes never change
no matter how much time goes by, but the good news is tomorrow will come
and you never know what it could bring.
B - Student poem based on the first line of Bill Stafford's "Thinking
for Berky"
"In the late night listening from bed"
I hear the wind whistling through the trees.
Every so often it catches a ripe nut
and carries it off the branch,
clanking down the tin roof of the shed startling me.
I hear scurrying on the porch
and wonder who's really eating the cat food left out for a midnight
snack
but my curiosity isn't strong enough
to inspire a cold trip to the door for a peek.
And late at night
listening from bed
when I reach that relaxed, hypnotic state
somewhere between sleeping and waking,
I can hear the stars twinkling and the moon sigh.
Student discussion of Bill Stafford's "Thinking for Berky"
Stafford's poem "Thinking for Berky" was a lot different than mine.
The first line sounds peaceful and mine continues that way while Stafford's
goes on to be disturbing. I think Berky is someone he went to school with,
who had very different circumstances than he did and who was maybe a victim
of a dramatic crime or something to make her stick out in his mind. There
are
people I knew since Kindergarten all through high school and I do wonder
about some people I played with all the time because now we live such different
lives.
I think it's good that he realizes how lucky he was to grow up in better
circumstances than what Berky was born into and grew up in. When he refers
to "windiest nights" I feel like he's talking about stormy stages of his
life and he's reflecting on how lucky he was to get through those times
but no matter how lucky he has been, he's "knocked on wood" or "touched
wood" meaning he realizes how lucky he's been but that it could all end,
or his luck could run out, when he thinks of Berky. This memory of Berky
reminds him of how good he's had it and to be thankful for his quality
of life.
C - Student poem based on Bill Stafford's "At the Bomb Testing Site
"At noon in the desert a panting lizard waits"
Perhaps for food, water, or shade
Wanders upon the hot sand deciding its fate
Stumbles upon a shady spot
Sitting and resting only to await what nature intended.
It begins to smell the coming of a rain storm
not to hesitate to run into the coming of the storm
In time to enjoy what it believes to be refreshing.
AT THE BOMB TESTING SITE
At noon in the desert a panting lizard
waited for history, its elbows tense,
watching the curve of a particular road
as if something might happen.
It was looking at something farther off
than people could see, an important scene
acted in stone for little selves
at the flute end of consequences.
There was just a continent without much on it
under a sky that never cared less.
Ready for a change, the elbows waited.
The hands gripped hard on the desert.
Student discussion of Bill Stafford's "At the Bomb Testing Site"
When I was asked to write a short little poem on this first line I
admit it was difficult. The line read, At noon in the desert a panting
lizard, and I was supposed to finish from there. I wrote my poem from my
experiences from living in the desert. I knew by noon it was hot and nothing
more refreshing than a mid-afternoon thunder storm to cool things off.
When we read what Mr. Stafford wrote it was quite different than his idea.
He wrote of it describing nuclear test sites seen and felt from a lizard's
point of view. He talks as if the lizard awaited the next explosion. How
the lizard would grip the desert floor as if it knew just a couple of seconds
before the explosion. It's funny that Mr. Stafford would pick a lizard.
You would figure he would've talked about people's ideas and expressions.
What is also interesting is that in this particular poem he talks of his
attitude towards this issue. He seems to send a particular message from
his writing to say that what was happening some people couldn't see and
will await its consequences.
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