CP

learning targets

homework

None

what we're doing today

1. Poetry: What are our expectations?
2. Poetry: What are we actually looking at/for?
3. Read (in chunks) "You Mean You Don't Weep at the Nail Salon?"

Only if you're opting out!

What do we think of when we think of poetry?

What does it mean if something is "visceral"?

visceral: when something triggers an instinctual and emotional, rather than intellectual, reaction

Poetry captures visceral human experiences.

Set your paper up to look like this.

Each slide has 1-3 lines of the poem.

For each slide, list what it makes you think about:

• The speaker
• The conflict
• Any emotions in the poem

"You Mean You Don't Weep at the Nail Salon?"

by Elizabeth Acevedo

it’s the being alone, i think, the emails but not voices.

dominicans be funny, the way we love to touch — every greeting a cheek kiss, a shoulder clap, a loud.

it gots to be my period, the bloating, the insurance commercial where the husband comes home after being deployed, the last of the gouda gone, the rejection letter, the acceptance letter, the empty inbox.

the empty inbox.

a dream, these days. to work at home is a privilege, i remind myself.

spend the whole fucking day flirting with screens. window, tv, computer, phone:

eyes & eyes & eyes.

the keys clicking, the ding of the microwave, the broadway soundtrack i share wine with in the evenings.

these are the answers, you feel me?

& the impetus. the why. of when the manicurist holds my hand, making my nails a lilliputian abstract,

(the thing that makes something happen)

(super tiny piece of art)

i close my fingers around hers, disrupting the polish,

i close my fingers around hers, disrupting the polish, too tight i know then, too tight to hold a stranger,

but she squeezes back & doesn’t let go

(The end.)

but she squeezes back & doesn’t let go & so finally i can.