Ginger and I have been having a conversation offline about this poem, which I used recently with teachers to demonstrate how easily questioning takes you into the text. We thought we would invite you to join us by first reading the poem and asking four different questions. Before taking your thinking deeper, share your questions with the group. Hopefully a few others will respond with their questions and we can see where it takes our thinking. I will begin with mine.
Where is she calling from? Why is she so desperate to call someone? Is she in a phone booth or a glassed in room? Is it temperature or temperment that makes her lean on the glass, sweaty? >The Phone Call >Philip Levine > >She calls Chicago, but no one >is home. The operator asks >for another number but still >no one answers. Together >they try twenty-one numbers, >and at each no one is ever home. >"Can I call Baltimore?" she asks. >She can, but she knows no one >in Baltimore, no one in >St Louis, Boston, Washington. >She imagines herself standing >before the glass wall high >over Lake Shore Drive, the cars >below fanning into the city. >East she can see all the way >to Gary and the great gray clouds >of exhaustion rolling over >the lake where her vision ends. >This is where her brother lives. >At such height there's nothing, >no birds, no growing, no noise. >She leans her sweating forehead >against the cold glass, shudders, >and puts down the receiver. > > _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
