Poet Presentation: Sandra Cisneros

Sandra Cisneros

Biography:
1. Born in Chicago in 1954
2. Studied at Loyola University in Chicago and the University of Iowa
3. Worked as:
a. teacher and counselor
b. Artist-in-Schools
c. college recruiter
d. arts administrator
e. visiting writer at many universities
4. Currently:
a. Founder and president of the Macondo Foundation - an association of socially engaged writers working to advance creativity, foster generosity and honor their communities.
b. Writer-in-Residence at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio

Publications:
1. Poetry
a. Bad Boys (1980)
b. My Wicked Wicked Ways (1987)
c. Loose Woman (1994)
2. Collection of Stories
a. Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991)
3. Novels
a. The House on Mango Street (1991)
b. Caramelo (2002)

Awards:
1. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1995)
2. Texas Medal of the Arts (2003)
3. National Endowment of the Arts Fellowships for fiction and poetry (1988 and 1982)

Philosophy of Writing:
1. Button Boxes:
Grandmothers keep buttons "just in case" they will one day need them.
The process of writing is like making a garment, and Sandra makes buttons long before she knows which piece they will go with or look like. She often writes, first, without sequence or worry, just getting ideas out and saving them for later. "Grandmothers know: Never throw anything away. It might be just what you need someday."


Source Information:
http://sandracisneros.com
Updated 17 Jan. 2010
Accessed 18 Feb. 2010







"Night Madness Poem" by Sandra Cisneros

How I would use it in my class

Objectives:
1. Students will examine images and phrases for emotional connotation.

Activities:
1. Students will participate in a "Mixer"
a. Each student has an index card with a phrase or line from a poem.
b. Students walk around the room, saying only their line to other students.
c. After a few minutes, students regroup and list the words or phrases as a group
d. Students then relate an emotional response/ reaction to some or all of the phrases
Sentence Stems:
1. ______________ reminds me of _______________ because…
2. ______________ makes me feel _______________ because…
e. As a group, students discuss and try to guess the possible meaning and emotion behind a poem
f. Students then read the poem and determine whether they think they got the meaning and emotion right


For This Class:

Choose your weapon Both black as gun I have the magic of words

It's no secret Swoop Circling Delighted with her disasters

Crazy lady they warned you about High on tobacco and holy water

Too many cups of coffee A sadness in my heart

Night Madness Poem, by Sandra Cisneros

There's a poem in my head
like too many cups of coffee.
A pea under twenty eiderdowns.
A sadness in my heart like a stone.
A telephone. And always my
night madness that outs like bats
across the Texas sky.

I'm the crazy lady they warned you about.
The she of rumor talked about - -
and worse, who talks.

It's no secret.
I'm here. Under a circle of light.
The light always on, resisting a glass,
an easy cigar. The kind

who reels the twilight sky.
Swoop circling.
I'm witch woman high
on tobacco and holy water.

I'm a woman delighted with her disasters.
They give me something to do.
A prefession of sorts.
Keeps me industrious
and of some servicable use.

In dreams the origami of the brain
opens like a fist, a pomegranate,
an expansive geometry.

Not true.
I haven't a clue
why I'm rumpled tonight.

Choose your weapon.
Mine - - the telephone, my tongue.
Both black as gun.

I have the magic of words,
the power to charm and kill at will.
To kill myself or to aim haphazardly
And kill you.