"The Red Wheelbarrow", by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

"This Is Just to Say", by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

"The Great Figure", by William Carlos Williams

Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
firetruck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city.

Question for three paragraph essay

Do you think writing a poem is an effective way to “bear witness to historical events”? Explain.

Questions for "The Memory of Elena"

1. Who is speaking in the poem? Whose story is the narrator telling?
2. Write a sentence or two summing up what happens in each stanza.
3. The visual imagery of the poem is deliberately shocking. Which images do you see most clearly? How do they link past and present events?
4. Find three images of sound in the poem and three instances of silence. Why does the speaker emphasize silence?
5. What details of Elena's identity and her experiences in Buenos Aires are spelled out in Bill Moyers's interview with Forche? (the interview is a little long for me to post, but if it is necessary, I will) Do you need to know these details in order to understand the poem? Would you have preferred the poem to include all the details Forche gives in the interview? Why or why not?

Questions for "Plenos poderes"/"Full Powers"

1. In the first stanza, why might the night inhibit the speaker from writing?
2. What could the “keys” in line 8 unlock for the speaker? What do you think he means by “night” and “darkness in the second stanza?
3. In line 14, what does the speaker mean by “I am weary neither of being nor of non-being”? Explain.
4. What could the speaker mean by his “debts to minerality” (line 17)?
5. Why does the speaker “keep on going,” according to lines 19-20?
6. Why might the poem be titled “Full Powers”? What is the source of the speaker's creative powers?

"The Memory of Elena" by Carolyn Forche

We spend our morning
in the flower stalls counting
the dark tongues of bells
that hang from ropes waiting
for the silence of an hour.
We find a table, ask for paella,
cold soup and wine, where a calm
light trembles years behind us.

In Buenos Aires only three
years ago, it was the last time his hand
slipped into her dress, with pearls
cooling her throat and bells like
these, chipping at the night—

As she talks, the hollow
clopping of a horse, the sound
of bones touched together.
The paella comes, a bed of rice
and camarones, fingers and shells,
the lips of those whose lips
have been removed, mussels
the soft blue of a leg socket.

This is not paella, this is what
has become of those who remained
in Buenos Aires. This is the ring
of a rifle report on the stones,
her hand over her mouth,
her husband falling against her.

These are the flowers we bought
this morning, the dahlias tossed
on his grave and bells
waiting with their tongues cut out
for this particular silence.