Identity Lessons: Contemporary Writing About Learning to Be American Book

Introduction

I. Family Primer I
Names - Ruth Stone Pokeberries - Ruth Stone Beets - Tiffany Midge Magnalia Christi Americana - T.H.S. Wallace daughters - Lucille Clifton fury - Lucille Clifton Dear Mama - Sonia Sanchez Linked - Naomi Shihab Nye I Go Back to May 1937 - Sharon Olds The Portrait - Stanley Kunitz Cracked Portraits - Agha Shahid Ali Those Were the Days - Philip Levine The Substitute - Stephen Dunn The Liar - Tobias Wolff Daddy, We Called You - Maria Mazziotti Gillan Sangre 24: A Legacy - Leroy V. Quintana Working Class - Lenard D. Moore
from attic - Justin Vitiello Always Running - Luis J. Rodríguez Company Outing - Diane Der-Hovanessian Tending - Elizabeth Alexander I cannot write a poem to bless all the givers of pain - Honorée Jeffers
II. Family Primer II
Family - Grace Paley Why the Violin Is Better - Hal Sirowitz My Aunts - Anthony Valerio My Son Is Worried About Me - Laura Boss The Word You Did Not Speak - Vivian Shipley Words for My Daughter from the Asylum - Hayden Carruth My Mad Son Helps Me Into Heaven - Arthur L. Clements The Children - Diane di Prima Mother's Voice - Robert Creeley Singing Lessons - Rochelle Ratner photo poem - Vittoria repetto Saying Farewell to My Father - James P. Handlin The Birthday—August 25, 1980 - Edgar Gabriel Silex Late - Terrance Hayes Hotel Nights with My Mother - Linda McCarriston Legacy - Stephen Dunn Apples - Shirley Kaufman Day Worker - Lamont B. Steptoe Breakfast - Yictove Shelling Shrimp - Lê Thi Diem Thúy The Last Lesson - Toni Libro Poem for My Father - Quincy Troupe Sports Heroes, Cops, and Lace - Michael Lally

III. Calling Roll
The Riddle of Noah - Maxine Kumin Baptisms - Joseph Bruchac Freedom Candy - E. Ethelbert Miller The Boots of Alfred Bettingdorf - Daniel Gabriel Say What? - Amiri Baraka Sangre 14: Sterling, Colorado - Leroy V. Quintana The Loss of a Culture - Antonio D'Alfonso Coffee- Wanda Coleman Horns on Your Head - Hal Sirowitz The Middle Classes - Lynne Sharon Schwartz Right Off the Bat - Leslea Newman French Girls Are Fast - Cheryl Savageau My Rough Skinned Grandmother - Tina Chang Kemo Sabe - Diane Glancy Dictionary of Terminology - Tony Medina A New Story - SImon J. Ortiz

IV. Pledging Allegiance
The Poets - Afaa M. Weaver Seven Horses - Marge Piercy The Last Wild Horses in Kentucky - Vivian Shipley Learning Silence - Maria Mazziotti Gillan Home Training - Bruce A. Jacobs Half-Breed's Song - Adrian C. Louis Mestizo - Alfred Encarnacion Tangerine - Susan Deer Cloud Clements Between Holi and Halloween - Beena Kamlani Strange Country - Julie Parson-Nesbitt Roomers, rumors - Marge Piercy Language Difficulties - Kathryn Nocerino The Welcome Table - Lee Martin High School: San Martin - Renny Christopher On the Subway - Sharon Olds

V. School Daze
In the Elementary School Choir - Gregory Djanikian Sixth Grade - Marie Howe The Jacket - Gary Soto Ladies' Choice - Tony Ardizzone As Children Together - Carolyn Forché
The Silence That Widened - Tom Romano Caroline - Allison Joseph Poem for Anthony, Otherwise Known as Head - Sean Thomas Dougherty
from Personal and Impersonal Landscapes - Diane Wakoski The Dance at St. Gabriel's - Felix Stefanile Yellow Roses - Lyn Lifshin High School Reunion - Denise Duhamel The Story of My Life - Liz Rosenberg Wearing of the Green - Anthony F. Bruno The Boy Without a Flag - Abraham Rodriguez Jr.
Early Snow - Dona Luongo Stein Butch Traynor - Michael S. Glaser The Weird Kid - Mark Vinz Sterling Williams' Nosebleed - David Chin Losing Faith - Mary McLaughlin Slechta Altar Boy - Charles Rossiter School of Night - Toi Derricotte No Consolation - Robert Phillips The Way of the Cross - Len Roberts

VI. Learning by Rote
Teaching English from an Old Composition Book - Gary Soto Among Children - Philip Levine Our Room - Molly Peacock Chinese in Academia - Shirely Geok-lin Lim For Sal Sanjamino: On His Retirement - Stanley H. Barkan Poem on the First Day of School - Peter Cooley Big World, Little Man - William Stafford A Long Way - Ralph Salisbury The First Day - Edward P. Jones Pennies - David Ray Shame - Francisco X. Alarcón Disc 'n Dat - Grace Cavalieri The Captain of the Safeties - Maria Fama Senior Will - David Haynes
VII. Our Bodies, Ourselves
My Father's Love Letters - Yusef Komunyakaa Mortal Sins - Maureen Seaton Training Bra - Maria Mazziotti Gillan The One Girl at the Boys' Party - Sharon Olds The Boy - Marie Howe Practicing - Marie Howe
from Drops of This Story - Suheir Hammad Playing with Dolls - David Trinidad Rice and Beans - Rafael Campo Defining Us - Rafael Campo Imagining Drag - Rafael Campo Choice in Colored Rain - Lisa Yun Graffiti - Margie Norris The Girls - Diane Wakoski Aunt Dorothy - Laura Boss Aunt Rose - Laura Boss The Accordion - Rachel Guido deVries Uncle Earl and Guns - Walt McDonald Legacy - Chris Kennedy The Politics of Buddy - Leslea Newman
"You know what I'm saying?" - Allen Ginsberg The Robe - Afaa M. Weaver Acupuncture and Cleansing at Forty-eight - Len Roberts

VIII. Beyond Dick and Jane
Garden State - Allen Ginsberg Thelonious - Afaa M. Weaver Robin's Nest - Janice Eidus Real Life - Mary Ann Mannino Jetties Were the Bridges I Crossed - Nancy Mercado Rock'n'Roll - M.L. Liebler Sally - Frank Finale Painting the Christmas Trees - Joe E. Weil City Lights - Diane di Prima There I Was One Day - Gerald Stern An American in Trapani - Nat Scammacca Made You Mine, America - Ali Zarrin Ode to Elizabeth - Joe E. Weil
from Krik? Krak! - Edwidge Danticat
from This Past Decade and the Next - Eliot Katz Second-Grade Angel - Len Roberts Miz Rosa Rides the Bus - Angela Jackson The Summer of Black Widows - Sherman Alexie Tourists - Sherman Alexie Like Mexicans - Gary Soto American Milk - Ruth Stone

Contributors Index