In storytelling and in
writing, point of view or perspective can turn the story around, on its head,
going a different direction. Picture
book author, Jon Scieskza, illustrated this masterfully when he wrote The True Story of the Three Little Pigs,
by A. Wolf, as told by Jon Scieskza. If
you are not familiar with the book, Alexander T. Wolf proclaims his innocence
from his jail cell.
A fun storytelling “game”
is to take a familiar story and retell it from the point of view of a minor
character. A few summers ago in the
graduate level storytelling class I teach for University of Denver’s Library
and Information Sciences Department, one group of students retold Cinderella
from the point of view of the step-mother.
They had great fun with the assignment and the class enjoyed a top-notch
off-the-cuff performance.
So when Lynda La Rocca gave the Shavano Poets’ Society
gave us the following assignment: “Point of View: Turn It Upside Down,” I
thought ,”What fun!”
I
searched for a poem which I could turn upside down by writing from a different
perspective and finally settled upon “Warning” by Jenny Joseph. You may not recognize the title, but many of
you know something about the poem. It
spawned the Red Hat Societies. Here it
is in its entirety.
WARNING
©By Jenny Joseph
When
I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With
a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
 |
| My Closet - lots of purple! |
And
I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And
satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I
shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired
And gobble up samples in
shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the
public railings
And make up for the
sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my
slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in
other people’s gardens
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible
shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of
sausages at a go
Or only bread and a pickle
for a week
And hoard pens and pencils
and beermats and things in boxes.
But now we must have
clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not
swear in the street
And set a good example for
the children.
We must have friends to
dinner and the read papers.
But maybe I ought to
practice a little now?
So people who know me are
not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old,
and start to wear purple.
****************************************
I am at a stage in my life
where I am realizing there were lots of questions I should have asked my mother
before she left this earthly plane.
Questions I now know some of the answers to through experience,
sometimes the hardest way to learn, sometimes the only way to learn. My daughter is about the age I was when I
should have started asking questions. I’ve
also been reading Women in Middlehood:Halfway Up the Mountain by Jane Treat and Nancy Geha. So the poem I wrote is from a younger woman to
her mother.
CAIRNS
Markers
©Julie Moss, 2015
When you are an old woman
wearing purple
With a red hat which
doesn’t match, and doesn’t suit you,
I shall be entering the
Forest of Middleood
That place where I am
sure, but not sure
Climbing toward
Wisdom --- the Wisdom you already have gained.
When you act like you are
crazy
I shall sigh and shake my
head just like everybody else,
But I envy your freedom to
run through the rain clad in your slippers
While picking flowers from
their gardens.
 |
When you are Wise and I am
sure but not sure
I shall ask questions --- of
you.
Questions I may not know
how to ask, but to which you know the answers.
Questions about the Forest
of Middlehood
About the Cairns you left
for me to follow.
Questions you wish you had
asked, and now desire to answer.
If you answer my
questions, I can practice a little
Before suddenly I am old,
and start to wear purple.
