In the feminist fable

emboldened us as we tossed off shoes and bras

wore mini skirts up

at our ptuti and moo-moos to our toes,

donned headbands

and grew hair to our hips.

Maxi measured several inches longer

than the midi..

Midi-coats and maxi skirts and wraparound happi-jackets

along with fits-all

panty-hose liberated locked knees and need

to fold our hands,

sit, ladies, up straight.

By painting

on flowers, peace symbols and smiley faces

we could transform naked

Into activist or choose to manifest

the Moroccan look

of opulence, rings on every finger and advocate

an Arabian influence

of yellow-crepe with the wearer

displaying her concept of personality quintessentially

American,

smelling of patchouli and more patchouli swaying

In smokey loops

of cannabis flouncing, while the mercantile mercenary

beauty industry

was wearing a painted thugs face slinging slogans

worn threadbare by overuse.

Unit seven

Exercise 1. Read, translate and transcribe the following poem by American poet Carol Levin from the collection “Place one foot here”. Write down all unknown words into your dictionary. Use them in sentences of your own:

Is That Why They Call Them Flower Children?

At this moment in San Francisco Ken Kesey

and the Merry Pranksters make up

Kool-Aide in a painted bus on Filmore

to experiment with the psychedelic explosion

of a new world order of love.

Comfy in Seattle Grandpa and Grandma

hug the poodle devouring his biscuit, they write,

send love missing us, and we, in the Meteora Taverna

on a narrow side street near the corner

of Apollonos and Patron lick our fingers,

slice lamb and caution the kids

there’s a charge for bread noting nothing comes cheap.

A wiry young man his dark eyes hungry

for attention bursts in like an opening scene

In a high school senior play, shouting

In broken English and rapid Greek about tanks

chewing up streets, rifles spitting

Into citizens, just now, in the streets of Prague.

Stabbing air with our forks

for emphasis we mentally

figure out how many miles

the Soviet army is from the steam

kettle heat where we sit in Athens.

The children ask, in mind of a picture

they once saw, “do you think

they shoot flowers out of the guns?"

Exercise 2. Make up a list of flowers names according to the model in exercise 2, Unit 1. Read, translate and transcribe each word on the list. Repeat for clarity of articulation. Work for precision with a minimum of tension. After you have accurately mastered the phrases for clarity, work for speed in repetition: Use the terms in sentences of your own.

Exercise 3. Read the following poem by Carol Levin. Repeat the verbs over and over. Accuracy first, the speed! Make a recording of the way you sound as you begin your studies, and then make a comparison, recording every six to twelve months:

Emilie Relishes Her Tale Of the Civilized Parisians

“We don’t give a damn about the General” chanted 10,000 marching through the streets of Paris

Residents floated

white hankies

from apartment

windows laced

with fresh lemon juice

for us to clasp across

our noses

on Bastille Day--

Oh.--

That’s wrong.

The gendarme sweep

jangled down avenues

not July--- but May

and began

at the Place de la Bastille.