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"Hanging Fire"

Audre Lorde published her first poem as a teenager, and went on to become the poet laureate of New York State. In "Hanging Fire" she takes on the voice of a young girl whose emotions are figuratively on fire and who wishes her mother who is "in the bedroom with the door closed" would come out to help her cool down.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 9 Unit 4's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: Poetry, poemcrazy, Nikki-Rosa, We Real Cool, Fast Break, Identity, Ego Tripping, Hanging Fire, odes, Sonnet 18, In Response to Executive Order 9066, Young, Poetry Cafe, poems by Nikki Giovanni
10 words 998 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

  1. betray
    disappoint, abandon, or prove undependable to
    I am fourteen
    and my skin has betrayed me
  2. secret
    indulging only covertly
    the boy I cannot live without
    still sucks his thumb
    in secret
  3. ashy
    of a light grey
    how come my knees are
    always so ashy
  4. graduation
    the successful completion of a program of study
    suppose I die before graduation
  5. melody
    a succession of notes forming a distinctive sequence
    they will sing sad melodies
  6. truth
    a fact that has been verified
    but finally
    tell the truth about me
  7. mark
    a number or letter indicating quality
    my marks were better than his
  8. braces
    a device that helps straighten teeth or correct irregularities
    why do I have to be
    the one
    wearing braces
  9. tomorrow
    the day after today
    I have nothing to wear tomorrow
  10. enough
    sufficient for the purpose
    will I live long enough
    to grow up
Created on Fri Sep 26 11:17:52 EDT 2014 (updated Fri Sep 26 16:42:58 EDT 2014)

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