This Pass or Prepared? is based on Susan Gold's poem, "Divine Mornings." At p. 127 of Enid Dame, Lilly Rivlin, and Henny Wenkart. Which Lilith? Jason Aronson Inc. Northvale, New Jersey, Jerusalem. 1998.

He once let her breathe deep
into an ear of his apple orchard,
and she could feel his sky's chest sigh.

Lilith knows where God's eyes can be found;
she has kissed them.

And when she wakes
to find the earth's sheets wet with dew,
she knows he still dreams of her.

at p. 127

Read Gold's poem. Think about issues we have discussed in Criminology, Juvenile Justice, Women and Crime, Social Justice:

Answer the following questions based on your reading of this poem:

1. Whose perspective does the poem take?

   One Plausible Answer

   The woman's. To the extent that Susan Gold, who wrote poetry for her Master's thesis at San Diego State University (ibid., at p. 397), was inspired by Lilith, we might consider that the poem takes Lilith's perspective.

2. In what ways does the woman narrator of the poem reflect positive self esteem?

   One Plausible Answer

   She says basically "he still dreams of me." That is very much like "he loves me." One who feels loved generally is reflecting high, positive self esteem.

3. Is there any hint of the "Bad" girl in this poem?

   One Plausible Answer

   Not that I can see. This woman reflects the joys of love and caring. I suppose that one could find "hints." That was a loaded term. For example, the "good" girl does not perhaps speak of "wet sheets." But to find those hints we must rely upon our interpretation of the words of the poem. The tone I pick up from the poem is one of joy, not of self-consciousness, not of shame, not of overstepping.

4. How does this poem fit with the "bad" girl image?

   One Plausible Answer

   The "bad" girl image can come from the normative response to the joy of the woman thoroughly caught up in love. If the normative response is one that "good" girls don't speak of their love in physical terms, such as breathing into an ear, kissing the eyes, because these phrases may have sexual connotations, then the "bad" girl image enters. Notice that the "bad" girl image enters through the gaze of others, not from the narrator herself. Reference an article, was it by Donna Haraway, on how women only see each other through men's reflection of them.

5. Is a normative response "right" or "wrong?"

   One Plausible Answer

   Well, if it were either, would we need the word "normative?"

Why does my copy keep opening to this poem? I don't have a clue. There are some feelings I prefer just to have. How do you feel about the poem?

Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata, June 2000. "Fair Use" encouraged.