Articles written by Michael Bettencourt - Page 3

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About me - Michael Bettencourt

Michael Bettencourt is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. His A QUESTION OF COLOR won an Ostrander award in Memphis (TN) for Best Original Script in July 2005. IN THE FORT chosen was a Selected Script by Inner Voices. In 2004 he won Boston Theatre

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Arts & Humanities > English Language Should English be the official language in the USA?: 8 of 55
I have always thought that the movement to make English the country's "official" language is misguided, in part because it has never clearly stated what making a language "official" really means? Does anyone really know? One test of an idea's coherence is to imagine what will happen when people act the idea out. If English w... More..
Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: Nightmares: 18 of 121
DREAM (for Joan) quiet dark you fold the night over your face the dream draws a blade through your eyes dark an acid of light quiet breathing your daughter dies is dead killed quiet dark breathing your daughter the younger the pretty one is murdered breathing breathing no one pays attention you explain and still the beautifu... More..
Creative Writing > Reflections Reflections: Human nature: 4 of 26
THE PERVERSITY OF HUMAN NATURE I sit in front of this computer on a beautiful Friday morning. Quiet, uncluttered - a perfect time to write. And yet I'm fidgeting, antsy, unable to really come up with a decent thought or sentence. Why? Here I have all the conditions I've said I want for my own contentment, and I'm not content... More..
Arts & Humanities > Literary Themes & Ideas Is the book one of our best friends?: 2 of 13
Reading As Radicalism Dylan Thomas once said that "My education was the liberty I had to read indiscriminately and all the time, with my eyes hanging out." How many of the graduates of our public schools and, for that matter, from our best private schools would say that they had this kind of freedom to read, and got this kin... More..
Parenting & Pregnancy > Parenting (Other) What it takes to be a parent: 12 of 75
Two-Step Father Fathers usually come in two varieties: the home-grown natural father and the add-on step-father. However, when I lived for a short time with a woman and her two children, I discovered a third species of father: the Two-Step Father, the one who without benefit of biology or ceremony finds himself washing tons ... More..
Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: Morning meditations: 12 of 75
GAS FLAME at this hour morning is night - sleep's broken for the moment I poke around the refrigerator's innards for a collop of leftovers: nothing so I rub a reveille of knuckles into my eyes and nibble this strange lacking hour everything feels breathful, stretched, the dark itself muscular, everything lifted the barest br... More..
Arts & Humanities > Dance (Other) The importance of dance: 10 of 60
When I started performing, teaching, and choreographing at the ripe old age (for dancers) of 29 (I'm now 55), I found that as I became less masculine, I became a better dancer. A quarter-century ago, about fifteen years past the time I should have started and at an age when most male dancers are hitting their prime, I took u... More..
Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: Giving: 6 of 36
BIRDS IN WINTER She dispenses the seed at night; by morning they're lined at the feeder like the spikes on an EKG, the half-husks they litter behind a read-out of living through the cold. On sunny days the pigeons clump on the southern planes of heat-filled houses, on the glair crust of the park's snow, their thin pedestal l... More..
Creative Writing > Memoirs Testimonies: The enjoyment of yard sales: 2 of 12
THE LESSONS OF FLEA MARKETS If conventions and trade shows are the signs of where capitalism is today, then flea markets are the signs of where capitalism had been. My wife and I one Sunday had a table at a local flea market held in the parking lot of a local dance hall. We took turns manning the table (tedious work, standin... More..
Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: Teaching: 2 of 12
ON BREAK The usual caesura in classtime for bathrooms and cigarettes, for these adults coming at night to finish. The instructor moves among them, briefly of them, they of him, and the talk is easy, domestic. As two women walk by he hears "child abuse" and follows, perked by the sudden escalation. "What was it like in Belgiu... More..