The Prodigal Son's Mother

by Mary Rose Betten

You can't just read this parable quietly to yourself.  It's too mythic.  What you have to do is gather some people and read it—no, perform it —out loud in front of God and everybody, then you'll get it.  It's a tale of twists and turns and it takes a community to figure it out.  And some solitary prayer to get what it's saying to you.  Dig in.  A treasure awaits you.

—Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ
   author of  Dead Man Walking

Mary Rose Betten's chapbook collection, The Prodigal Son's Mother, is a fully-realized reminder that there is always more than one story woven into the most familiar narratives. Here, the silent but conflicted mother recounts the Biblical tale of the son who tore apart a family, only to be forgiven. As Muriel Rukeyser so powerfully announced, when a woman tells her story, the world splits open. So it is in this poem--for more than one person, tragedy is part of the homecoming.

—Eloise Klein Healy

Like all of Mary Rose Betten's work, The Prodigal Son's Mother, is insightful, eloquent, surprising and wise. We are lucky to have her, and her poetry.

—David Starkey, Santa Barbara poet laureate

There's a natural cinematic narrative, a dramatic recreation of what we see unfold in our mind's eye as we read Mary Rose Betten's chapbook-length story-like poem, The Prodigal Son's Mother. Mythical, Biblical, this persona poem comes alive as we wake with the speaker's voice "bargaining with the darkness." Betten's diction, "a brush fire through the wheat," finally arrives at a place of ancient reverie: this book reminds us of Rilke's belief that "poetry is the natural prayer of the human soul."

—Elena Karina Byrne

paper, $14

Mary Rose Betten, a retired character actress, poet and playwright; studied playwrighting with the Los Angeles Playwrights at The Mark Taper with the late, Oliver Hailey.  Her published and produced plays include:  “Mary M., A Visit with the Magdalene,” “People Of The Passion,” “Hildegarde 2000,” “Is Anybody Home?” and co-writer of “The Bar Off Melrose,” produced at The Melrose Theatre, published by Samuel French.  Recently she was commissioned to write Holocaust theatre and after extensive research wrote and directed, “Becoming Alleluia,” available for purchase on DVD.

As a character actress she appeared on stage, screen and television and won three Clio awards for her comedic appearances in television commercials. As a stand up comic she was introduced as a new comedienne appearing at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas by the Dean Martin Comedy Hour, and went on to appear on the Tonight show with Johnny Carson, The Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin shows and starred as a stand up comic on the Playboy Club Circuit.

She toured the United States and Europe as star and playwright of, “Mary M., A Visit With The Magdalene,” originating at the Cathedral of John the Divine in Manhattan, produced and directed by the author of GODSPELL, the late John Michael Tebelek.

At Ghost Ranch in New Mexico she serves on the faculty of “A Room Of Her Own,” for women artists and writers where she was a recipient of a scholarship to their original retreat in 2001.  She teaches in Perie Longo’s Santa Barbara Poetry Workshop and with her husband Dr. Patrick Mitchell gives workshops on spirituality and the arts. Together they conduct an annual story workshop in the Spring,  “Finding Your Story,” at St. Andrews Abbey in the high desert where they are both Benedictine Oblates.  

She lives in Southern California, with her theologian husband, Dr. Patrick Mitchell, who teaches at the Archdiocesan Seminary; together they enjoy sailing on their boat, “Morning Star.”  They are parents of a grown daughter, Elle Snow, who recently returned (from an ambassadorial scholarship) rehabilitating child soldiers in Uganda.  This chapbook is dedicated to her.