FInal SOL: Trip Memories

This Is For The Trip

This is for the trip. For the airplane and the boats. This is for the bubbles and the grass. This is for the who-knows-what's and the who-knows-where's. This is for getting lost. For getting found. This is for being spies and koalas. This is for the elephant, and the whale, and the earrings. This is for the flight simulators. For chasing rainbows and playing tag. This is for the same put-two-fingers-by-your-ear-and-wait. This is for the pictures and the journals. This is for the rain and the heat. This is for earth, fire, water, air, and cosmos. This is for the green and the blue. This is for ourselves and our futures. This is for the firsts and the lasts. For the beginnings and the ends. This is for Obama and the beavers. This is for red chalk and fluid. This is for running and floating down the river. This is for bruises and cuts. This is for mud and waking all day. This is for the city. For the bay. This is for the orchestra and the quarters. This is for the burgers and the statue with his hand in the air like he's trying to catch something. This is for bunk beds. This is for the marble and the wood. This is for that-one-time-we-did-that. Don't you remember? This is for the candy, for iced tea and Cheetos. This is for change and improvement. This is for the frogs and caterpillars. This is for the shoes and the messes. This is for the ropes course and the swing. This is for ga-ga and nicknames. This is for the memories. For the goodbyes and the thank yous. So there you go. Thank you. That was for us.

Sophie's World

This past week I spent some of my time reading Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder. The story begins when Sophie Amundsen opens the mailbox to find an envelope addressed to her. She opens it to find that the only thing inside is one sentence: "Who are you?"  In pure disbelief, Sophie launches into confused questions. Still trying to understand, she looks in her mailbox again to find a second envelope. The letter inside reads only "Where does the world come from?" In the time that follows she receives anonymous letters and packages containing essays and stories that toss her into a crash course through philosophy. The philosophic questions and ideas begin to take up the majority of her time but none of her family members seem to ever question anything. This book teaches philosophy, and is still a continuous story about a girl, a stranger, a mailbox, and a postcard.

I got pretty far into this book about a year ago and have just now started to restart. I would recommend this book to most people although I am not sure if others would be interested in reading it.

Time and Again

Finney, Jack. Time and Again. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1970. 

This past week I started reading Time and Again by Jack Finney. This book is set in New York in two different time periods. It tells the story of an artist who joins a mysterious government program and travels back in time. I am very much enjoying this book but am not finished with reading it. I like the first person telling of the story and how unique the plot is. I am enjoying learning about both of the time periods that this book is set in. The dialogue is descriptive and interesting and the characters are not cliche or boring. Overall, I am excited to finish this book and would definitely recommend it.

SOL9: Trip Prep

I am so excited for our trip to DC but there are still some things that I have to do. First of all, I have to finish packing. I need to pack clothes and money and pencils and games and a sketch pad and my poetry book and some other things too. And even though I am going to be packing all of these things, there is a very good chance that I will overpack, forget something, or both. Trip prep is difficult and slightly stressful to think about for me so I decided to write a poem.

Don't forget
And make quit sure
To take your meds
For they're the cure

Don't ask dumb questions
Don't talk too loud
And bring a coat
If you see clouds

Finish journal pages
Don't break the ships
We love you so
Now have a nice trip!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy

Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy. New York: Harmony, 1980.

This past week I read The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy by Douglas Adams. This is a classic book that tells the tale of a man living in England who is taken away from the Earth by a good friend of his who is actually from another planet but has been stranded for fifteen years. The two are picked up by a stolen space ship and travel across the universe. I enjoyed reading this book because of its interesting characters and quirky worlds. Adams is fantastic at creating unique and creative settings and plotlines that are different from other books in a similar genre. Overall, I enjoyed the comedy and writing in general of this book and would recommend this to most people, even those who have already read it.

 

 

Also, I am currently reading Time and Again by Jack Finney

SOL8: Poems

Here are a couple poems that I've written in the past couple of weeks. Some you may have seen and some maybe not; but I hope you like them.

Bird
A bird
Is bleak,
Or bright,
Or brown.

A bird
Is through,
Or broken,
Or silver.

A bird,
Is indifferent,
And undecided.



In My Pocket
A pen that clicks
Some tape that sticks
A paper clip
A mint

A silver thought
A tin robot
A document
To print

A black-ink pen
Vermillion wren
A tiny ball
Of lint

A dragon cave
A child saved
A drawing in
Full tint



Koi Pond
Golden fishes
Cool in springtime sweetest-
Dreams of lemonade.



Road from Veneux to Moret- Spring Day
(based on the painting by Alfred Sisley)

The road
the path
from which
none stray
is smooth
and cool
on such
a day

The trees
above
throw shade
below
protect
ing ground
from harsh
 a blow

And none
dare tear
through breeze
so blue
as sweet
Moret
in sight
anew.



A Cat Called Mewster- A Limerick
There once was a cat I called Mewster
Who at church would sit straight in his pewster
And the people did rave
Of the sermons he gave
And the way that he purred Halleluster



For Whom the Garden Grows
Walking through tranquility,
A tiny pair of shoes,
A dainty child made from the wind,
To dance with Solitude,

Petal-soft weighed thoughtfulness,
A song of Roses true,
A flick'ring, careful candlelight,
Softly glowing through,

And as she stepped if mesmerized,
Forget-Me-Nots blushed blue,
She sat upon a bottle-cap,
As Tulips bloomed anew.



Well, I hope that you guys enjoyed reading these poems, and you can expect more in the future!

The Road

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. 

This past week I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. This is a post apocalyptic book about a boy and his father who are traveling along "the road". Their world is an altered version of America, set some time after a great catastrophe. The man and the boy go through a long list of challenges on their way to no place in particular, and risk their lives nearly every day. They are threatened by both humans and forces of nature while their time together on the road slowly draws to a close. I enjoyed reading this book because of how unfamiliar the world and characters are even though it is set in America and the characters act in a familiar way. I am still a little bit unsure about some parts of the book and how I feel about them just because it was so unique. Overall, I thought that this was a good book with an interesting plot, and I am not sure if I liked it or not.

 

 

 

P.S.

I am currently reading The World is Yours to Change by Daisaku Ikeda