Loves, Pastoral Poems and Dramatic Monologues

We were told to make a list of things we love, and then write about them. I wrote a poem called Loved. Then later, I wrote the longest work I ever have, my Ode to Nature. After writing that nine-stanza poem, we listened to music again. It was Mozart's Requiem. I didn't name my poem, if you have a suggestion please comment and tell me. After that we wrote an Epitaph, which is an enscribing on one's tombstone. After that we wrote an Elegy, which I wrote to my Aunt Audrey who passed away from a heart attack.

Later that week we tried a Native American technique of connecting to our spirit animals. The idea was that to the sound of a beating drum, one's spirit would journey to the Spirit world, or Underworld, and there meet an animal that would pass on its wisdom to you. My animal was rather unexpected. On quizzes and such things I have gotten wolves and otters and eagles, but the animal that appeared in my mind was a stag. The pastoral poem resulting is untitled, again please comment and offer names.

Today we tried Dramatic Monologues. They're ok, but I personally don't like the idea that much. Not when writing from my own experience anyway. I wrote two that I think are decent. The first is called Brother to Sister, which I wrote from my own experience and acutally liked, and the second is called And Jesus wept. The latter one I based on the Iraeli-Palestinian border war and something I heard about the wall dividing the two. A wall, much like the Berlin Wall, has been/was built to try and control movement between the countries at that spot. A graffiti artist known as Banksy managed to sneak up to the wall and draw images on it. One was of a Palestinian child and an Israeli child playing together near a hole in the wall. Another was simply the words "And Jesus wept". I will edit this post later with the poem added.

Metaphors in Poetry and a list poem.

We recently tried a different style of poems, metaphorical ones. I think they are more like similies, but whatever. The first we wrote was about what we felt like that day. A cloud, a conck shell...I chose a Wind. In the second one we were supposed to think about a place we went to for comfort and to get away from the world. I wrote from the perspective of Topps Road, which is the road at my Oma's cottage that I will often walk on when I'm up there. The third poem I'm adding here is a strange one. We were told to take an object, come up with a list of things it reminded us of, and then write a poem using the ideas in that list. I chose the clown that usually hangs in the costume room in our school and my poem is called, suprise, suprise, The Hanging Clown.

A Collection of Poems

We've tried different techniques to try and access that centre of creativity in the subconscious. We tried a few Buddist breathing methods, resulting in my poems Unicorn Running, Slowly Walking and Blind. We tried mixing and matching a jumble of lines and words, and we chose to do the subject of Fall, which is what I decided to call my poem. We also tried just listening to music and writing what we felt the music was saying, what it felt like. I don't remember the names of the songs, but my poems are called Waves and Stars and Cat and Mouse. Then, for no particular reason, we wrote of objects that we found around us. I used a rock for the first poem, and called the poem SparkleWhite. Its a different style that I wanted to try, combining nouns and adjectives into new words and meanings. After writing SparkleWhite we were told to go out and find the biggest thing we could and write about it. I chose the trees across the field, and dubbed the result Tree Line. I intend to keep writing poetry after we finish our unit and I will try to post my work on my blog, but I'm not making any promises.

People all have different ideas of the single most important human trait. To me, its imagination. Through imagination comes empathy. From empathy, understanding. With understanding, comes knowledge, wisdom, peace and creativity. Creativity is what our class has been focusing on. We have tried different meditation techniques to relax our mind and let anything and everything flow out. I think that the latest technique we tried worked the best. Tilting your head back and forth and breathing really lets you think clearer. I enjoyed working on poetry and I'll miss it when we move on to the next unit. I think I'll try one of those techniques again sometime. Just go off and sit somewhere and try one. Why not? Maybe it will help with writing stories too. I am really happy with my poem Cold Fingers. We wrote it in Gibson Park. From the name, you can guess what the weather was like. Enjoy and please comment.

Op-ed

I did it. I found something I liked enough to do an op-ed on. I simply chose to rant about how stage crew, and the drama club in general, needs a bigger budget. Maybe we should start fundraising, but it is my belief that the school should re-balance the funds between groups. Why should the sports teams get all the money? Stage Crew, bigger budget needed! is the name of my article, read and enjoy!

A journey back in time...to Africa?

Many EDSS students went to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival Theatre today, that is, Wednesday October the 7th, to view a re-telling of Macbeth. Macbeth is a Scottish thane who is visited by witches and decides to snatch the throne of Scotland for himself. This rendition of the play was based towards the end of the Second World War, in Africa. Rifles, cameras, army fatigues, the play was marvelous. I was very impressed with the acting ability and how the director chose to portray the characters. The transitions were incredible, my favorite was the transition from Banquo's murder to the banquet scene. The gun flash turning into a camera flash was beautiful. The ending, I found, was just magnificent. The soldier dropping from the ceiling and the jeep bursting onto the stage was incredible, I loved it! The ghost rising from the floor, and the cauldron were smoothly done and made me feel jealous. I wish we had a cauldron like that. All in all, an incredible production, one I most definitely recommend.

Op-ed Error

So, our current class project is to write an op-ed piece on something local. The problem is that there is NOTHING interesting in the news! The topics range from the current non-election which we may or may not be having, to the fact that the local Food Bank or Food Drive thinger has nigh emptied its shelves! Anything there really catch your interest and scream "Write an opinionated atricle about me!"? (I might have errored in my grammer there, but what can you do?) I need something interesting, something fresh, something that will allow me to burn off steam and yell at something that's going on. If you have suggestions, let me know, because otherwise this is going to be a rather dull project on how the repaved roads aren't up to everyone's standards.

I've often had troubles completing stories that I write. I start with an idea, but the idea often never concludes itself. Nonetheless, here is my short story.