RULES FOR BUILDING A LABYRINTH Like swimming, don't dig by yourself. Make certain you start in the same direction as your buddy. Don't show off. It's not how much dirt you lift, but where you let it slip off the shovel. Check for blisters. Even when you're finished digging for the day, keep your shovel near: In a moment of weakness, you may need to share an urgent secret: the hole you almost fell into, the whisper that lured you to its edge. Bill Mohr






Birthday
I've been banned from having birthdaysA new rule has been madeSigned ,sealed and deliveredBy the local Fire Brigade!They say that all those candlesWould create such a blazeThey'd have to come and put it outAnd stay around for days !
So, I guess I'll have to partyWithout the birthday cake,Perhaps I'll light one candleJust for old time's sake ,Those firemen ! So fit and strong,Such handsome looking men -Whose birthday is it ,anyway ?Let's light them all again !
Margaret Glendenning




Viking Blood
It is greatly to my liking,To be a lusty Viking;Yes, that's the only life for me.Not for me just peaceful trading,But pillaging and raidingAnd a life on the rolling sea.
We'll attack some peaceful villageWhere we'll rape and burn and pillage,And return with wenches, gold and loot.Though my actions are deplorableI'm really quite adorableFor I'm just a simple Viking brute.
So come and join my partyLive a life that's gay and hearty,A rover's life that's fun and fancy free.Enjoy a life that's thrillingWith lots of raids and killingYes, it's a Viking life for me.
Larry Webster


Facing It

by Yusef Komunyakaa

My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn't,
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night
slanted against morning. I turn
this way--the stone lets me go.
I turn that way--I'm inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke.
I touch the name Andrew Johnson;
I see the booby trap's white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet's image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I'm a window.
He's lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman's trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.




Bagram, Afghanistan, 2002

by Marvin Bell

The interrogation celebrated spikes and cuffs,
the inky blue that invades a blackened eye,
the eyeball that bulges like a radish,
that incarnadine only blood can create.
They asked the young taxi driver questions
he could not answer, and they beat his legs
until he could no longer kneel on their command.
They chained him by the wrists to the ceiling.
They may have admired the human form then,
stretched out, for the soldiers were also athletes
trained to shout in unison and be buddies.
By the time his legs had stiffened, a blood clot
was already tracing a vein into his heart.
They said he was dead when they cut him down,
but he was dead the day they arrested him.
Are they feeding the prisoners gravel now?
To make them skillful orators as they confess?
Here stands Demosthenes in the military court,
unable to form the words “my country.” What
shall we do, we who are at war but are asked
to pretend we are not? Do we need another
naive apologist to crown us with clichés
that would turn the grass brown above a grave?
They called the carcass Mr. Dilawar. They
believed he was innocent. Their orders were
to step on the necks of the prisoners, to
break their will, to make them say something
in a sleep-deprived delirium of fractures,
rising to the occasion, or, like Mr. Dilawar,
leaving his few possessions and his body.







My Name Is
Old glory
I am the flag of the United States of America.Howard schnauber
I fly atop the world's tallest buildings.I stand watch in America's halls of justice.I stand side by side with the Maple Leaf on the worlds longest undefended border.I fly majestically over institutions of learning.I stand guard with power in the world.Look up and see me.I stand for peace, honor, truth and justice.I stand for freedom.I am confident.I am arrogant.I am proud.When I am flown with my fellow banners, my head is a little higher, my colors a little truer.I bow to no one! I am recognized all over the world.I am honored - I am saluted.I am loved - I am revered.I am respected -- and I am feared.I have fought in every battle of every war for more then 200 years. I was flown at Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Shiloh and Appomattox. I was there at San Juan Hill, the trenches of France, in the Argonne Forest, Anzio, Rome and the beaches of Normandy, Guam, Okinawa, Korea and KheSan, Saigon Vietnam.Know me,I was there.
I led my troops, I was dirty, battle worn and tired, but my soldiers cheered me, And I was proud.I have been burned, torn and trampled on the streets of countries I have helped set free. It does not hurt, for I am invincible.I have been soiled upon, burned, torn and trampled on the streets of my country. And when it's by those whom I've served in battle -- it hurts.But I shall overcome -- for I am strong.I have slipped the bonds of Earth and stood watch over the uncharted frontiers of space from my vantage point on the moon.I have borne silent witness to allof America's finest hours.But my finest hours are yet to come.When I am torn into strips and used as bandages for my wounded comrades on the battlefield,When I am flown at half-mast to honor my soldiers,Or when I lie in the trembling arms of a grieving parent at the grave of their fallen son or daughter,I am proud.MY NAME IS OLD GLORY LONG MAY I WAVE.



Where the Sidewalk Ends



There is a place where the sidewalk endsAnd before the street begins,And there the grass grows soft and white,And there the sun burns crimson bright,And there the moon-bird rests from his flightTo cool in the peppermint wind.Let us leave this place where the smoke blows blackAnd the dark street winds and bends.Past the pits where the asphalt flowers growWe shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,And watch where the chalk-white arrows goTo the place where the sidewalk ends.Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,For the children, they mark, and the children, they knowThe place where the sidewalk ends. Shel Silverstein





Fear Poem
I realize that I've been running from myself.
I'm running out of breathI can't believe its so hard to breathMy hearts pounding in my chest As I wonder if IT found meI hide under the covers and pretend I'm invisibleThen I turn around and IT is still thereI scream and pray IT would just go awayI'm running and running but IT isRight behind me I've been running from this thing for 5 years nowI stop running and decide to face my fearsOnce and for allAs I stand face to face to what has caused meSo much misery and painI stopI look deeper and deeper into IT's eyesThan I realize that IT is me.
Kindall Perez


Rhythm Poem
I felt creative while listening to music
Music
Can we find any life without the music around us, there would be no life, no love, no happiness.There is music for everyone, not just for the rich. IN life everything is music, the beating of my heart,the typing of this keyboard.Why would someone take that away.music is such a beautiful thing. Let music into our life with open arms. And let music guide us too our future. Adam

If You Forget Me by Pablo Neruda
I want you to knowone thing.You know how this is:if I lookat the crystal moon, at the red branchof the slow autumn at my window,if I touchnear the firethe impalpable ashor the wrinkled body of the log,everything carries me to you,as if everything that exists,aromas, light, metals,were little boatsthat sailtoward those isles of yours that wait for me.Well, now,if little by little you stop loving meI shall stop loving you little by little.If suddenlyyou forget medo not look for me,for I shall already have forgotten you.If you think it long and mad,the wind of bannersthat passes through my life,and you decideto leave me at the shoreof the heart where I have roots,rememberthat on that day,at that hour,I shall lift my armsand my roots will set offto seek another land.Butif each day,each hour,you feel that you are destined for mewith implacable sweetness,if each day a flowerclimbs up to your lips to seek me,ah my love, ah my own,in me all that fire is repeated,in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,my love feeds on your love, beloved,and as long as you live it will be in your armswithout leaving mine

Long Distance.

All i have is the picture of you in my mindThe touch of your kindness in my heartThe glowing smile on your faceYour kind and beautiful advice at my disposal...My am i lucky to have you! I thank God for blessing me with you and For giving me: a shoulder to lean ona heart to embrace my tears and fearsa friend to count on at all timesa soldier to help me in my battlesAnd with Him as our guide, All is going to be well and that's whyNo matter the long distance between us, We are always going to be together. Jemimah Opati
A Politically Correct Christmas Story
'Twas the night before Christmas and Santa's a wreck... How to live in a world that's politically correct? His workers no longer would answer to "Elves". "Vertically Challenged" they were calling themselves. And labour conditions at the North Pole were alleged by the union to stifle the soul. Four reindeer had vanished, without much propriety, Released to the wilds by the Humane Society. And equal employment had made it quite clear That Santa had better not use just reindeer. So Dancer and Donner, Comet and Cupid Were replaced with 4 pigs, and you know that looked stupid! The runners had been removed from his sleigh; The ruts were termed dangerous by the E.P.A. And people had started to call for the cops When they heard sled noises on their rooftops. Second-hand smoke from his pipe had his workers quite frightened. His fur trimmed red suit was called "Unenlightened."And to show you the strangeness of life's ebbs and flows, Rudolf was suing over unauthorised use of his nose And had gone on Geraldo, in front of the nation, Demanding millions in over-due compensation. So, half of the reindeer were gone; and his wife, Who suddenly said she'd enough of this life, Joined a self-help group, packed, and left in a whiz, Demanding from now on her title was Ms. And as for the gifts, why, he'd never had a notion That making a choice could cause so much commotion. Nothing of leather, nothing of fur, Which meant nothing for him. And nothing for her. Nothing that might be construed to pollute. Nothing to aim, Nothing to shoot. Nothing that clamoured or made lots of noise. Nothing for just girls, or just for the boys. Nothing that claimed to be gender specific. Nothing that's warlike or non-pacifistic. No candy or sweets...they were bad for the tooth. Nothing that seemed to embellish a truth. And fairy tales, while not yet forbidden, Were like Ken and Barbie, better off hidden. For they raised the hackles of those psychological Who claimed the only good gift was one ecological. No baseball, no football...someone could get hurt; Besides, playing sports exposed kids to dirt. Dolls were said to be sexist, and should be passe; And Nintendo would rot your entire brain away. So Santa just stood there, dishevelled, perplexed; He just could not figure out what to do next. He tried to be merry, tried to be gay, But you've got to be careful with that word today. His sack was quite empty, limp to the ground; Nothing fully acceptable was to be found. Something special was needed, a gift that he might Give to all without angering the left or the right. A gift that would satisfy, with no indecision, Each group of people, every religion;Every ethnicity, every hue, Everyone, everywhere...even you. So here is that gift, it's price beyond worth... May you and your loved ones, enjoy peace on Earth.
Rick Morris
Abie
Abie was a Jewish boy.His father said, "My son.You must be circumcised, you know!"And that was duly done.
At school, his bandaged memberCollided with the fence.Tears sprang to Abie's eyes,The pain was so intense.
Head teacher, ever vigilant,Inspected Abie's wound.Blood seeped through the bandageAnd the teacher nearly swooned.
Marching in to schoolWith bandaged member hanging outCaused a great sensation.This made the teacher shout
"Abie, what the devil.What's this all about?"Abie answered truthfully"The fence gave me a clout.
I've seen the Master, Sir."Said Abie with a groan."He said to stick it out till lunch,Then I can go home!"
David J O'Sullivan
SEX!!
"What is this thing called sex, Dad?"Quizzed, my curious ten year old lad.Soft music stopped, party-chatter froze,Menon jolted from his drunken doze,
The pudding hit Mrs.Thomas's chin,My boss's face beamed a whisky grin,"Be a shport, Hari, you bumbling ass,"Liquour spilled from his brimming glass,
"Tell the boy of the birds and the bees,""Of Adam-Eve, the birth of babies,"To you, my friend, yes, you the reader,I must admit, I am no great leader
Nor much of a father, you may surmise,I am not a fool, but neither too wise,To have told the kids of the facts of life;Of what gets done, when man meets wife.
It may have been the beers in me,Or the fact that I could nowhere seeMy wife, within any earshot length,That must've been what gave me strength.
"Species Enlarging X-ercise," said I,Looking my boy straight in the eye,"Something we do to populate,""Strip, stimulate and copulate."
"Simply Ecstatic X-perience," quipped Ted,And smacked his lips - the sly newly wed."Superbly Erotic X-cursion," Joe, thirty-one,Raised his beer and added, "Ah, what fun,"
"Sweaty, Enervating, X-hausting," Iyer, mid forties,As an afterthought warned, "And causes disease.""Slight Erection - X-hilaration!" Nair, sixty-plus,"That's what sex is for grandpas like us."
"But, Dad," cried my boy in despair,He showed me a form, a questionnaire,"Please tell me how to get all that inThis little box marked - Your sex, fill in."
Hari Kumar

Snow White's Secret
She lay thereHer, with the ebony hairAnd skin so fair.
She was surrounded by the Seven,Caught between heavenAnd the other place, when,A sound was heard just then.
'Twas the Charming Prince,Come to free her from Step Mother's sins!
But wait, something was amiss.She slept on, even after his kiss,(Which had weakened countless knees),And this nagged at his peace."Maybe Snow White is..."The thought set him ill at ease.
So his fear to dispel,He sent for Rapunzel.But alas! His fear she did not quell
For Rapunzel did break Snow White's spell!
Mildred Achoch
This poem sucks
Lol u got pawnedi mean lol ownedthis poem suckslike monkey buttswhy are you still looking at this…im gonna punch you with my fistin the lip and you ‘ll get a lisplike this…
By Zac
Soaring bird
A bird soaring high and high in the skyAs soon as i i look in the skyit craps in my eye……
By lucas


An awful poem

I wrote an awful poem,it was bad in the extreme,I showed it to my sister,and it made my sister scream.
I gave it to my mother and she promptly flipped her slid,my father blew a gasketand my little brother hid.
I brough it with meto school today,my teacher nearly faintedand my friends ran away.
I never knew how amazing it will beit was just blast!I’ll make another one.
By Sandra R.

LOVE IS LOVE
LOVE IS LOVEHATE IS HATESORRY BABYBUT UR TO LATEI PLAY MY CARDS& I PLAY THEM KOOLILL BE UR LOVEBUT NOT UR “FOOL”
By Joana Bravo

this class

I really like that we have done projects and that we have read books that am interesting. I really

like the fact that you read to us, I hate reading by myself. Another thing that makes it a really

good class is that we are so relaxed, we can have fun in this class but then we have the times

where we get down to work and really get something done. The one thing I might change would

be more big projects, like creating that person’s life was good, I really liked doing that. I would

like more stuff like that. And maybe some more time on the computer, but other than that this

is the best class of the day for me.

Thur. 21, 2010 English.

The thing I liked the most about English this year was the fact that when we read, you read the books to us. First of all, I actually read the book that way, I pretty much never read the books in middle school because it was something we had to do on our own and I couldn't ever seem to get it done that way. Second, I actually understood the book this time, if I didn't understand any part of it you could easily explain it to us. And finally we got done a lot faster.
Now the thing I did not like about English class this year was the thesis papers we had to do. The only reason I don't like them though is because they are super hard for me. I do like that your doing these with us now so we aren't going to be totally lost when we get to college English so thank you for that. Besides that I haven't really had any problems with this class, besides ending it with a C last semester, but that was my fault ha-ha. I cant exactly say that I like the E.Q. project but I don't hate it. Lastly, the whole dead person project thing, I truly did not like. It was super hard for me.... and that's all.

Sincerely,

your favorite student EVER!!!... because of her awesome nick name.

S.Lammert

:]

For this class being an English class it's not one of my top favorites. No offense to you Mrs. V. But i can say that i like doing the projects that we are assigned not just because they take up a bunch of class time but also because there easier for me to do.
Something that i would like to change would be some free time but that's just me because i'm lazy but everything in this class goes by pretty smooth so i don't mind if it stays how it is. Especially when we read books because we get to sit and listen and Mrs. v is a pretty good reader so it's alright.

so far this year i've liked most of this class the 3000 words was the one i liked the most.the book five people you meet in heaven is an amazing book to read even though i have seen the movie before hand.the fact that mrs. vermillion is teaching the class is just that much better. the things i didn't like were the papers the papers sucked.the book to kill a mockingbird was like cutting my wrist the movie wasn't to great either. i'd like to watch the movie the five people you meet in heaven and to be able to write a 2 page story on whar ever we want to write about.

eddie got to see margerite and then he went through aging like everday and then margarete left and he got his last lesson

the lesson today was love she explains and says it never dies but changes form instead of kissing your husband or wife the memories become your wife or husband. eddies wife gets into a car wreck after a drunk teen drops a whiskey blottle on er car and hits a divider this stops them from getting a child she ends up dieing from a tumor in her head at the age of 47

Today we read about a few things but the most important i think was when Eddie met his fourth person in heavon. who is his wife that died of a tumor years before eddie died. And they talk about all the things they missed together and she took him to all these weddings and the final wedding was theirs and she disappeared into his arms.

Tue. Jan. 12, 2010

Today was mostly about Marguerite and Eddie. Marguerite was the fourth person that he met in heaven. They went to multiple weddings and talked about Ruby Pier and the new rides and how he died and the three people he had met before her and how Joey er whatever his name is died and I don't know... We read about Marguerite's accident and how she died... and how they went to clean out Eddies apartment and all that good stuff.

S.Lammert :]

blogg day 2

we read a lot today.... one of the best things we read about was eddie got to meet his wife again, and a really interesting thing was eddie almost killed her. he dropped a glass bottle off the overpass and hit her car making her swerve and she crashed almost died. they didn't talk for a long time but by the time they did all the money it took for her to get better ruined the chances of them addopting a child like they had wanted to before eddie had made her get in a crash. his wife made him a surprise birthday party with a bunch of kids and got a picture of them all blowing out the candles with him. His next lesson was somewhere with a bunch of kids everywhere and no adutls besides him there and then we stopped reading

today eddie has learned more about his father and found a side of him that he loved him but had never realy showed him it. eddie found out how his father really died and how rub connectes to his life

today we read about eddies troubles with his father again and when his father died he had went to the hospital window and screamed out his familys names and then was found the next day hanging out of the window.

Today was about Eddie getting to really know his father. Eddie found out that his dad was loyal to his friends and even the truth of how he died. But most importantly Eddie realized his dad loved him secretly...

Mon. Jan. 11, 2010

So today we read alot about what happened to Eddie's father, and how he died through loyalty and all. And how like Eddie claims he got stuck in a life that he was trying to stay away from and all that good stuff.... you know how it goes....

S. Lammert

bloggs for today

today we read a lot... i learned that his father did not die the way he tought, Eddie thought he died a total drunk and for no reason but in reality he died saving his friend, and then the night that he died in the hospital he died hanging out the window calling his families names trying to call out to them and maybe finally realizing he wasn't right and appologize to them n so in a way his father died from loyalty other than being a drunk we also read about and eddie learned that even people that he didn't know and that were before his time could make a difference in his life, they can effect his family which in turn effects him. we also learned that eddie in a way didn't have a choice in what he was going to do with his life..... he ended up back at the peir to take care of his mother and "Ruby" so he followed in his fathers footsteps which he didn't want to do