Abby

Friendship is easy When we share a favorite color. When we share a common difference. If only life were that easy.
 * A Pantoum **

When we share a favorite color, We’re the best friends in first grade. If only life were that easy. "Friends forever," we said.

We’re the best friends in first grade. We’re best friends for 10 years. "Friends forever," we said. Even when we thought it wouldn’t last, once.

We’re best friends for 10 years. We’re the best friends in first grade. Even when we thought it wouldn’t last, once. //<span style="font-family: 'Bell MT','serif';">Friendship is easy. //

"//When we share//" - - repetition. This creates meaning in the poem by reinforcing a specific part. By doing this, it cements the feeling or adds a whimsical air about it. Also, though, you can use this tool to create whatever mood you’d like. In this poem I used repetition not only because it was a pantoum, but also because I wanted to explain how people, if they had a few basic interests and share on common difference, can be friends despite what the crowds say.

LINE BREAKS - - line break. This creates meaning in this specific poem by making you pause, reflect what you’ve just read, and continue. I think that it sets you up for the next stanza here especially in contrast to the other line breaks because so far the poem has been happy-happy. The next stanza, however, is a bit more melancholy and makes the reader think, “Oh my, what happened between them?”

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Our home was the smallest one in the neighborhood, I think, And we weren’t the most well-off family, but it was a wonderful place with friends. We would go out and explore the woods – I was the oldest, and told them to go on careful. After all, I cared for them so much. We went to school, we went to beaches with petrified trees, We even played in band together. Trombone, clarinet, flute, percussion. I even dragged one to Aikido, that strange person.
 * A Sestina**

The sun always shined, my hair was blonde, and we all could see each other when we wanted, in person. We didn’t cry when I left, we were too macho for that, but sometimes… sometimes I think That they did, and I just didn’t notice. I was too busy keeping myself together. Life is a lonely place without those you love, your friends, And whenever I think of them, I think of school, the band, Aikido, and most of all the white trees That were just laying there like an Elvin kingdom on the beach, and how I told them to “go careful.”

And what did I mean when I said “go careful?” Because I knew that if I lost them, as I was about to do, I wouldn’t be the same person. So I think of that time on the beach with trees, And when I do, you know, think It makes me happy. It takes me back to a time when it was just me, myself, and friends. So when we moved, I didn’t say I was sad. I had to keep myself together – keep my parents together.

There were a lot of fights, and nothing was pulling together. I had to tread carefully, diffuse situations that, honestly, were getting out of hand. I had to be careful. I kept my family sane, at least, but I made no friends In my new school. I was too busy, I think, Remembering our trees.

Brown, dead, and lifeless – that personified both the people and the trees. Past the bullying, past the bad curriculum, past the overwhelming sadness – I held myself together. I never talked to anybody about how I felt. They didn’t need to know, I still think, And eventually I stopped going to school for a while. I was angry – I stopped being careful. It was a change, and I didn’t think I could ever be me, be the same person. I had failed here – I had no happiness, I had no sunshine, I had no friends.

It’s supposed to be easy, making friends, But not when you’re thinking about back home, thinking of those trees, But eventually I think I found that weird person, And somehow managed to come back together, I told myself to “Go careful” And I told myself to stop, breathe, and think.

I found friends again, who helped me keep it together. I learned to love new trees, and to be careful in a different way. I’m the same person, but a little different, I think.

"//go on careful//" -- Extended Metaphor. I used this metaphor throughout the poem because I think it signifies what, exactly, my mental state is regarding the people I love and care about. By saying “go on careful,” I tried to create meaning by extending that in different ways and situations. Be careful on the trees, be careful in school, be careful socially, be careful that you don’t lose your equilibrium with the world – which I have done once before. I used this as an extended metaphor because it really relates to how I view my interactions with the world and how much I wanted my friends to be careful with the world, too.

"//brown, dead, and lifeless -- that personified both the people and the trees//." <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">I created meaning through the use of this because I tried to explain exactly how I was feeling about Virginia. I wasn’t only talking about the ‘trees,’ but the way my life seemed to be going. By using these descriptive words I attempted to create meaning by making a picture in the reader’s mind of a worn-out, desiccated tree.



**By Dawson Taylor**

And to say that I am weird Be that an insult Because I am CRAZY. You my friend know this to be true!

Let me tell you how I came to be this way, Enraged at myself, My classes are making me nuts! And at one time I found my Self with a friend. To be in the dark, it’s true, Enticed I was, but Remained myself I did, too.

“//CRAZY//” – Grammar. Dawson used his grammar here to demonstrate how he was talking at the time. He was bent on exclaiming this word, making it very apparent to the readers that the subject is, indeed, clinically insane.

//“To be in the dark, it’s true,// //Enticed I was, but//

//Remained myself I did, too//” – Compressed Conflict. Here Dawson used compressed conflict not only to agree with the poem’s Acrostic pattern, but to symbolize that the subject seemed to be in the dark. By saying these things, he created a strange jump in grammar/logic that seems to come together at the end, saying that the subject remained like it always has and, though the subject was enticed by an unknown thing, stayed exactly the same.


 * Blackbelt **

It’s not the end – actually, you’re only just starting. Being a blackbelt just means that you made it through the beginner stuff. You know how to act around other people, they know how to act around you. You know that you shouldn’t flaunt the power, because, really, it doesn’t matter to the real world if you have one or not.

It’s nothing but a physical pronunciation of what you are as an individual: calm, collected, thoughtful, pious. You don’t abuse your power over your students because, after all, you’re only a student as well. You know a couple of things they don’t, and it’s your role to teach them and to help them. There is no competition, it’s just there, it’s just a feeling.

You’re mature, you’re level-headed, you’re an example of what people should aspire to //be.// You don’t get into fights, and you diffuse them. After all, fighting is not the answer to anything.

It doesn’t matter that you’re a blackbelt – not to the outside world. It doesn’t mean that you are invincible, it doesn’t mean that you’re ready to take on that man with the gun. Anybody can make a mistake, anybody can get hurt.

Being a blackbelt is something everybody should aspire to be – not because they know fancy moves, but because of the mental aspect that goes with it.

Learning is an influential fixation; To understand something so intricately that you feel the nuances, the subtle bounces. Feeling as though you have reached a point where the things you discover are finer, subtler. Teaching is the most powerful shape of learning.
 * How to Learn**

To grasp at tiny spots of light that disappear as your hand catches them, Feeling frustrated, concerned, Teaching yourself again – patience, patience, patience. Breathe. Learning is the hardest thing to do, and yet we all do it instinctively.

Feeling like a master, though… well, that has no compare. Teaching others your tricks, feeling as though you’re on top of the world, nothing could go wrong, Learning how to see yourself as, well… great?

To be affected by the very thing you have mastered – the very thing you may have once despised –is a turning point that opens a gateway into a long hallway of wonderful things.

Teach yourself how to pull back! Learn to let go and express yourself! To run from the things you love is horrible – to embrace them willingly is to be applauded.

Do you think that you could ever feel that way? Do you think you can find something to devote your entire life to?

Until you’re old and gray, your hands callused, your eyes spider-webbed with cataracts, your ears deaf to the world?

Until your teachers are passed away and suddenly //you’re// the teacher?

Learn to feel like a master, because Teaching is as alike to mastering as you’ll ever come by.

** I WISH by ITG1 ** I wish for summer days where the orange sun gives many rays. I wish for a sign. I wish the purple iris would bloom. I wish for brown UGG boots. I wish I had blue avatar powers and a million dollars. I wish for the leaves to turn golden every fall. I wish for a green world. I wish I could fly in the blue sky. I wish for an adventurous life. I wish I could see green Florida again. I wish for a black HP computer. I wish that I was shopping in Paris. I wish I could be like a bird and fly. I wish I wasn’t at blue school. I wish I was in the blue pool. I wish I was in the yellow submarine. I wish the white snow would fall.

**<span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif';">M. Welsh ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Tired. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I could go home early. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Abby’s muttering something in the background. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I see a knuckle on a black, worn-out keyboard. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Geometry, my classes. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Some free time to de-stress.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I’m ready for the next assignment, but <span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Maybe I’m just fooling myself. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I touch my nails to the cool tabletop, watching the play of hot pink on black. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Worrying about the usual things. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Crying out to my friends whenever I see them. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I’m tired, but…

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I understand that I have to do these things. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I say I’m frustrated, but I’m not. I’m smart and capable. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Maybe I’ll be a secret agent one day. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">But I hope I’ll be just //me,// <span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Maddie Welsh.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">AIKIDO - a pantoum **

A group of people in rough white uniforms bow before the //shomen//, respectful and resilient, peaceful and proud, moving across the mat as graceful as a crane, each move flowing into the other, devotion in their every step, friendship in their hands, love sown into their spines.

Respectful and resilient, peaceful and proud, an //Aikidoka// is all of these things and more, living their lives to the fullest extent, devotion in their every step, friendship in their hands, love sown into their spines, their eyes open to the world about them every day, the epitome of //awase.//

An //Aikidoka// is all of these things and more, living their lives to the fullest extent, louder than a lion, quieter than a mouse, their eyes open to the world around them every day, the epitome of //awase.// How is this not beautiful?

Louder than a lion, quieter than a mouse, an //Aikidoka// is all of these things and more, living their lives to the fullest extent. How is this not beautiful? A group of people in rough white uniforms bow before the //shomen.//