Wordy Wednesday

Let's use Wordy Wednesday to talk about POETRY. I am very excited to see so many of you using your time wisely to create your own poetry.  Poetry is often a way to express your feelings which would otherwise go unnoticed.  Soon we will be reading published poems, as well.  When you read a poem, it enters your being and rests inside  you as you think about what it means.  If you "get it" it will explode inside  you and its meaning will stay with you forever.  If it doesn't mean anything to you, then it will just fizzle out and make room for a new poem to enter.  I hope you will find many poems exploding.  It's exciting.

Let's use our blog to "publish" some of your original poetry.  You can post your favorite so far and let others experience your thoughts and feelings.  What a great way for us to really get to know you!  Enjoy the experience. 

I will post a few of my favorite published poems here for you all to enjoy too. 

Japanese Haiku by ISSA (Translated into English)

In this world                                                               A kitten
     even among insects                                                       stamps on falling leaves,
          some sing well, some don't.                                              holds them to the ground.

Emily Dickinson

I ’M nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there ’s a pair of us—don’t tell!
They ’d banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!	5
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog! Whispers of Mortality by E. E. Cummings old age sticks up Keep Off signs)& youth yanks them down(old age cries No Tres)&(pas) youth laughs (sing old age scolds Forbid den Stop Must n't Don't &)youth goes right on gr owing old Robert Frost Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. Edgar Allan Poe Annabel Lee  It was many and many a year ago,           In a kingdom by the sea,     That a maiden there lived whom you may know           By the name of ANNABEL LEE;     And this maiden she lived with no other thought           Than to love and be loved by me.     I was a child and she was a child,           In this kingdom by the sea;     But we loved with a love that was more than love-           I and my Annabel Lee;     With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven           Coveted her and me.     And this was the reason that, long ago,           In this kingdom by the sea,     A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling           My beautiful Annabel Lee;     So that her highborn kinsman came           And bore her away from me,     To shut her up in a sepulchre           In this kingdom by the sea.     The angels, not half so happy in heaven,           Went envying her and me-     Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,           In this kingdom by the sea)     That the wind came out of the cloud by night,           Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.     But our love it was stronger by far than the love           Of those who were older than we-           Of many far wiser than we-     And neither the angels in heaven above,           Nor the demons down under the sea,     Can ever dissever my soul from the soul           Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.     For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams           Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;     And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes           Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;     And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side     Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,           In the sepulchre there by the sea,           In her tomb by the sounding sea. How to Eat a Poem by Eve Merriam Don't be polite. Bite in. Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that may run down your chin. It is ready and ripe now, whenecver you are. You do not need a knife or fork or spoon or plate or napkin or tablecloth. For there is no core or stem or rind or pit or seed or skin to throw away. Enjoy!

Fictional Friday

Fictional Friday is back.  Our lessons are deep into fiction with your free reading novels and your original short stories.  It's time to get back to the blog and post some of your favorite fictional books.  Write a short review of a book you think others will enjoy reading.  If you think one of your nonfiction selections was noteworthy from last marking period, by all means, write a review so others will know. 

If you have questions on your literary analysis, you can post them here.  Other students may also give an alternate perspective on your issue.  Let's help each other and let's talk about books.  I was happy to see that some students challenged themselves with classic writers such as H.G. Wells, Agatha Christie, Louisa May Alcott, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Jane Austen, Jack London, Jules Verne, and J.R.R. Tolkien.  Contempory writers like Gary Paulsen,  Lois Lowry, Robert Cormier, S. E. Hinton, Walter Dean Myers, Jerry Spinelli, and  J. K. Rowling continue to be middle school favorites. The newest author to entice middle school students such as yourselves is Suzanne Collins.  I look forward to reading all the literery analysis papers, especially those written on The Hunger Games.  I know Suzanne Collins' books are rich on thematic ideas.