1st Quarter Poetry Journal Reflection

August

When the blackberries hang
ripe and juicy
It's seeds squeezing out
dark blood onto the ground

Thorns rip my skin
shred by shred
Each one carrying
my faulty venom

Dark leaves decorate a
pale and gray
sky
Casting a shadow
over the vast forest

My cloak carries myself
my burden and worries
I shield myself from
the dangers outside

I finally reach a lake
thick and murky
Unable to see my reflection
I step into it
Looking beyond

And the world erases me.

When I started writing this poem, I wanted something mysterious. I wanted the transition of summer to fall to be apparent, in dark way, you know? I also chose this poem because this poem doesn't have a definite ending. I want readers to create their own ending, and perhaps turning it into an excerpt in a story. One of the most consistent parts in this poem is after the first line of every stanza, I describe the first line with two adjectives. I did this because I like a little consistency in my poems but I also like describing things in a short way instead of creating one long line. I also wrote the poem like this because I wanted a poem where I could imagine myself in that situation. One of the other things I did is I like to make my pieces the opposite. When you read the actual poem "August", it's very happy and bright, while my poem leaves traces of mystery, and it's your job to finish the ending and add more details to make it a little more... unique.

1st Quarter Independent Reading Reflection

This quarter may come with new experiences for everyone, especially for me. Two honors classes, more homework, Science Olympiad. Since I spent too much time on school, I feel like I didn't devote myself to reading, which is one of my favorite hobbies. Sadly, in two months I only finished like two books: Fangirl and Maximum Ride Forever. I abandoned Looking for Alaska and I just set aside Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close on my table, never to be read again. Now, this number is nothing compared to what I read last year. In 8th grade, I read all of Pretty Little Liars, The Delirium Series (again), Heroes of Olympus, Maximum Ride (again, too), Carpe Diem and other random books here and there. My books weren't too challenging. Anyone who has read Fangirl and/or Maximum Ride Forever would probably agree that it appeals to the average 13-15 year old. If I had to recommend a book out of the ones I read this quarter, it would have to be Fangirl. A book by Rainbow Rowell, author of Eleanor & Park (an amazing book, BTW), it illustrates the story of Cath, who just started going to college with her twin Wren, but their relationship is strained at best. She meets her roommates' boyfriend, and a guy who loves attention and words. However, her only escape is writing fan fiction about her favorite series, Simon Snow. I could go on, but I'll stop. I loved the voices in the book and how there were excerpts from the fan fiction and the actual series, and that helped the story move along.

Going on, I have plenty of goals for second quarter's reading. One of the goals that I have is to read more than 5 books. I know that my reading was pretty weak this quarter, and since I love to read, I want to put in more effort by reading at least five books THAT I HAVEN'T READ YET. (See, I have this bad habit of re-reading books). Trust me, I have a long list too: The Martian, The Selection Series, Shatter Me, Mrs. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, and many more. Another goal I have is to read a book that's more than 150 pages. This goal is pretty easy for me because I love books that have a long story line, so I binge-read it. And, the books that I usually read are about 250-400 pages, so it keeps me quite busy.

To be truthfully honest, I don't think any of the two books I read this quarter was "spiritual reading". Why? I just read them for pleasure. I wanted to read Maximum Ride Forever because the ending in the previous book was so abrupt, and since this book came out, I just needed to know it really ended. (It was a fair ending, BTW).  Eleanor & Park led me to read Fangirl. The humor, the voices, the conflicts and the budding romance made me thoroughly enjoy it. However, I felt like I didn't go deep enough. Something stopped me from reading it too deeply, and I think it was the fact that I read it for pleasure. So, this quarter, I want to try reading deeper into books, figuring out the meaning behind everything. But, we'll see how it goes!