The Senses

Yay! I’m carrying on the poems and rhymes for poetry month. This next poem isn’t meant to mean really anything. I just started with the sound of bells and when I think bells I think of a church. So, that’s how I ended writing a poem about church. I’m being serious here, there’s no meaning to it. I just wrote and ended up with this. I hope someone likes it. Whenever I write about religion I’m always nervous about accidentally offending someone. Please don’t be mad if that’s the case :(

 

Hear the bell ding

Watch the choir sing

Smell old moth balls

Walk the long dark halls

Hear the sermon sound

Watch the tight fist pound

Smell the musty wood

Go to where he stood

Hear the people chant

Watch the joy they grant

Smell the tears that roll

Seek to cleanse the soul

Hear the joyous cry of amen

Watch empty pews where they’d been

Smell the sense of relief

Bask in constant belief

Hear the bread break

Watch them cut cake

Smell the coffee bitter

Walk to join the twitter

Hear the old door close

Watch them end their throes

Smell the blowing fresh air

Find your happiness there

(201 words)

Kitsune

1)      The fox, Inari’s messengers,

2)      they are the guardians of rice,

3)      who chase away the mice.

4)      But they are as diverse as the stars, some give and some take.

5)      Hawooooo they howl and cackle with glee,

6)      they laugh at the human plea.

7)      With their tricks afoot you will find,

8)      a thing or two gone,

9)      you’ll wake up at dawn,

10)    and be puzzled by the illusions you’d seen.

11)    A reward from them might be a sprig,

12)    for your pains just a branch and a twig,

13)    they don’t like the greedy.

14)    Freedom is their greatest joy,

15)    beware if you plan a ploy,

16)    to capture them and use their skill.

17)    Revenge will come fast,

18)    and your life might not last.

19)    Be careful of these sly slick tricksters,

20)    they’ll take the shape of a woman, beautiful as a swan,

21)    perhaps as the wife down the street, Dawn,

22)    her husband might never know.

23)    Take a look at a shrine,

24)    do you see tails of nine?

25)    If yes, remember the Kitsune.



A Kitsune

Analysis of the poem Kitsune

             Line 1, allusion. I use allusion in this line as I say “Inari’s messengers” since I usually write on this blog about Japanese things and I assume the readers will know the Japanese rice god Inari. (If you didn’t know, Inari appears in folklore as many differents things. Sometimes an man or a woman, young or old, human or fox, and one being or many. He is the god of agriculture and rice.)

            Line 4, diction. I use surprising diction in this line since I’m talking about mythical beings which are usually depicted as one being in tales or religion. However, I surprisingly call the kitsune diverse.

Line 4, simile. I compare the kitsune and stars using the word as which makes it a simile. I’m sure we’ve all have known that from at least middle school.

Line 4, antithesis. The words “some give and some take” is an antithesis since give and take are contrasting and I’m stressing that Kitsune aren’t all bad or all good.

           Line 5, personification. In this line I give the animal the fox the human characteristic of laughing. I even go so far to say that they’re “cackling” which foxes definitely don’t do and it’s kind of a creepy image.

          Line 5, onomatopoeia. I say the foxes “hawooooo” which is not a real word but the written expression for howling instead of just saying that they’re howling. That’s boring.

          Line 21, zeugma. Dawn is the zeugma word that I use. The first time it’s mentioned in line 9, it means the rising sun. The second time it means the name of a woman. Who might be a kitsune....

Poetry Month

            So, I’ve been reading this great book and it inspired me to write some poems. I hope poetry doesn’t bore you. Apparently, April is poetry month so I think I’ll keep writing some more in honor of it. So, in the book, one of the main characters has an unrequited love (loves someone who doesn’t love them back) and they are pining away so I wrote these two poems to express that person’s aching heart a little more. I hope you like them and please leave a comment if you have advice. As you can see, the first is really short and the other’s kind of long. The second one was co-written with the blogger Blackfox whose blog is Mor Ronyo.

Two in a Crowd

I always find you in a bustling crowd
And yet it pains me
Because I know in the caverns of my heart
You’ll never find me

 

 

Almost an Hour
It’s everything to me
It’s nothing to you

 Almost an hour

The clock ticks and tocks as my breath hitches
Your eyes flash and turn, I float
The clock ticks and tocks as my face flushes
Your question tightens my throat

 Almost an hour

Time races on, confusion I feign
Your frown slices my heart
Time races on and I breathe out pain
Your gaze it did depart

 Almost an hour

So little time to learn your heart
Your loves and your laws
So little time to play a part
Your quirks and your flaws

 Almost an hour

That’s all I get to see you
Your smile, shining
That’s all I get to hear you
Your laugh, twinkling

 Almost an hour

It flies, gone with time, snatch
Not you too
It flies too quick to catch
I want you

 Almost an hour

That’s all, you walk free
One tear
That’s all it will be
I fear

 Almost an hour

Lightning flashing
Freeze
Sand that’s slipping
Please

 It’s all gone

There’s no dawn

 So fast

Won’t last

 Sweet

Sour

 Almost an hour

It’s almost not enough

(329 words)

Sakura

Lately I’ve been in a poetry kind of mood so this is a poem I wrote if you want to read it. I hope just because I mentioned poetry you aren’t bored already. This poem doesn’t rhyme so maybe that helps since some people don’t consider non rhyming poems as poetry. I’m not sure why since the definition of poetry has the word prose in it which means common written or spoken language. Anyway, please leave a comment about what you think about it.

The Trees By the River

They twirl and float down onto the water

Water so clear and so cold, it is spring

Springtime is when they open up and reach out

Out to the sun and the people below

Below the blossoms that spring from the trees

Trees that are deep brown and flaking with age

Age of unknowable length, what they’ve seen!

Seen the bright kimonos passing on by

By the edge of the river many walk

Walk and chat about numerous subjects

Subjects like Westerners and their strange ways

Ways such as sitting in chairs, oh how strange!

Stranger still, they don’t use chopsticks or soy

Soy in their food or bentos no less

Less have we seen than cherry blossom trees

Trees that stood when the samurai where there

There in the shadows and ninja would sneak

Sneak to protect their master and their clan

Clans with a great many generations

Generations that still walk by these trees

Trees that look down with great wisdom abound

Abound and around yet we’ll never know

Know what it was like to be there that time

Time long ago when the trees were so young

Just in case you were wondering. The Cherry Blossom trees usually live 1,000 but some are known to live 10,000 years (that’s a crazy long time!) depending on the species. It takes 3-7 years to become full grown.

(319 words)

Milky Way Myth

Hello once again! I’m already looking forward to the summer (what is it with me always thinking about the next season?). So, I’ve decided to tell y’all about the Tanabata Festival that takes place in Japan on July 7th. The story goes something like this:

In heaven, the princess Orihime was a weaver who made the cloth for the people of heaven to wear and was the daughter of the emperor Tentei. One day she met the herdsman named Kengyuu and they fell in love. At first everyone was pleased as their happiness was a joy to see. However, they began to spend so much time together that they began to neglect their work.  Eventually, the people had no cloth to make clothes and the cows began to get sick. The people protested to Tentei and he decreed that the two must be separated. Orihime wept for many days till the emperor allowed the lovers to meet one night every year. Happy once again Orihime began to weave the most beautiful cloth again. So on the one night a rear Orihime and Kengyuu get in boats and meet each other halfway in the river. If you look in the night sky you’ll find Orihime on the east and Kengyuu shining brightly on the west side of the Milky Way.

Note: depending on the version of the story, the lovers sometimes cross a flock of magpies who form a bridge.

To celebrate the Japanese people put little bamboo trees in their garden and they hang papers with wishes written on it. Usually the bamboo tree is put out by grandparents or the people of Honshu (that’s the main island of Japan). People in Hokkaido (the northernmost island part of Japan) actually celebrate this festival sometime in August.

Here are some pictures to look at :)

Sources:

http://www.care2.com/gates/holidays/tanabata/tanabata.html

(313 words)

Social Media+ Information=Lightning Fast

So...this week the theme is social media.

Claim of Reality: Social media helps spread information faster.

I’m sure many of my other classmates will be debating whether social media is good or bad for relationships and how it impacts them. Meanwhile, the more obvious shall be written here.

When a natural disaster hits people scramble to get new and answers of loved ones, friends or just news. After the Great Earthquake 2011 in Japan, many phone networks were down. People visiting used Facebook, Twitter, and other social media to contact loved ones and give them news.

Also when Hurricane Sandy hit social media helped spread information on what residents should do. Information about closed roads, power restorations, and school closings could be accessed on Facebook and Twitter. The people of Morris county really found it helpful as well as the police. It made their job easier to keep the town orderly and get advice on what to do in certain situations.

Social media can not only spread news about disasters currently happening but also about disaster prevention. Southeast Asia Disaster Prevention Research Institute has a lovely facebook page and so does the Association of Natural Disaster Prevention Industry. This is really wonderful for people who hear a tornado, for example, is coming and don’t know what to do. They can find out quickly and easily.

Unfortunately, this also means bad new can be spread faster too. In the essay Electronic Intimacy, the author admits that it only took her eight minutes to find a picture of her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend on his facebook wall. Also, a detective’s daughter found out her father had died on facebook before relative could tell her.

There’s no denying that information can now be spread faster whether it is good or bad news.

Sources:

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-10-20/news/bs-md-ci-breaking-news-of-death-20101019_1_social-media-social-networking-sites-city-police-union- detectives daughter

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/japan-earthquake-tsunami-drive-social-media-dialogue/story?id=13117677#.UWG7BpPvv9k

(318 words)

Mythical Tigerfish

Hello! Another post about Japanese mythology!

If you go to any older building or temple made in the Edo period (1603-1868) in Japan you might find what is called shachihoko on the edges of it. They look like this:

Of course not all of them are golden but they are a unique architectural style to many Japanese buildings.

The shachihoko can also be found in Chinese mythology as well but that’s not surprising since people from China migrated to the island of Japan in the first place. The shachihoko are believed to be able to bring rain so many were put on building for protection from fires. During the Edo period, most buildings were wooden so it makes sense that the people would put up charms against fire.

The shachihoko are said to be half carp half tiger. When it comes on land it turns into a tiger and in the water it is a carp. They are thought to look like this:

There are a lot of carp or koi in Japanese mythology because they are seen as the most inspiring of all fish. This is because they swim up rivers and they don’t give up even if they are pushed back. They are so admired that many get tattoos of them. All the types of koi tattoos can be found here.

(223 words)

Schwinn Ad

Here's my ad that I have to analyze for class ;_;