Riddle Poem: Red, Red Rose

I am a red, red rose,
Blossoming on the horizon
Dyeing rippling blue soil
Crimson.
I unfold slowly
But wilt away
Swifter than I came.
Dew drops glimmer
On my blackened petals,
And a single thorn sparkles
Silver.
What am I?

(Highlight below to reveal answer.)
I am a sunset fading away into the night.

If you guessed right, congratulations! *Passes out cookies*

What If? Poem: Teardrops Were Rain

What if
Teardrops were rain?
Angels would cry down on the earth
Every other day.
The cherubs would take all drought
Far, far away.

Eighth Grade Project & Choir

Hi everyone!

A lot's been going on lately. I switched block classes, joined choir, and have begun working on my Eighth Grade Project.

Choir has been going really smoothly. We've sung songs from a lot of different places - from Africa and Mexico to Russia. We have "free" days on Fridays, when we bring in our own lyrics. It's a lot of fun and, believe it or not, challenging. We've all ready learned to trust each other.

For my Eighth Grade Project, I'm writing a novel called Grace. So far, I've written two chapters and the prologue, which is (all together) about 5,000 words out of my 50,000 word goal. I've had this idea rolling around in my head for a long time, and I'm finally getting to it.

Grace is about a girl named Arella, who woke up from an "accident" with no memory. She does, however, remember all of her family excepting her brother and father. She has a twin sister, but Levana completely ignores her at school, trading Arella for friends. When Arella's quiet, ignored existence becomes a chaotic mix of tragedy and tears, there's one person to comfort her, but she doesn't even know his real name. All she knows is the meaning: melody.

Yup, so that's pretty much the summary of this novel I'm writing. I can never figure out how to summarize this kind of stuff. :P That summary seems okay, though. Anyway, I'm really, really excited about this. I came to the conclusion that it was inspired by a song called Lauren & I (Celtic Thunder, written and sung solo by Keith Harkin) that I heard this summer. Other stuff eventually compiled into this whole idea I have now, like a house we pass everyday that has a huge wrought iron gate (I absolutely love that kind of metal work). The house behind it is enormous, and I've heard tell that the "house" is really just the garage. *Jaw drops*

That is some kind of crazy. I doubt that it really is the garage, but it's still a beautiful house.

There was one line in that song, Lauren & I, that made me blink. It's a sweet song, but sad as well. It went like this (it was actually more than one line, now that I think about it):

"And the seasons pass away,
And I still sit here lonely each and every day,
Wondering what's gone wrong,
'cause I don't remember
Seasons lasting oh so long
Oh so long..."
-Celtic Thunder, Keith Harkin, Lauren & I

It immediately got me thinking. It still does, in fact. I love this song. It's one of the few you can learn in minutes without it getting boring after a few days. Evanescence and Paramore are also good bands. Like You, Taking Over Me (Evanescence), and Stop This Song (Paramore) are my favorites. :)

I think that I've gone on about this long enough... I'm done.

~Cassie

Boston Massacre Trial

In my English/Social Studies class, we watched the trial scene of the HBO version of the Boston Massacre. In this scene, John Adams was the British soldiers' lawyer.

John Adams was Sam Adams's cousin. Sam didn't approve of what John was doing (standing fo the British), but at the end of the scene, he smiled and bowed to him. I think that by doing this, Sam showed that he still respected the law, and John's decision to protect the innocent.

In the courthouse, there were two lawyers (John and someone else) that asked questions of the witnesses. The witnesses said a number of things, and some of what they said made the other witness' word false. For example, one witness said that the mob of people that were attacking people were only throwing ice. but they did have clubs in their hands. Another witness said that they were throwing their clubs. Captain Preston said that the order to fire came from behind his men, and not from him. This very much contradicted what a previous witness had said, and worked with what a respectable witness had said.

If that makes sense, it was the reason that the British troops were decided to be not guilty.

A Mockingbird Just Sings

(Scout and Atticus Finch)

I watched To Kill a Mockingbird in my English class the other day. We were then asked to write a response to the movie, to make connections between the movie and its title, small town life, or any connections we saw between the movie and today.

Here's my response:

To Kill a Mockingbird was, first of all, an interesting movie. Most of what I remember about the movie has to do with Tom Robinson's trial and Scout and Jem's skirmish with Mr. Ewell. Tom Robinson was an African-American on trial for raping a girl. He was found guilty because the jury was most likely a little bit racist. Nowadays, however, it would be much different: Tom would have been given fair trial, and he would have had a jury of his peers.

Tom was later shot and killed when he tried to run from where they were keeping him. I think that this sent a shock through my classmates in me; we all believed that he was innocent and that the police officers would never dare to do something like that.

When Mr. Ewell tried to kill Jem and Scout, Boo saved them. Mr. Ewell was found "with a kitchen knife under his ribs." I'm pretty sure that Mr. Ewell was the plaintiff in Tom's trial. When he and his daughter took the stand against Tom, I was sure that Mr. Ewell was beating his daughter, and that that was the reason for her black eye and other bruises.

At the beginning of the movie, Atticus Finch (Jem and Scout's father) said that you should never kill a mockingbird because they just sing, and they don't harm the other birds. He told Jem and Scout that blue jays kicked the other birds' fledglings out of the nest, doing harm. In this case, when Boo saved them (and most likely shoved the kitchen knife under Mr. Ewell's ribs) he became the mockingbird. When Mr. Ewell beat his daughter and tried to kill Jem and Scout, he became the blue jay. I think that this is how the story relates to the title.

That's really all I have...

Bye!

~Cassie