Kelli+S

Kelli Sheley Creative Writing :) Period 3

Hello :) for our final project in our Creative Writing Class, we had to put all of our writings together and make a wiki for them. Most of my poems and writings came from real life expierences and some were made up just for fun :)

__Around Then__


 * Around 2004 ** I took my first vacation.
 * Around 1994 ** I became a big sister.
 * Around 2009 ** I ran my fastest barrel race yet.
 * Around 1997 ** I learned to love the farm.
 * Around 2004 ** I was welcomed into a 4-H club with smiles and open arms.
 * Around 1993 ** I took my first breath of life.
 * Around 2009 ** daddy taught me how to shoot a 12 gauge shotgun.
 * Around 2007 ** I kicked a soccer ball for the last time.
 * Around 1999 ** I got 6 stitches in my left knee.
 * Around 2005 ** I fell off my horse then got back on.
 * Around 2008 ** I rode for hours through trails with my best friend.
 * Around 1998 ** I started a best friendship.
 * Around 2007 ** I lived my best summer yet.
 * Around 2011 ** I will graduate from Edgewood High School.
 * Around 2009 ** I finally got my horse to quit bucking.

My life inspired me to write my poem because we were told to reflect on some things we’ve done in the past. They could be little things or big important things. But I wrote my “Around Then” poem mostly on my life with horses and how they’ve affected it and brought me closer to friends. I also wrote about family and how they influenced me to be a better person. My “Around Then” poem does not contain my future (except graduation) because the future is unplanned for me and I like living one day at a time with no schedules.

 __Where I’m From__

I am from old Mason jars, from lemonade And long summers. I am from the country I can see from my front porch. I am from the wildflowers that grow in our woods, The soft willow trees. I am from home cooked meals and brown eyes. From Ethel and William, working on the farm. I am from the stubborn side and the blondies. From I-dare-you and slow-down. I am from the bravery that helped my grandfather Win the war, the need to keep The crops growing, and wore down saddle leather. I am from the quiet ones, sitting in the back pews. The bucking horse that wasn’t as wild as They said. I am from generations of farmers, land passed down. Pictures that can prove we survived the Depression. And the small farm we called home.

I decided to write this poem based on my past and the history it involves. My family are from farmers and Marines in the war. They're strong and do their best to provide for their family. I love the country and believe its the best place to grow up.

** Which is louder, a smile or a frown? :) **

A smile is louder than a frown. When a stranger opens the door for you You politely smile And say thank you.

A smile is there for you Just after heartbreak And a friend is there for you Cheering your sad heart up.

A smile is priceless On the face of parents As they watch their kid learn to walk Then to graduate.

A smile can be fake As we put on a mask To hide our feelings Of inconfidence or sadness

A smile is louder than a frown. It brightens our day, Cheers us up, And is more than words can say.

I wrote this poem based on things that make people smile. To me, smiling makes everyone feel more comfortable and easy-going. It makes your day better. Smiling can cheer you up or a smile can be fake. This is how I know a smile is louder than a frown. This was one of my favorite poems to write. For this poem, I learned to use lines and stanzas correctly. We did 5 stanzas, 4 lines per stanza. This poem was pretty easy to form, it was just the “smile louder than the frown” part that was hard. Writing this poem made me understand how I can show expressions better and how they are a part of our everyday life. Smiling effects so many people, but it makes everyone’s day easier.

** Cinquains **

No school, late nights. Sunny days. Popsicles. Best friends, together forever. Freedom.
 * Summer **

Cold, snowy days. Cuddling. Warm fires. Hot chocolate. Snowball fights. Fun. Christmas. --- Crazy. Freedom. Untouchable. Marching. Full of Life, no regrets, no fear. Spirit.
 * Winter **
 * Wild **

Contained, tied down. Denied freedom, sadness. Caged forever. Held prisoner. Lifeless. --- Kind, saves the day. Ready to fight danger. Soaring, quickly to the rescue. Super.
 * Captured **
 * Hero **

Stubborn and mean. Creates crime, on the go. Challenges and tests the hero. Evil.
 * Villain **

These are our cinquains. For my Cinquains, I wrote about summer-winter, wild-captured, and hero-villain. These cinquains were my favorite things to write about because they’re opposites. I chose to write about summer because I love it and because I hate the winter. My favorite one was my wild-captured cinquain. It showed the major difference between the two poems. And I figured my hero-villain poem was just a good way to show opposites. I write whatever comes to mind. For this poem, we learned about rhyming and syllables. Our poem had to go: 2, 4, 6, then 2. But for our Cinquains, we were told to make them oppisites. This was one of my favorite projects because it was more of a challenge using syllables but yet making them opposite.

Well for this poem we were given a picture and told to write about it using rhyme or near rhyme. My picture was an ice cream cone. So I decided to write about a little boy, since kids love ice cream, and a nice day at the beach, because summer-beach-ice cream makes a good theme, but I wanted a cute outcome. I just thought this would make a good story for a poem and that’s why I chose to write about it. ** Rhyme. **

Mom grabbed my hand As we made towards the sand. Our picnic was packed In a small paper sack.

She sat our chairs down As I glanced around And saw many foot tracks Leading to the food shack.

“Ice-cream” it said. The sign bright red. I clapped loudly As she revealed 5 pennies proudly.

Wait till after lunch Your little stomach can only hold so much She said with care. But instead, I took the dare.

I paid for my ice cream And fell into a dream. It was the best thing I tasted My money well not wasted.

I ran back to my mom with joy. The ice cream in hand, like a new toy. But I tripped and stumbled And down I pumled.

My ice cream went flying And as soon as it hit the sand, I started crying. There went my delicious treat, The one, mom said, not to eat.

​ This poem also involves an AABB rhyme scheme and is also an extra credit poem. This is one of my favorites because i stretched real world problems into this poem how the world would be if these problems could be solved.

“What If”

What if the world was the way it used to be. No electricity, just candle light to see. Where family was all you had. Working long hours, you needed that dollar bad.

What if the world was all at peace. Getting along, conflicts decrease. No war, no rages. Just friendly salutations.

What if the world understood the golden rule. Making people proud, not disrespectful and cruel. More kindness to care, And love to share.

What if the world could take you back in time. Where would you go? Egypt? The Civil War? When the Wright brothers could fly? People were different and lifestyles have changed. How would the world be if history was mixed up and rearranged.

__Ace Finds a Home - Story for Children.__

There once was a puppy named Ace who was mistreated by his owners. They didn’t feed him and often yelled at him for things he didn’t do. One day they grew tired of Ace and dropped him off on the side of the road. As the rain poured down, Ace began to shake and shiver. He was hungry. He was tired. He wanted a loving home, not loneliness on the streets. Ace found a dry place on a small porch and began to fall asleep. When he awoke, he wasn’t where he fell asleep. He was in a cage, lying on a blanket. He could hear other dogs barking loudly nearby. A small dark haired woman approached the cage and placed a bowl of food and water on the floor. “Here you go,” she said to him. Ace was shy and couldn’t trust many people. But when she left, he ate all the food, licking the bowl clean. Maybe, Ace thought, this place wasn’t so bad after all. Hours went by and he slept the day away. The next day a man, woman, and small child arrived at his cage. They stared at Ace with delight. “What do you think, Andrew?” The woman said to the boy. The boy stuck his small hand in the cage to pet Ace. Ace went straight to him, feeling a connection. “I like him!” Exclaimed Andrew, “a lot!” And so, the nice family took Ace home where he had a warm bed, big yard, food that never ran out, and a friend to play with. He and Andrew became best friends. Ace was very thankful to be living with such a nice and caring family.

As for this poem (AABB rhyme scheme) Ms. Z. played a song and for every stanza we had describe how we felt about the song, so she played 4 songs. We also had to use alliteration along with the rhyme so this one was a bit tricky. i wrote this poem in an ready-to-leave/run-away attitude because thats how some of the songs made me feel when i put it all together. I think when kids hit their 17’s and 18’s they just want to grow up and get out of the house. This is what I based my poem on.


 * Alliteration **

Calm as the California sun. Cool and controlled, ready to run. The car is calling us. Cannot wait, running away is a must.

Your young and ready to go. Saying your new slang like “yo”. Your ready to hit the road. For years to come, your yelling, “Let’s go!”

Home we leave, house of love. Hush as the kids sleep upstairs above. We hurry to leave this house fast. Hit the highway, this will be a blast.

Goodbyes are hard. Gracefully, we get into the car. Greater things are to come. We need to go, goodbye home.

​This piece of writing is based on IMAGERY :) we had to pick any national or international __landmark__ and describe it using much imagery as possible. I chose Yellowstone National Park for this nonfiction piece because i love Yellowstone and have always wanted to go there and i think it has good places and beautiful views, a good way to write imagery. <span style="color: #069906; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">__Yellowstone National Park - NonFiction__

I sit crossed legged with my camera in hand on the rough ground as I stare out across the land. The tall Redwood trees shake their branches lightly and I can hear the rush of water nearby from where I’m sitting. Into the distance, I can see the large mountains forming their tall statue-like figure with snow capped tops. The breeze blows. Chilly, but not to bad of a day here at the park. I’ve hiked about five miles and on the way I stopped to get beautiful shots of small mule deer sniffing out the ground for food at the edge of the forest, and a grey Sandhill Crane on the verge of flight near the aspen groves, under the soft willow trees. I even came across a coyote with her young pups as they play in the ridges of the mountains, enjoying the nice sun. And now, here I sit, waiting patiently in the forest with the sun shining on the wildflower meadow ahead. And finally, a big black bear slowly approaches the meadow with her two cubs. She sniffs the ground a little then she sits in the flowers as she watches her cubs begin to wrestle. I slowly pick up my camera and quietly take shot after shot, not disturbing them. The background is unspeakable, with blue mountains so high they go out of focus, lost into the big open sky and fluffy white clouds. The river nearby rushes loudly as the bears make their way towards it. I watch as two rare Common Loons stare at the bears and waddle on downstream.

Hiking a little more, the day turns prettier minute by minute. In the distance, I can see steam rising off a small turquoise pool of water. The hot springs have been formed over thousands of years and keep changing since. I take a few shots and keep walking on. The land has been around for a long time, ever since Native Americans settled on it. They chose it for good reasons such as the beautiful views and amazing wildlife. And now, as I come across a field of bison, I look out over the open plains and mountain ridges, rich with history, and wish everyone could see through my eyes as I do right now in Yellowstone National Park.

​ <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">This piece of writing is based in the point of view of my horse, Jag, as we're about to ride in the 2010 Kentucky Derby Parade in Louville, KY. This parade was soo much fun, but it did make my horse tense because of all the thousands of people and things horses would consider "scary" such as ballons, dogs, kids running around, and much MUCH more! But overall, he did really good and i felt that writing in his perspective would create a cool work of writing.

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">** __Kentucky__ **** __Derby Parade__ **

I’ve been standing here for 2 hours. Scratch that; 3. I get lightly spurred as we move closer and closer to the parade. Finally, we go in next. I hear voices. Lots. Then I see a large crowd. They’re all moving. They have balloons and dogs and kids running every which way. I began to shake and tense up. So much noise. I prance in place as my rider soothes me and pats my mane. “Easy, boy. Everything will be fine,” she says. I still prance. My nerves build up and the other horses begin to feel my tension. Out of the corner of my eye I see a movement of people walk by, playing loudly; the big drums they hit make me throw my head up and I struggle to stand still. Finally we move into the parade. I walk really fast and look around at the scene. Families, kids playing on the curb, others have blow horns and balloons. They smile and point at me. They take pictures of me. The paved road is hard on my hooves as we keep walking. <span style="color: #008080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">I begin to calm down as my rider pats me once more and says, “Good boy.” I stare down the long road ahead. It looks full of scary things. People, tons on both sides. I tense up again, ready to jump out of my skin at any moment.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">__Concrete Poem__ For this poem we had to get in groups and write a concrete poem. A concrete poem involves forming the poem into a shape. Our groups topic was Natural Disasters and we made a heart and formed puzzle pieces out of the heart. Everyone had a different piece of the puzzle and wrote their Natural Disaster poem on them. This was mine:

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Shaking. Breaking. Buildings falling. Rumbling. Tumbling. Loud voices calling. The Earth shakes benieth us as people run panicked, all in a rush. As the land splits, buildings break apart, as families are forced to split as well. Destruction and devestation causes a loss of hope. The earth is torn and lives are lost. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Earthquakes <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">shake and tear our lives apart.

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">In this work, we learned about similes and metaphors. We had to pick out anyplace we love to eat and write about using simile/metaphor. Since i'm a vegetarian, it was hard for me to pick some place to write about. So i chose to write about Coldstone ice-cream :)

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">__Coldstone__

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Everyone is all smiles as you walk through the door. The rumor on their lips is true, This place is good. Ice cream, America's favorite home made treat.

Mother's with kids, teens with friends. The thought of Coldstone spreads like a disease. Which flavor to choose, Too many to count, the tastes all good.

A nice crisp cone, With a mountain of vanilla ice cream. And sprinkle on some chocolate chips, Like rain falling slowly.

Add some kit-kats and maybe some M&M's. And a river of chocolate syrup rusing in all different directions. Coldstone ice cream, a wonderful treat, Like a sweet summer day.

Honestly, I had no clue what to write about when I picked my first onomatopoeia word: gurgle! Nothing came to mind! But finally I resorted to writing about mouthwash in the morning. I know, boring. But as we passed our poems on, people started making my poem better and the main idea of it became of a long day, start to finish.


 * __Onomatopoeia__ **

** Gurgle! ** The mouthwash was cool. Delightful and pure. Refreshing like a dip in the pool. A cleansing sensation, a cure.

** Knock! Knock! ** “Hurry up in there!” Swishing, rinsing, then minty fresh taste. I hurry and brush my hair. Why such a rush? Why all the haste?

** Clang! ** I set my hairbrush down. I look in the mirror for inspection. I try a smile then a frown And realize there is no imperfection.

** Zoom! ** I rush out the door. Running to start the car. The time for beauty, there is no more. Besides, I must travel far.

** Bang! ** Goes the hammer. My job, the construction site. It’s better than the slammer, Oh, the idea such a fright. The bed is so inviting. The bad part is there was no pay. Oh well, sleep sounds tantalizing.
 * Grunt!** Such a long day.

This year in my french 3 class, we recieved actually letters from a pen pal in FRANCE :) my frech pen pal was named Margot and enjoyed hanging out and going to hockey games with her friends. here is just a little of what i wrote back, in french :)

Bonjour ! <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16pt;">Je m’appelle Kelli et j’ai 17 ans. J’habite des Etats-Unis en Ohio. Mon anniversaire est le 29, janvier. J’aime aller faire du shopping et j’aime faire une promenade mon cheval beaucoup. J’ai trois chevals et je les aime. Mon favori cheval, il s’appelle Jag. Il est petit mais très rapide. Dans ma famille, j’ai trois sœurs. Elles s’appellent Cristina, Marianne, et Stacy. Moi, j’ai longue et blonde cheveux. Ma favorite colour est rose ! J’écoute country, alternative, pop, et rap. Tu aimes hockey ? Tu joues ? Je n’aime pas l’école. C’est très ennuyeux ! Tu aimes l’école en France ? Ciao, Kelli

Translated, it reads:

Hello! My name is Kelli and I'm 17 years old. I live in ohio, U.S.A. My birthday is January 29th. I like to go shopping and i like to ride my horse alot. I have 3 horses and i love them. My favorite horse, his name is Jag. He is small but very fast. In my family, I have 3 sisters. Their names are Cristina, Marianne, and Stacy. Me, I have long blonde hair and my favorite color is pink! I listen to country, alternative, pop, and rap. Do you like hockey? Do you play? I do not like school. It is very boring! Do you like school in France? Goodbye! -kelli

This is just a piece of writing i wrote just for writing exercises. i wrote this my freshman year of high school.

Summer sun. Enjoying life, as i grab a handful of mane and he gallops off through the field.

I sit quietly,

flawlessly on his back,

the wildflowers all a blur of mixed colors.

I smile, and his strides become bigger.

Full of life,

he runs.

And then,

I let go.