Worse Poetry

I never remembered that there was a short-lived literary magazine* at my high school. But, low and behold, when I went upstairs to my room to head to bed late last night, I started poking around a little bit (one of my projects for the summer/fall is doing a massive cleaning up there and getting rid of everything I don't need). On top of a pile of boxes was a booklet stapled together with a blue cover, entitled "Paint Me As I Am." 

I didn't know what it was at first. I thought it was something left over from my sister's years at the jr./sr. high, but when I saw the worn post-it note on the cover with my name on it and my fourth and fifth hour classes from Spring 2003 listed, I became exceptionally curious. 

Some of the entries are anonymous, some chose to keep their names attached to their work. Two of my poems were chosen to be included in the journal. And they're awful. So deliciously awful, in fact, that I wanted to share. 

Ahem. 

A Garden 

A bench

Set in a grove 

Flowers blossoming all around

Lilies 

Roses

Daisies

Chrysanthemums

All under a willow tree 

With low flowing branches

That grab you with love and wonder

Beside the gently babbling brook

Water softly engulfing pebbles 

With every breath it takes

Around the pebbles swim

Tiny fish

Frolicking within the 

Great expanse of what they call home

Birds sing gaily in the trees

Singing the bird song

Telling of a Garden

Nature's Garden

And, of course, the quintessential angsty high school poem, complete with subtle title, no? 

Leave me be

anger 

rage

it's not all good

don't care what you say

so mad

life hates me

shut up and listen for once 

be happy

'cause 

you're one of the lucky ones 

you probably have a life

that's all milk and honey

well you know what

i have no happy life

cause I'm not like you

don't even go there

 nor start your

foolish hypocrisy

cause it's not all good

don't laugh

not funny

don't you see

it's not all good

leave me be

One thing to understand--something that I have to keep reminding myself of--is that these poems were written when I was freshman in high school. Other than that, I'll let them speak for themselves. Happy Wednesday. :)

*If I remember correctly. I don't remember it lasting much longer than one semester because it might have been a class that put it together--but it's been about 9 years and the details have since escaped me. 

Three Things

Thing 1

I wrote another guest-blog post over at The Hype Weekly site. It was a huge honor to be asked to write again, and as always, a huge thank you to The Hype for letting me rattle on a little bit about the crazy stuff I think about.


Thing 2

When I woke up this morning, I found a bag just outside my bedroom door. My mom had stopped by when I was still asleep to drop off the bag while she was in town running errands, and because both she and my roommates thought I'd already left for work, I didn't get to see her. (I did call her as soon as the other girls told me this to thank her for bringing the bag and chat a little, though the chatting was slightly awkward as I was still trying to wake up and she was grocery shopping.)

Anyway, included in the bag was my copy of John Green's The Fault In Our Stars, which had been sent home after I'd pre-ordered it.

It's so pretty! I like the simplicity of the cover. 

My roommate Alisha received one that included a Hank-lerfish, so I had convinced myself that maybe I'd get one with a Yeti* included with the signature. But no matter. I like the red. And really, the book is the most important thing. 

Thing 3

So this happened on Saturday night. And it was beautiful and hilarious and entertaining and so worth watching every minute that Daniel Radcliffe was on.** The skits were clever, funny, and unexpected in a good way.  It was awesome--I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Here's to hoping they'll invite him back to host again in the future. 

Thanks to DanRadcliffe.com for links to pictures and skits from the episode (the image above was from the same link). 

*You can learn more about the Yeti here. She's discussed here and there, and is quite elusive. 

**Lona Del Ray was the musical performer this episode. She was awful. Seriously, though. She was drone-y and the lyrics made me scratch my head. Like, a lot. 

Once again, the genius of Louise Rennison

Another site I love, Bookshelves of Doom, has posted a link to the first chapter of Withering Tights on the Harper Teen website. EXCITEMENT.

One of these days I should tell you all about my devotion to the Georgia Nicholson series (and how my sister and I are some of the biggest fans in the Midwest, probably). And how excited I am that Louise Rennison is continuing to publish.

I haven't yet read this chapter, but rest assured that by the end of the week, I will have. Most definitely. It's going to be awesome.

"Torpedoed again, eh?"

It's days like this I feel I need to remind myself that there is such a thing as sanity, and so I immerse myself in things like this. I'll let the clip speak for itself.

"Simon's Cat"

Heidi and I are both cat freaks. We grew up with cats in the house, and as soon as I have the power to, I will have a cat living with me. It's very important to both of us.

Soon after discovering the Sunday Funnies, both of us fell in love with the Garfield comic strip because it was one of the funniest things we'd ever seen and it featured a snarky cat who did as he pleased (and whose favorite food was lasagna). So when Heidi showed this to me, years later, I went kind of nuts. Simple, but highly effective. My favorite part is when the cat points at the fly and meows.

The best part? This is exactly what Naomi, my cat back home, does. Hilarious. Thank you, guy who makes "Simon's Cat". I needed this in my life.