Friday, February 24, 2017

The February Thaw

Welcome to February's literary magazine post!  We are happy to announce that along with the new weather that is approaching, we also have new posts for your enjoyment.  We hope that the departure of winter combined with this month's lovely writing and art work will put a new "spring" in your step.  Enjoy!



The Kingdoms


Let me begin with this:
I want to live happily with both sides, but I clearly cannot.
The war has begun and there will not be peace; I am old enough to know this.
The East kingdom has declared independence from the West.
I am the prince.
My territory borders the two kingdoms, and they both ask me to join them.
Now I consider my heart and nothing else.
While the West may be wealthier and stronger, I do love the East too.
Yet, my heart tells me the West has a place in there as well.
Do I abandon my past loyalties?
Do I break the promises I have made?
Where will I be happy?
These questions do not help.
 They leave me viciously between a rock and a hard place.
But the rock has turned to magma, and the hard place is only ice.
The fighting begins and I am left out of it.

I must decide before it is too late.


by Will M., Grade 9


artwork by Emily W., Grade 9



A Journey I Must Find

My lifelong achievement was to tell a tale.
I yearned to tell my future all about the past,
My life dedicated to a journey.
But I remained unsatisfied with the unknown facts.
A journey I must find.

A simply complex mysterious item.
What truly is a journey?
Must I go and leave for some preposterous adventure,
Out of the place I call home?
A journey I must find.

Is it the escape of ideas?
The thoughts and feelings within myself?
Or is it the exploration of such unidentifiable entities inside my head?
Some things I did not know.
A journey I must find.

Are the answers about this journey in a book
Somewhere on a discarded shelf?
Will I run out of precious time to carry out my voyage?
Must I find this expedition?
This journey I must find.

As I live and dream and think,
Possibilities bloom from seeds of ideas.
I have not gone to travel far and wide,
I simply dwelled on my vast curiosity.
Is this the journey I had to find?

In the future I tell this tale,
For it is one I reflect back upon.
Why should I search for a journey,
When the journey indeed was my searching?
My journey I had found.

by Katie H., Grade 9


artwork by Blair B., Grade 9


Celestial Nightmare

The cosmos daunts me,
Its fiery stars ablaze,
Speckling the somber sky.
 I float, hanging limply
In a celestial nightmare;
It’s been eleven years now,
And my trip is coming to an end.
 I promised my little girl
That’d I’d be back in no time,
But asteroids and meteors
Have left me helpless and hopeless,
Without shuttle nor oxygen tank
To keep me alive.
 All I want is to be back
Home with my daughter,
To eat cereal and watch
Lousy cartoons with her
On Saturday mornings.
All I want is to see her face.
 The waning oxygen tank on my back
Releases its last molecules
Of precious air--
Deep breath in, Hold.
I see my daughters face,
Her speckled cheeks,
Glistening green eyes,
Her warm smile.
 I hear her voice,
Her sweet, innocent laugh
Rings through my ears and
Disappears into the endless void.
 I hear her call out for me,
I attempt to call back,
Screaming and crying
And tearing at my throat
Making no sound.
 I watch my skin go pale,
And my body grow frail,
It’s all over now.
 I succumb to my fate,
Lift off my bulky helmet,
And drift into the flames
Of a nearby star.


by Madison C., Grade 9

artwork by Bailey S., Grade 8
Fully Present 

From hearing to listening,
In distracted mindsets to deep corners of thought,
Closing out others to engaging in conversation,
One only improves by being fully present.


A state of confusion or the lack of interest,
Morphing to curiosity and wonder.
What is unknown must be explored,
It can only expose new light.


And just the help of a single story telling,
one that has lost grasp of the common interest,
May only provide new insight to those who are lost,
For this means the world to the one who listens.


Those who only hear must fail,
as they lose opportunities to grow upon the unfamiliar information.
When they are forced such a story
but do not devote themselves to processing what is being told to them,  
one more chance to bloom suddenly disappears. 


Just when the loss of interest takes over,
take a moment to listen and absorb.
Not a disadvantage within a mile when spending time on letting the words digest,
the realization of the message's importance will resonate within.


Internalize what is being fed to the soul,
appreciate every bit of knowledge and wait,
until the next time advice is desperately needed.
It will be the most helpful spoonful one has ever eaten.


Sitting there staring does a person no good,
as the details slip right past one's fingertips. 
All of the difference is made with focus and attentiveness,
One will be able to catch it before all has escaped.


Be there with everyone and everything else,
and only there,
not off in the distance ignoring the environment,
Surrounding one's very body providing such comfort.


Do not hear them. Instead listen.


by Carley K., Grade 8


This month's recipe is for Chocolate Truffles. Enjoy!