Ode to Winter

Oh, how those snowflakes dance

As they plummet towards the land

When you wake up there is no sound to be heard

And I watch snowflake after snowflake fall to the ground

I live for the special day

When snow dumps down in feet

And no way for the snow plows to come in time

Then I can finish my homework.

There are days where snow doesn’t fall

And it doesn’t fall for days to come

A blessing to some, a wound to others

Those days, my soul is shredded

Then I sit in unwavering prayer (with a bag of chips)

A prayer for snow to come 

The fantasy lingers everlasting

Dreaming of worn down skis and broken down toboggans

Then I realize this to be a mere dream

As my season of joy is months and months away

And so continues my mortal pain

For my heart will always be with the winter

And I’m too lazy to move to Alaska

Shakespeare Tweet Treat

Summaries of Shakespeare stories into 150 characters (or thereabout) tweet like expressions . . . 

Julius Caeser:

Caeser faces hate from many. His nemesis Cassius joins forces with Brutus to assassinate him.  His friend Marc Antony defeats Brutus in battle. Brutus and Cassius kill themselves.

Othello

Othello is a general. His officer is jealous. He lies to Othello about his wife. Othello kills his wife. The lie is revealed. Othello kills himself.

Macbeth

Macbeth, a warlord gains fame. King Duncan gives him power. He kills the emperor and becomes one. The generals unite to kill him. Duncan’s son Malcolm becomes king.

Hamlet

A prince named Hamlet learns that his uncle killed his father. He swears revenge. He falls in love but kills his lover's father in insanity. His lover commits suicide. Hamlet is then mortally wounded by her brother.

King Lear

King Lear splits his kingdom between his daughters. The king’s first two daughters mistreat him.  An illegitimate son Edmund kills his own older brother. The overwhelmed king dies crazy.

Midsummer’s night dream

 

Titania refuses to obey her husband King Oberon. He makes her fall for a donkey using magical juice, which impacts many others including Hermia. But once he gets what he wants he releases everyone from their spells which they assume is a dream.

As you like it

Duke Senior falls in love. His brother Frederick usurps power and exiles him. Duke’s lover and her friend follow. The brother feels sorry. All ends well.

Much ado about nothing

Two bachelors Claudio and Benedick return from war. Their friend Don Pedro wishes them married. He tricks one into marrying his rival. A plot by Don John to prevent this is put to a stop.

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet are in love. Their families spread them apart. Romeo’s friend is killed. He seeks revenge. The prince exiles him. Juliet commites suicide. So does Romeo.
















Twelfth Night

Siblings, Viola and Sebastian are separated in a shipwreck. The sister falls in love with a duke. The duke is in love with a countess, he sends the sister to play matchmaker. The brother comes and marries the countess.

A Thousand Flakes

Silver Medal
Poetry Zone Contest
On the Occasion of the London Olympics

A thousand flakes, descending in harmony
Never a more wonderful sight to see
Creating a still marvellous land
Disrupted by the "whoosh" of man

He glides down the slope with a shout of glee
For never has he ever been so free
Racing straight into winter's gate
Not knowing what surprises await

The sky is grey as night
Lit by a bleak canvas of white
Feet of snow coming in by the score
Leaving him breathless to silently adore

As this endless storm will not forgive
He must hurry if he wishes to live
He dashes down the hill, faster than sound
His fiery tracks pointing homeward-bound

He smoothly sways down to his barn
Where a soothing aroma wafts so warm
He puts his skis on the barren earth
Then rests by the flames of the flickering hearth

A thousand flakes descending in harmony
Never more a wonderful sight to see
Creating a still marvellous land
Undisturbed by any sound of man

The Indispensable Man

An epic tale of remarkable feats

Did NOT start with an axe in a cherry tree

Rather, it began in a Virginian Plantation

Prosperous and proud, in the middle of a future nation

His father was a sheriff who fathered five sons

But the glory of fame would go only to one

A lanky young lad, he was shy and reserved

But he was stopped from attaining the love he deserved

For a sad event shattered the plans he had

They were cut short by the tragic death of his dad.

His plans were crushed to travel abroad

But young Washington found a father in Lawrence, his brother in law

Sadly his surrogate father did not stay

While soldiering, Lawrence found tuberclosis coming his way

While visiting his deathbed, smallpox gave Washington a scar

But this made him immune to the revolutionary wars greatest killer by far

A grown man now, the state governor Dinwiddie

Had given Washington an army job quickly

Now a major, he became a surveyor to The family of Fairfax

Whose undying support enabled him to pay every tax

He surveyed the Ohio River Valley, where no Brit had gone before

He met the French, who were suspicious, and they were right to be so

Ordered by Dinwiddie to fight for the new land

Washington ambushed the French and the 7 year war began

French and Indians fought side by side

And clouds of gunpowder blackened the sky

Promoted to Colonel, Washington was now calling the shots

But by Fort Necessity, he was in for a loss

The French mercilessly stormed the fort, and historians have wrote

Washington escaped with two bullets in his coat

A British general arrived by the name of Braddock, who back home was the master of war

But he was surprised by these hide-in-tree tactics which he had never seen before

The Indians had the advantage, with no contest

And Braddock was felled with a bullet to the chest

But with amazing perseverance, Great Britain finally won

And France was (not literally) pushed off America by the butt of a gun

But the lessons Washington learned from this war were so great

That they helped make him the legend he is to this date

Lost

I was walking through an endless wood

Then at the edge of a trail I stood

I saw thousands of paths cutiing through the snow

And I had no idea which way to go.

Nor did I remember from where I had came

For all paths behind my back looked all the same

I looked up, with my cheeks drenched in frost

And  accepted that I was hoplessley lost.

I wondered around with time passing by

I slowly gazed up to the sky

Then I saw something I had never seen

Since when did the sky ever turn  green?

I began to ponder, in despair

Endlessly pacing,here and there

Sadly I sat on the stump of a tree

For a blizzard raged as far as the eye could see

 I Stepped off the stump and braved into the storm

Snowflakes raging down in a strange sort of form

As they dwindled around in an endless dance

They began to  waltz and prance

And suddenly, I woke from my sleep

And I was lying  in an empty creek

As I drudged  back on the lonesome trail

I  tried to see where I was, to no avail

I was walking across an endless wood

Then at the edge of the trail, I stood

I saw thousands of paths cutting thrugh the snow

And I had no idea which way to go