National Day on Writing Celebration: Haiku and Cake

On Thursday, October 20, 2016, we celebrated the National Day on Writing with our annual Haiku and Cake party. Below are some selections of the haiku we received.

What are you writing?
A haiku. For English? Yes.
Sounds fun. Yeah we get cake too.

Math is glorious.
With food, it's even better!
Math + Cake? Pure joy!
(By Mrs. Margraff)

I play on defense.
Defensive link to be clear.
Football is my life.

Determination
Skill and passion in soccer
Makes the player great

Rebellious bolts
Blades of lightning cleave the sky
Cleaving right from wrong

Buffalo Chicken
Wings are very very delicious to eat
They were a good treat.

Chemistry is hard.
Why do they even teach it?
Do you think I"ll pass?

Haikus are awesome
But they don't always make sense
Refrigerator

I just came from math
We had to do trig problems
Please give me some cake

Be your Kanye best
Put your skills to Kanyes test
Beat the Kanye rest

Billions of bright lights
Shine against a dark canvase
In the clear night sky

Haiku is starting.
Haiku is nearly finished.
Haiku is complete.

"You Sit Down to Write" by Smurph

You sit down to write

And there is a sloth about your neck.

The words flow like marbles, dropping individually to the paper, dammed back

By the droop of your eyelids

And the tremors in your hands.

The face of the clock is blurring

But you know it isn’t late enough

So you push the heavy creature aside

And you keep writing.

You sit down to write

And there are moths fluttering in your chest

Making a home inside your ribs

Lifting, everything becoming that much lighter

And the words float out of you

Like each is a single gossamer insect

Seeking the light.

You sit down to write

And there’s a dragon clawing at your throat.

You can feel its breath sting your eyes

And the words roar out of your pen

Burning the page

Then extinguished by the tears that quickly follow.

It escapes from you in bursts of heat

And bloody anger

And it flies away

Leaving behind the taste of ash in your throat

And the promise of return.

You sit down to write

And there is something inside you

Deeper than the moths.

If you turn your head quickly enough

You can see feathers

And hear the beat of fragile wings.

This is the most valuable creature

And the only one

That will not fly away.

Treasure it.

"When I Write" by Kelly Shepherd

When I write, I am a bird

I am free, I let go

I let myself fly

The wind whipping in my ears

My hair flapping around like wings

My thoughts scramble across the

Vast expanse that is my mind

When I write, I am a character in a book

I’m your average girl fighting dragons

I’m an astronaut discovering a new planet

I have no limitations

I can be who I want to be

When I write, I am alone

I’m surrounded by no living human

I’m immersed in a world no one knows

It is mine

And mine alone

When I write, I am a social warrior

I feel the pain

I see the injustices

I fight for what is right

With only a paper and a pen

When I write, I am a tape recorder

Recalling memories,

Playing them back,

Sharing my wealth

When I write, I am a sprinter.

As my hand races across the page,

The timer is ticking,

But my breathing is calm

And my heart is pounding joyously

When I write,

I am a bird

I am a character

I am alone

I am a social warrior

I am a tape recorder

I am a sprinter

No matter where I am,

Exploring an island,

Driving along the coast,

Or sitting in my room,

Eating chips on my bed,

I am always on an adventure as I write

When I write,

I fly above the clouds

Omniscient,

watching,

When I write,

I’m living within someone else,

Telling their stories

Or I am myself,

Finally being myself.

When I write, I am myself,

I let every emotion

Seep out of my pen and onto the page,

I am honest,

Really, truly honest.

I admit my every emotion.

I laugh,

I cry

When I feel like I am stuck, motionless,

I write.

When I feel like I just need to cry,

I write.

When literally everything in the world annoys me,

I write

Whenever I am feeling too much,

Whenever I am feeling too little,

Whenever,

I write.

Writing is my therapy.

Always turning,

My mind keeps running,

Never shutting down.

Writing is my therapy.

It calms me

It catches me when I am falling.

Writing is my therapy

Because...

When I write,

I am a bird

I am a character

I am alone

I am a social warrior

I am a tape recorder

I am a sprinter,

But most importantly,

When I write I am myself.

"Writing like a River" by Bill the Basil Plant

I am a flowing river.  I move forward regardless of destination, regardless of changes in the future.

This describes me both as a writer and as a person.  When a difficult point comes, much like a rock for a river, I flow around it finding the best path of movement.  I can explode with energy like rapids or I can be calm and mellow like a meandering stream.  

To me writing assignments are like a dam.  An impenetrable force that builds up pressure until a crack is found and the water rushes through.  I stress and stress about writing until I work myself into a position where I cannot think.  All I need is that crack to rupture and bring it all out.  Throughout my life writing has been about assignments and stress in crafting words.  

Like a fast moving river, my mind does not slow to wait for my finger to catch up.  This causes many missed opportunities that I might otherwise have had.  Too many times I  have had to return to a thought in order to achieve it but, like an eddie in a river, it is not the same exact thought.  Decisions about writing have been like people floating in a river.  I ponder the outcome for long periods of time, slowly going through the possibilities, and deciding whether it will sink or swim.  

Writing is a rock that will not budge.  I try to push it but I know that a slow and steady pace will erode the monumental task and make the entire thing a little easier.  Too many times have I tried to buckle down and write one thing or many things in one sitting.  Similarly to a river, it does not work.  

I do not write much outside of school and this is something I have not had a need for.  When I have wanted to write I have found that I do not know what to write about or I can not find the words to describe what I am thinking.  Too often writing is stressful and tiresome, I have found that writing for fun in or out class of class is methodical and stress relieving as I can release tension from my self.

Like a river, I do not mind other streams or people rather looking at my work.  I openly ask for help and any recommendations I can get.  I do mind the thought of my work being used without my permission.  Also, I accept that I am not a fabulous writer.

Like a river my work can change.  Sometimes it is slow and methodical stating facts and fact based commentary, and other times it is like a waterfall.  A waterfall is full of energy, much like my opinion based essays.  One thing is always true.  Water always flows downhill, however this can be changed with clever engineering like canals and Archimedes screws.  Similarly, I always default to an AEC style essay, but I can mend my style to create any type of writing.

Water is the essence of all living things.  Much like a river feeding an ecosystem, a writer feeds every subject.  Writing is needed for history, literature, science, and even math.  As a writer I write about anything I so choose if there is no prompt.  A river can flow anywhere and can become entrenched in old habits as it carves a path through the earth.  However, a river, like me as a writer, can break free from the old habits and create branching streams.  

I am not the best writer, and usually find it strenuous.  However, I always need to flow in a direction never faltering.  I am nothing without direction, much like how a river would turn into a placid lake.  I cannot write what I cannot think, and unfortunately my mind blanks far too much for my liking.  I do not doubt that there are others who are in my very same predicament.  However, I am trying to change how I write and why I write.  Thus I am a flowing river.