They tell me you’re poor,
And I know,
I have seen you’re immigrant workers with their homes in a bag,
They tell me you are dirty,
And I believe them,
For I have seen the trash in your rivers,
And they say you’re dangerous,
And I reply, yes,
For I have seen your men lurking in the shadows,
And having replied such,
I turn once more,
to those who think thy know my city,
And smirk and say:
“Come and show me
Another city who’s more
humble,
giving,
delcious,
and more proud to be,”

Amid your flaws,
here is a strong,
hard-working ,
grateful-to-be-alive being,

And even though people use you as a pass by,
You don’t choose sides,

I am from the oven in my kitchen,
From my stuff bear, and my TV,
I am from the grape vine in my yard,
The palm tree,
Whose long gone limbs I remember,
As if they were my own,

I’m from yelling an butchers,
from San Luis and Enrique,
I’m from cooking and cleaning,
And from parties,

I’m from San Diego and Esperanza’s branch,
Sugar cane and classic hot chocolate,
From the lady in the white dress,
to the sound of her steps,

On the wall hang pictures, portriats,
collecting dust,
leaving an outline,
I am made from those memories,
in the frames.

I met myself,
This is to my past self,
You’ll go through,
break-ups,
Make-ups,
Ups,
Downs,
Emotional Pain,
Physical Pain,
Tragedies,
Comedies,
Wedding,
Funerals

REPLY:

This is to my olderself,
It hurts,
Life hurts right now,
but you better get over it,
Go and fullfil my dreams,
Go save the world,
Go ride a unicorn,

In the dark,
there was a man,
he stood out like a negative drawing,

Warm and dark,
but he held an umbrella,
even if it was rainless,

The street lights,
were the only visible lights,
In the alley

Emotional,
Faceless,
he stood there like a negative drawing,

The man’s hands and his umbrella,
were the only things you could see,
In the light,
of the moonless night
A man and his umbrella…

My memories may be blurry,
But I still remember the snow,
I was sitting in a little coffee shop,
Sitting there knowing I have to let go,

Then the wind began to blow,
I drank a steaming earl grey,
Then I walked with snow and all,
Down the hill, down the road,

The giant sequioas began to turn white,
Steeping dirt where ferns started started to grow,
The creeks still barely running,
It all like a TV show,

My mind began to drift,
To all the wondeful…
In this broken world,
All the memories sting
and hurt,

After my venture,
I went to my room and sat at the window,
Looking at the snow, falling,

And I remembered what it was like,
what it was like to look into your eyes,

“When you get what you want but not what you need,” these are lyrics to a song called “Fix You” by Coldplay. To me these lyrics can mean a lot of things, but to get a better sense and idea for the song I analyzed the meaning of the entire song, the rhyming pattern, and assonance used in the song.

“When you try your best, but you don’t succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can’t sleep
Stuck in reverse
And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can’t replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse? “

In the first two verses the authors are trying to describe the feeling of melancholy or depression. He also uses an AAAB rhyming pattern. The song writer uses assonance in the first three lines of each verse. Then in third verse (chorus) he uses assonance in the words ‘guide’, ‘ignite’ and ‘try’. And he rhymes ‘bones’ and ‘home’ to create an AAB rhyming pattern.

Throughout the song the authors are describing how this person feels (presumably a girl) and they intends to fix you. They continues to use the AAAB rhyming pattern, expect for the chorus and verse 7 where he used ABAC pattern.

“Tears stream down your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down your face
And I…”

To me this song gives me hope because it’s saying even when you’re in the darkest moments there will always someone who’s trying to “Fix you”. This can be a universal theme because people from anytime and from anywhere can relate to the theme.

Throughout the song he uses a rhyming pattern and assonance which makes it flow together. This song can relate to any generation or anyone, and can give them hope in the darkest times.

His cheeks were turning crimson,

The tips of his finger touched the rail,

As he fell,

His eyes were bright green,

But closing quickly,

As he began to fall back,

I caught him,

His blood covering my arms,

I screamed,

Until I felt weary myself,

His hair was blowing in the breeze,

He was my reason,

to live, laugh  and dream,

What would I do without him?

His heart was slowing down,

I put my head on his chest,

And wept,

Wept until I had no tears left,

I felt my heart shattering,

As his began to stop.

One great man wrote two moving pieces and more which ended up changing history. The man was Martin Luther King Jr. His two writings were “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” and his “I have a dream” speech. Martin Luther King Jr. may have written both of these readings but his styles changed when he changed his audience and purpose. I believe that these two writings are ones that were made to inspire change during the Civil Rights Movement.

“I have a dream” is one of M.L.K Jr.’s most famous speeches. He gave it at the March on Washington. “I have a dream” is pointed towards U.S citizens. The speech was made to inspire and motivate the audience. It was made of of short, simple and long, descriptive sentences. He uses a lot of repetition for emphasis. “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.” This is one example of repetition in his speech. The way he writes this, shows how African-Americans and other non-white races had suffered for too long without equal rights. So this made people think about the world they lived in and motivated them to change. 

“Letter from Birmingham City Jail” was another writing by M.L.K Jr. that he wrote while he was in jail. Letter from Birmingham was pointed towards ministers and male clergymen who had disagreed with his non-violent protest strategy, he also wrote a part towards the police and government. It was meant to give people the “moral responsibility to break unjust.” M.L.K Jr. formed the sentences out of long and descriptive wording. This is an example of descriptive wording: “Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work.” 

Even though both of these writings had different audiences and sentence structures they were both made to inspire. Without these writings, history would have been forever changed. M.L.K Jr. inspired many with his speeches and writings to make their world better for their future generations. We thank him for being able to sit next to whoever we want, go to the same movie as everyone else and go to school with everyone else.

Dear Ms. Christensen, Over summer break I did lots of things. I went to the beach, hung out friends, went shopping and I also went to the movies a lot. I also read book called The Sisters, a biography about the Mitford Sisters.

I’m Scarlett Betancourt. I’m here because want to learn and reach my goals. My short term goals are becoming a better writer and start doing community service. When I get older I hope to join the army or traveling for a living. I struggle with being creative when it comes to writing.

I was born in San Diego. My parents were born and raised in Mexico. I’m a single child, but I have lived with my 17 year old year cousin my whole life so he’s practically my brother. Most of my family lives in Mexico so I rarely see them except for my grandma and aunt since they live in Tijuana. I’ve been to three schools. I’m in love with history, unlike most people. I also enjoy reading non-fictional history biographies and such. I like reading and hanging out with my friends. I’m hoping to study abroad in college.

Impatiently, Anna got up and began firing questions at the tiny man. “Who are YOU? What are you? Where are my parents? Why did you SHOOT ME?!” Calmly, the man answered “I’m Aero, part of the Orchidai tribe. I will gladly show you to your parents if you calm down.” Anna responded with “Fine, fine, fine. I’ll calm down but, please take me to my parents.”

Aero took Anna to the room where her parents were being kept. They hugged Anna and apologized for the lonely childhood they had caused her. Aero and other Orchidaians fed Anna and her parents what seemed to be mashed up oatmeal and some sort of green juice. Aero told Anna that they could should stay as long as they need to.

Aero ended up answering Anna’s question of why they got shot. His response was, “We ended up here after our planet was destroyed and consider it our home. We don’t want people to destroy it, so we we’re just trying to protect our island.” Anna and her parents ended up leaving their city life and staying on the island, which they later found out that the island was called Thenardian Valjean.