A few horror poems for Halloween

http://www.underworldtales.com/poetry.htm

As I lay back in my coffin,
All too soon to be forgotten,
Should I cough or should I rise,
Go get a doctor, please!

As I'm buried deep in the dirt,
While family watches, sad and hurt,
Should I scream or should I wake,
Go get a shovel please!

As I rest below the ground
While life above is still profound,
Should I wail or should I moan,
Go get a priest, please!

As I sleep in deep repose
While worms crawl in and out my nose
Should I stink or should I bubble
Go get some perfume, please!

As I decay into bone
While in the dark, so all alone,
Should I turn or should I phone
Go get a scientist, please!

As I crumble into dust
While my casket turns to rust
Should I fade or should I vanish,
Go get some flowers, please!

-The End-

Week 8 Fixed Topic: Write Your Own Obituary (As morbid as that may seem)

Remember that you have a choice to make your imagined obituary seem 1) realistic, or 2) totally fictional.

PLEASE POST YOUR OBITUARY AS A COMMENT ON THIS POST. THANKS!

Some links to tips and examples:

http://www.otots.com/o-articles/obituary/examples-of-obituaries.html
http://elegantmemorials.com/how-to-write-an-obituary/sample-obituaries
http://www.obituaryguide.com/writeyourown.php

As the first site lists, your obituary can include:

-Name of the person who died (your name).
-Date of death, optional is the detail of how you died.
-Birth date and age.
-Address he last used. (feel free to be living whereever you want)
-A little history, mainly talking about memories, including marriage, children, grandchildren, career, community service, what people will remember you for
-Most importantly the funeral service's time, date, and other details.

October 24, Wednesday - A writing/sharing work day

Hi everyone,

Q1. What's your plan or goal for finishing your writing this week? (By Monday)

Q2. Can you bring a draft of your 2nd piece on Monday for peer review?

 If you are behind schedule, please try to catch up!

 Reminders:
-If you haven't written a reaction to Kathleen's talk, please do so.
-If you haven't responded to the Mid-Term Questionnaire, this is your final chance. It is almost the end of the term...
-Keep up your blogging/commenting. See the new commenting groups.

-Most importantly, move the process of your writing/publishing forward according to your schedule!

To review, basically, it is 8 steps:

1) Brainstorm theme/genre, discuss ideas with partners --> 2) See mentor texts (pieces of a similar genre on the web etc.) to get good ideas --> 3) write draft --> 4) show and get feedback --> 5) revise --> 6) show and get feedback --> 7) edit, get help with editing --> 8) publish with author's note, thanking your helpers.

See you on Monday!

Saaya's first piece"Travel essay in Indonesia"

Author's note:

This is a travel writing in Indonesia. Last spring vacation, I went to Indonesia with my fellow students of Unesco club. It was study tour; we studied about Indonesia by each person’s view point. We learned about education, science, culture, inheritance and human rights. I did not focus on whole study tour in this writing, but I wrote down what I am the most impressive event while the study tour.

 Mariko, Risa and Mark gave me advice. Thank you very much your help.

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1B8oRaKqZk1T8gL66DM178n7tbj7cpAUTKI7vLJCrQ30

Moro's First Piece "Animal vs. Human"

Author's Note:

This is a simple poem that combines two opposite points of view; animal's view of human world vs. human's view of animal world. At first, when I was wondering what kind of topic I would write about, I was going to write about the history of my pets in personal narrative because I love animals and my pets. However, as I wrote about it, my idea about animals (especially pets) developed naturally and I just got curious about animals' feeling toward their everyday lives. What do animals consider every day and how do they feel about humans' lives? I found it quite interesting to think about the new perspective completely different from ours, and I felt like writing about humans' perspective too on this occasion. Also, I had never written any poems in my life, so I wanted to challenge myself and decided to give it a try.

Here is a link to my first piece.
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1yKd_ZNufImZ5XSJT7i04U0OCu103-V5R_n3RxXDYXDg

The theme of this poem is "One tends to envy others, but finally realizes that one is glad to be oneself." Although my poem focuses on the relationship between animals and humans, I think that what is described here can be applied to any relationship between one and others. Animals are animals, and humans are humans. That's it. We do not have to compare them. Exactly the same things can be said about each person. It is important to accept what one is and appreciate the value of being alive.

It was very difficult for me to make rhythms and rhymes for each line, but I managed to make it sound at least smooth thanks to the great help from Ryo, Saya, and Mark. Ryo encouraged me to use simple words and make it more poetic. Saya provided me with a new insight by saying, "Your poem reminds me of the famous poem, `Watashi to Kotori to Suzu to' by Misuzu Kaneko." I did not notice it at all while I was writing this poem, so it was actually interesting. Thank you for your helpful advice, Ryo and Saya.

When you read this poem, please try to read it aloud so that you can feel the sense of the rhythms. Enjoy exploring both animal world and human world!

Tsubasa's First Piece " Short Story inspired by the song 'Someone like you' "

 Author's Note:

 People might imagines the stories when they listen to the songs.We might  try to associate our own experience or feelings with the songs or we might try to understand what is the singer's purpose and feeling to make the songs. It might be different from people to people,so this story below is the short story I can imagine when I am listening to this song " Someone like you".

http://vidalocat.blogspot.jp/2012/10/the-story-inspired-by-song-someone-like.html

Yumi's first piece "My best teacher"

Author’s note

This is about my best teacher in senior high school.

 Through my writing, I miss my high school life.

Now, she is a homeroom teacher of senior high school, second year student’s class.

After graduated high school, I still keep in touch with her.

When I met her last summer, also she gave me heart.

Thanks to Masaaki, Mark for helping me.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11I8bguisDHD82ivn9K3XrsgAzk1bwY5h3XG_m870lWI/edit

Saya's First Piece "My Best Friend"

 
Author's Note:

 This is the personal narrative about my best friend.

The start of our connection sounds strange and odd, but I think we are now the best friend for each other. She is really the best friend for me, and I hope she thinks so. I’ve not showed this to her, because it’s too embarrassing for me now. However, I wish I can show it to her someday.

During the process I wrote this publishing, Jun and Moro gave me the advice. Jun　pointed that I can add photos and Moro advised to change the first sentence. Thank you Jun and Moro!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hKgIZzR1xr_niyqCtFInH4_U9EA4qrk6Uxo8VLG86HY/edit

Messages to Kathleen - Please leave a comment!

Hi everyone,

I hope you enjoyed the session with Dr. Kathleen Hill yesterday. Thanks for asking many excellent questions.

Kathleen would love to hear what ideas were interesting to you, or what reactions you had. Could you please leave your reactions here by clicking on "Comment"?

She has access to this blog, so she will be able to see your reactions.

Thanks!

Mark

PS: Also, here is my summary of the Q&A yesterday based on my notes (click).

Nozomi's First Piece, "Who am I" (Poem)

Author's Note:

I made a poem about how I would answer to a question, "who am I?"

This blogging question made me really think deeply about this, so I developed my blog comment to a longer piece of poem. The question made me reflect on myself, and further on how I view the world. I did not think it was possible to express what I felt through logical paragraph, so I wrote this in the form of poem. This way I could let my thoughts come out as words closest to what I have within me. 

I would like to thank Tsubasa, Ryo, Mark, and Ms. Hill for helping me develop my piece. 

Below is the link for my poem ↓

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hd--EVJcqlrgF8ixrlBwzZ7t2nSTjfznDUiZcmsmWTg/edit

Ryoko's first piece "The Death Of Heisuke Todo"

Author's Note

Oneof the people I respect the most is Heisuke Todo. I really like him. I even wish he was in this current world. He is not so famous as other people from Shinsengumi. I want many people to know him. 

He died when he was about 23. His life was very short. But he did what he wanted to do. 

He is known as a "Sakigake-sensi", which means people who never hesitate to go somewhere. As this shows, he was so brave.

Thanks to Jun, Shoto and Mark, I developed this piece.

The Death of Heisuke Todo 

-----------------------------------

Heisuke Todo was amember of SHinsengumi. But he left and became a member of Goryoeji. Gryoeji had some troubles with Shinsengumi. And Shinsengumi tried to kill them.
----------------------

“I will go there!”

“No, you don’t!”


Heisuke knew that some members of Shinsengumi were there, but he was not able to stop going there.


“Leave me alone, I’ll go!”

The veins on his face stood out.

Heisuke heard that Ito was killed and he tried to carry him somewhere safe.
Ito was his boss and he respected him. They were from the same dojo, and they had been practicing Japanese swords together. Now Ito was Heisuke’s boss and was respected by Heisuke.
There was no way to stop Heisuke.

------------

“It is a pity that Heisuke, such a nice swordsman will be killed.”

Isami Kondo said in a low voice.

Isami Kondo did not want to kill Heisuke because he was a good swordsman, he was like his child or something to Isami. So, Isami told some members of Shinsengumi not to kill Heisuke. 

No one said anything.

The sound of the wind echoed.

“Alright, I will not kill him. I will try to let him escape.”

Shinpachi broke the silence.
Shinpachi Nagakura, who was a friend with Heisuke got how Isami felt and knew what he should do.

------------------

Heisuke went with some members of Goryoeji.


“Hey, they finally came.”
“Yeah, so now we go and kill them.”

Some members of Shinsengumi wainting there saw Heisuke and other were there.




“Let’s go...”


They went to kill Goryoeji.



Heisuke and others drew their swords.
The number of members from Shinsengumi was much larger.
Some members of Goryoeji were dying and some already died.
Heisuke was injured but still alive.


Heisuke found Shinpachi Nagakura in the battle.


Shinpachi had made a path for escape, and he told it to Heisuke through the eye contact.


‘Ah, I know what Shinpachi is trying to do.Thanks for your kindness, but I won’t escape.’


Heisuke got it, but he ignored it. He continued to fight. 

The battle was to be end.

A lot of blood on Heisuke's face. It was contrast to his fair skin.

One enemy cut Heisuke down slantwise from his shoulder.

A sharp pain struck his back.

Vivid red blood spread out.

He turn around. He had his sword at the ready.

Blood was dribbling down from the wound.

He looked at the man vacantly.

He tried to make a pass.

His body lurched.

One of the Shinsengumi members found the chance and cut down Heisuke from the top of the head to the nose.

The blood spouted out. It stained the sky and rain of the blood fell.

It dropped onto the red camellia.

Which red is his blood? Which red is the camellia?

Like the camellia which has unstudied beauty, Heisuke lived.

Heisuke's life was short.

He was looking for the way that he had to go.

He was never misled by anyone. He went the way he believed.

Ryo's first piece "Your sensibility"

Author's note: I produced a new English translation of my favorite poetry written by Noriko Ibaragi.

I love her poetries, especially I love this poetry. When I felt uncertain about my future and was overcome by peopel around me, this poetry gave me a relief. When I read this poetry for the first time, this poetry got stuck deep in mind. Her poetries always give me motivations.

It was hard to me to understand what she really wants to say and convey it to readers in English. However, Moro, Nozomi, my friends and Mark suggested me to some ways to make my piece more poetic, so I was able to complete my work.

I put two pieces here. One piece has sentences written in only English. Another piece has sentences written in English and original Japanese. I want you to read the first piece written in English at first. Then if you want to read it with original Japanese, try to read another one.

Piece of English translation
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=15JYaCnBtAjdCKOLIw8XSObaQ3fsefZc227ZFCWgDdBI


Piece of English translation and original Japanese
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1iZ-dVx1FDQi1G_h45u1LkRAk2TEvHDfndXqas-pa8zU

Jun's first piece "The teaching of my father"

Author's Note:

I wrote a personal narrative about the teaching of my father when I was a child because thanks to parents, I am the person I am now.

After writing this piece, I paused to realize that my way of thinking is based on my parent’s view. I felt I want to obey the teachings of my parents in the future.

While I was writing this piece, my classmates, Moro and Saya, gave me suggestions. Moro gave me some positive comments and pointed out the part that was difficult to understand. So I tried to change some words to be more clearly. And Saya advised me to add my family photo from when I was a child. Thanks Moro and Saya!

This is my first piece↓

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ez5j5JnBaVd1PpQJKQ-s3BeceyqweRu8dR41nK-o_XA/edit

Possible Questions for Dr. Kathleen Hill

Question for Kathleen

1.       How do you create stories? Process?

2.       What do you write for? Motivation or purpose?

3.       Why did you become a writer?

4.       How long does it take to finish creating a story/novel?

5.       Is there a time that you could not write? Writer’s block.

6.       How do you decide for a topic if you have some ideas or not?

7.       What does love mean to you?

8.       What is the most significant story in your life?

New Blog Commenting Groups 10/15~

Below are the new blog commenting groups, created by numbering off the previous groups 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 to mix them up:

----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------

Basically, please try to leave one comment on each article of your group members, or two per blog per week. If you have 3 team members, then that would mean leaving six short comments a week.

If one member is struggling and not posting new articles, you don't have to worry about posting a comment. However, it is always nice to leave a message of encouragement such as "Looking forward to your ideas!" on an past article.

 Please note that you can always leave a comment on any classmate's blog if you see an interesting topic. More interaction is better!

1. Haruka, Mariko, Rinako, Saya, Yumi

2. Jun, Masaaki, Risa, Shoto

3. Kayano, Megumi, Ryo, Shun

4. Kumiko, Moro, Ryoko, Tsubasa

5. Madoka, Nozomi, Saaya, Yohei

Mariko's first piece "My happy cooking report"

Author's Note: It is a cooking report in which I tried to show how to cook, my experience and my feelings through cooking.

I love writing something. I have written diary, story, picture book, essay, report and something like that. However I did not write cooking report. So I want to challenge cooking report through Personal Writing. Also I like cooking. I always cook breakfast, lunch or dinner in the every weekend. I record this cooking because of not forget in the future. If I look at this report in the future, I recall this record and how to cook. I enjoy written this report. But it was also difficult to convey my feelings to other people by writing. I think that it is important for author to convey my experience or feeling to other people. I learned it by writing this report.

Thank you for Saaya, Jun, my friend, my friend's mother and Mark!!

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1O8qgzgZtaZldgoqUU9cK0qeKPg7AO2mhrgL5fEsBeKE

Mid-Term "How is going so far? Questionnaire (Best if done by 10/15)

10/10 Wed, Class Summary / Homework

1. Discuss your blogging/commenting: How's it coming? Have you reached 10 articles?

2. Week 5 - Fixed topic = What's happiness to you?

3. Continuing your publishing - How's your first piece? Today's goal is to have a printed first piece that you have already revised, and try to get feedback for editing.

4. Most of you should have received invitation emails to edit this blog. You can publish your own piece in the following steps:

  1) Log in.
  2) Create new post.
  3) Write your title, and piece info such as link or content, and author's note including thanks to two or more classmates or other people who helped you with revising/editing.
  4) Add labels with the format "by Name" and also your genre such as "Poem" or "Short Story"

5. Homework = Mid-term reflection - respond to my email to be sent tonight or tomorrow.

6. Visit by Kathleen Hill on Wed next week - What questions do you want to ask?
     Her author website is: http://www.kathleenhillwriter.com/
     One of her impressive short stories is the The Annointed.

The Process of Publishing: Key Steps (Presented on 10/1 Monday)

Many of you have some drafts developing and getting close to publishing, so here is the process:

1. Drafting - Create a draft, even if it is rough, it is OK! Just put your ideas out on paper or other media to begin with.

2. Getting Feedback - Ask a classmate, family member, teacher or other person to take a look at your draft and give reactions. Getting feedback can be a scary thing, but it is good to choose a supportive person (like me or your classmates...fellow writers who know that expressing yourself includes a lot of anxiety).

3.  Revising - adding, cutting, modifying, making it more specific...adding images, illustrations, colors - try to make it full of the meaning that you want to communicate!

4.  Editing - After you revise, try to show it to somebody and get some feedback for polishing it up to avoid spelling mistakes or anything else that might interfere with your communication.

5. Publishing - Send to me your 1) link to your document or the text/images, and 2) your Author's Note about your feelings related to writing the piece such as why you decided to write it and what you felt as you wrote. I will post your link and note on your page on our website!

ALSO include in the Author's Note a reference to a classmate's reaction or comment or suggestion/advice that you used as you revised the piece.

I think this will have two positive effects on the writing process. First, I hope all of you will more actively seek advice from more classmates during the process, from the brainstorming stage, to the drafting stage, to preparing it for publishing using images, fonts etc. Second, it is nice for a classmate who gives advice to see their name receiving credit and thanks for helping in the writing process. If you get a comment from somebody outside of class, you can include that too! As for comments from me, the instructor, whether you refer to them or not is really up to you.

At least include two classmates' names in each piece! More is even better...actively get comments by sharing your draft in class or by email/online!

Examples of reference to feedback in Author's Notes:
-----------------------------------------------
I want to thank my classmate Taro for giving me the suggestion to add more content to the part about..."

While I was writing this piece, I received many positive comments and suggestions from Taro and Hanako. The idea to use the spider image was Taro's. Also, Hanako gave me invaluable advice about expressions that are more detailed and specific in the description of the character such as "a cynical smile like that of a Japanese baboon who has just succeeded in unlocking his own cage.

I would like to express my gratitude to my friend Jiro who told me the first part was interesting, but frankly the ending was not very satisfactory. He suggested many ways to change it, and ultimately I chose the current ending. What do you think about it, Jiro? I don't know if it is really exciting or not in the final version, but it made me think about many different ways to end the story. Thanks Jiro!