Poems and Stories All of these poems and stories are written by me

My Dream

At night, I went out for a while,
The shining stars were like the Nile
I breathed and gulped the fresh air,
The breeze played games through my hair
I wanted to jump, run, and leap!
But my mom called me in to sleep
I took a last look at the sky,
Do I have to go in, and why?
Nevertheless, I went in to sleep,
A sleep so quiet, a sleep so deep
The dreams I had was into perfection,
It was as if it was my selection
Twinkling stars, a crescent moon
I wish my dream didn't end so soon!
Grass, flowers, bushes and trees
With little ponds that went up to my knees
Kittens,and puppies,and bunnies and fishes
Unicorns, Pegasus, fairies with wishes
If you had a dream and seen what I'v seen
You would know exactly what I mean

'Twas the Day Before ACT


'Twas the day before ACT, and all through my head,
I was cramming things in there, so I'd go be fed,
I read the thick book full of strategies and hints,
I was really startled when my mom asked, "Some mints?"
	
I racked through my brain to find out the answers,
My sister annoyed me, said her dolls were dancers,
I studied all day and studied all night,
I hope that I was getting more bright,

The ACT, I wish, will be so easy,
Even if my stomach was a little too queasy,
Dad gave me some pop; it was very fizzy,
After I drank it, I wasn't so dizzy,

Then my eyes started to unfocus; then closed,
I woke finding I was in bed; then I dozed,
I had studied all this week, this month and before!
This studying is getting to be a big bore,

I woke up at 7; the test was at 8!
It would be very bad if I arrived late!
If I came a bit late, after 8 o'clock,
The teachers and students, oh how they would mock!

I got in the car, there was no time to spare,    
I hope we weren't late by the time we got there,
We drove to Grubbs Hall, and parked in our spot,
We weren't late at all, I'm glad we were not,

I sat in my seat, and they gave me my test,
I read all the problems, and tried all my best,
After the test, I gave back that thick book I was lended,
The story of the ACT and me now is ended.

Theador Geisel, alias Dr. Seuss, was one of the best children’s book authors in the 20th century. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1904. He died in LaJolla, California at the age of 87 in 1991. He wrote books, because illiteracy made him furious, mad, curious and sad. He vowed to stop it, so he wrote books that were easy and fun to read, and also included important moral issues. He thought that only parents could save the day by filling the house with books. Children would find something interesting and start reading. “Open a book, open your imagination,” was what he used to say.

Ted Geisel was born to Theodore and Henrietta Geisel. His mother gave him a sense of humor and the name Seuss. His father gave him inspiration. Ted and his family were of German descendant, and as a result, he was picked on as a child during WWI.

In high school, Ted took art class. He dropped out soon, because the teacher made him draw real-life things. At Dartmouth College, he became editor of the school paper, the “Jack-O-Lantern.” He was dismissed from the paper, because he and a few other students broke some rules. He reapplied as T. Seuss. After Dartmouth, he went to Oxford University, where he met Helen Palmer. They fell in love and got married in 1927. After getting married, he quit Oxford and, at Helen’s suggestion, traveled around Europe. While traveling, he came up with the philosophy that “Adults take life too seriously, they should look at life from a child's’ perspective.”

In 1927, New York, Ted got a job at Judge magazine, but due to recession, he only got $40 a week. Working on a magazine, he developed his style and gallery of characters. In a cartoon called “Science of Seuss,” he signed it Dr. Seuss. That was where the “Dr.” came from. Later, Ted went into advertising for Flit insecticide for 17 years. He also advertised for Seuss Navy in 1930. Then he was hired at standard oil as a commercial artist, but the money didn’t make him happy. He quit. Ted couldn’t make enough money as a standard artist, so he went back to standard oil with the condition that he could write children’s books. He wrote a few books with no success.

The book “McElligot’s Pool”, was dedicated to his father. The moral was “It’s not how much you do, it’s the quality of what you do.”

In 1936, he was coming home from Europe on a boat. In the middle of a storm, the rhythm of the ship rocking back and forth gave him the idea for his book, “And to Think that I saw it on Mulberry Street.” The moral was “Never lose the desire to dream and be creative.”

In WWII, in Europe, Dr. Seuss took a 7-year break from advertising and writing books. Instead, he wrote political cartoons about Hitler. He knew Hitler was a real threat to the world. He combined real life political people with his characters. One was Yertle the Turtle. In 1946, he won an Academy Award for best documentary short subject. The film was called “Hitler Lives.” He and his wife worked on it.

In 1957, John Hersey of Life Magazine challenged Dr. Seuss to write a primer for children to enjoy. He came up with “The Cat in the Hat.” He used only 225 basic words. It sold over 25000 copies in the first year. It helped make a publishing company. Then he made the “Green Eggs and Ham,” using only 20-50 basic words. He also wrote “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Unfortunately, the books made the school boards nervous, the books were too much fun, so they didn’t use them.

In the late 1960’s, his wife, Helen, and his father passed away within a year of each other so he was sad and depressed. He met a friend, called Audry, who helped him through all this. Later they got married. Around that time, he had been struggling to come up with a book about ecology. He and Audry went to Africa and he saw trees that reminded him of his own drawings. He saw the trees being cut down, so he came up with the book “The Lorax,” which became his favorite book. “The Butter Battle Book” was about the Yooks and the Zooks fighting over which side of the bread to spread the butter on. Dr. Seuss was accused of frightening children with this story. It was similar to the nuclear arms race. The moral was “Accept peoples differences.” Which side does Dr. Seuss butter his bread on? The edge, he tries to get the whole picture.

In his 70’s and 80’s, he battle cancer, heart attack and eye disease, but he still worked 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, even in the hospital!

Once, Dr. Seuss was offered a huge sum of money for the use of his characters and commercials. This would have put him in the Guinness Book of Records as the highest paid writer per word in history. He refused, saying he’d rather be in the book as the person who refused the highest paid writer per word offer.

When Dr. Seuss retired, he had written 50 books, and sold over 100 million copies in 20 languages, including Braille. He threw away about 95% of his works, so all we have today is only about 5%!

Once, on his birthday, his dad gave him a fossilized footprint of a dinosaur, and said, “Even if we become extinct, we all have the opportunity to leave our footprint.” I think that Dr. Seuss’s footprint will never go away.

Earthquake Disaster

We were walking along on a path, my sister, Joanna, and I Diana. Then it happened. An earthquake.

I was in 6th grade and my little sister was in 2nd. While we were walking on a path to the woods, my sister asked me what I liarn in 6th grade. I replied, "Well, we learn many things, like harder math and science and technology." "What do you learn in science and technology?" she asked. "In technology, we learn about things that the people build, like calculators, and computers. In science, we study about the things in nature, like the ocean, earthquakes..."

No sooner had I said that, the earth rumbled and tossed and turned. My sister screamed, but we were deep in the woods. Nobody could hear that scream. Trees crashed around us, sometimes almost hitting us, but we got out of the way. I looked around, trying to find a safe place to hide, but in vain.

Finally it stopped. My sister was crying. She asked, "Was that an earthquake?" "Yea," I replied. There were tears in my eyes too. Then the ground started shaking again. I grabbed my sisters arm shouting, "It's OK! It's OK!" This time it was quick. "Was that another earthquake?" asked Joanna, still crying. "Uh, it's just an aftershock. That means some small earthquakes after the big one." "Oh." Then it started again. I thought I saw a glint of blue. Then as the earthquake stopped, I realized it was a pond. I asked, "Do you see what I see?" "Do you mean that pond?" "Yea. We must be on the south side of the forest." "But the east side of the forest has a pond, too." Then I panicked. We were lost.

Meanwhile, at home, mom was making some dumplings and dad was working on the computer. They were both deep in thoughts, one worrying about the children and one thinking about a problem, when the floor started shaking. Dishes, cups, silverware and pans crashed to the floor. Books fell out of shelves. Mom and dad crouched under a table and waited, hoping it would end soon. When it stopped, they glanced out and saw what had happened. They were trapped in a house of fire.

Another aftershock shook the ground. A huge one. It tossed me into the air and I landed on my arm..My sister was nowhere in sight. The aftershock stopped. I stood up dizzily, that had shook me up a bit. There was still no Joanna. Then, as if it was my sixth sense, I looked at the pond. Bubbles. Little air bubbles rising from one spot. I ran toward the pond. I tried to peer into the water. I could see a form of a body. I waded in. The water was cold. Further, further, and further. As soon as I was in deep enough, I dove into the water, opening my eyes to see if I could see her. If only she could swim! I thought as I reached her. I lifted her and carried her to the surface as best as I can with one hand, because my left one started hurting. It must have been when I landed on my arm. I couldn't hold her up and swim at the sme time so I forced my left arm to help. It was easier this time, but my left arm hurt more.

I took her up to the bank and laid her down. Can she breath? Is she alive? I thought, as I held my hand up to her nose. Yes, she was breathing. Then suddenly, she choked up some water. I tried to help her. Then she laid back down again. A few minutes later, she opened her eyes. As soon as she saw me, she hugged me and cried. I hugged her back and cried with her.

"How do we get out?" mom yelled. "Through this big window! It's the only exit without fire!" cried dad, opening the window. Grabbing mom's arm, dad jumped out. When they were clear of the fire, they stopped. "It was a beautiful house," sighed mom, "But that's OK, as long as our children are safe." "What if our house fire starts a forest fire! Our children are in the woods!" cried dad. They saw a branch of a tree catch on fire.

"I want to go home," cried Joanna, "I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, and I want to go home!" "I'll try to find a way out." All I needed was a compass of some sort. A compass! I looked at the sun. It was only the morning, the sun wasn't over our heads yet, so I knew that the direction of the sun was east. I faced toward north and told Joanna to follow me.

After that, I don't really know what happened, but I knew that a helicoptor picked us up, and carried us somewhere. Somebody must have seen the fire. They said that we weren't very far from the fire. No wonder I smelled smoke in the air.

At the hospital, I found out I broke my left arm, but I was so scared then that it didn't hurt very much when I broke it. Now I have a cast. My sister doodled all over it so now it's all colorful.

We moved from our country home to a city house. I miss my old home, but I like my new home too. Mow we live happily ever after, but I will never forget what had happened.

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