POETRY Project
War Alters Our Perspective
We look up to the stars like a child looking up to a parent
We dream of a future with no problems, no worries
Our vision sculpted by our limitless imaginations
We dream of a world of peace and of culture propelled by technology
But by nature we discriminate we kill each other over land and religion
We steal and destroy a people’s culture
We crush their imaginations, we stomp on their dreams
We are mankind we run on instinct,
Destroying what we don’t understand
After two global catastrophes and the war that went cold
We fear the shadow of our brilliance
The atomic age poisons our imagination
Our visions of high tech cathedrals turned to dust
Fill the wastelands of the apocalypse
Our minds held at gun point by the fear of atoms splitting
By the fear of the machines at judgment day
By the people who could sterilize the planet with a button
The fear of following the dinosaurs to the planet wide grave
Our new visions of the future, corrupted with the darkness of the hidden
We imagine a dysfunctional utopia fueled by hunger and death
We are fascinated by the reanimation of the dead
Our fears of the supernatural eradication of life in media we consume
We are in the shadow of our brilliance,
We create our own demons
War alters our perspective
We look up to the stars like a child looking up to a parent
We dream of a future with no problems, no worries
Our vision sculpted by our limitless imaginations
We dream of a world of peace and of culture propelled by technology
But by nature we discriminate we kill each other over land and religion
We steal and destroy a people’s culture
We crush their imaginations, we stomp on their dreams
We are mankind we run on instinct,
Destroying what we don’t understand
After two global catastrophes and the war that went cold
We fear the shadow of our brilliance
The atomic age poisons our imagination
Our visions of high tech cathedrals turned to dust
Fill the wastelands of the apocalypse
Our minds held at gun point by the fear of atoms splitting
By the fear of the machines at judgment day
By the people who could sterilize the planet with a button
The fear of following the dinosaurs to the planet wide grave
Our new visions of the future, corrupted with the darkness of the hidden
We imagine a dysfunctional utopia fueled by hunger and death
We are fascinated by the reanimation of the dead
Our fears of the supernatural eradication of life in media we consume
We are in the shadow of our brilliance,
We create our own demons
War alters our perspective
The perspective that is portrayed in my poem did not change at all during the course of the project. This is mainly because I did research on the idea that my poem was based on and had already refined this idea. Here is a quote from one of the first drafts of my poem: ”Our minds held at gun point by the fear of atoms splitting. By the people who could sterilize the planet with a button. By the fear of the machines at judgment day. The fear of following the dinosaurs to the planet wide grave.” Not much changed in the form of sophistication because my poem did not change very much between drafts. This means that when I originally wrote the poem, it was already refined on an intellectual level. The same stanza from the final draft is, “Our minds held at gun point by the fear of atoms splitting By the people who could sterilize the planet with a button By the fear of the machines at judgment day The fear of following the dinosaurs to the planet wide grave.”
One of the most important changes I made was to move some of the lines to more strategic locations. "We are mankind we run on instinct, destroying what we don't understand". The change that was made on this line was to separate the longer line into two smaller lines. I felt that this was needed to make this "run-on” line not as long. Also, I did it to make the message in the lines carry more impact. "We are mankind we run on instinct” “Destroying what we don't understand." This change helped to give the poem better flow and made certain parts have more emotional weight, helping the listener to understand something everyone should be able to relate to. This change definitely gives the poem an undertone that is easier to relate to by slowing down the pace and flow of the poem. These pauses in the poem cause people to think about the message of the individual lines.
The most important change I made to this poem from the first version to the final was the spelling/grammar and the adding of certain poetic devices. For example, a line from my first draft: “by the people that could sterilize the planet with a button” These sort of changes are always the first thing I do to any piece of work involving writing. When I am writing, I write whatever comes to me, but unlike most people, this is hard for me because I do not know how to spell and I barely understand grammar. Once I had my ideas on paper, I needed to make it into a poem, so I added similes, metaphors and other poetic devices. “By the people who could sterilize the planet with a button.” At the beginning of this project I did not really care for poetry. All I wanted to write were stories. Then I learned that poetry is telling a story, not in imagery but in emotion.
One of the most important changes I made was to move some of the lines to more strategic locations. "We are mankind we run on instinct, destroying what we don't understand". The change that was made on this line was to separate the longer line into two smaller lines. I felt that this was needed to make this "run-on” line not as long. Also, I did it to make the message in the lines carry more impact. "We are mankind we run on instinct” “Destroying what we don't understand." This change helped to give the poem better flow and made certain parts have more emotional weight, helping the listener to understand something everyone should be able to relate to. This change definitely gives the poem an undertone that is easier to relate to by slowing down the pace and flow of the poem. These pauses in the poem cause people to think about the message of the individual lines.
The most important change I made to this poem from the first version to the final was the spelling/grammar and the adding of certain poetic devices. For example, a line from my first draft: “by the people that could sterilize the planet with a button” These sort of changes are always the first thing I do to any piece of work involving writing. When I am writing, I write whatever comes to me, but unlike most people, this is hard for me because I do not know how to spell and I barely understand grammar. Once I had my ideas on paper, I needed to make it into a poem, so I added similes, metaphors and other poetic devices. “By the people who could sterilize the planet with a button.” At the beginning of this project I did not really care for poetry. All I wanted to write were stories. Then I learned that poetry is telling a story, not in imagery but in emotion.
GLOBALIZATION Project
opp-ed and Political cartoon
For this project we had to write a paper on a topic that had global implications. The paper had to be between 700 and 1000 words, no more no less. After we completed the op-ed we had to create a political cartoon based upon our op-ed. The political cartoon had to be refined multiple times.
Before this project I had no idea what globalization was. This meant that at the beginning of the project I had a hard time with the work we were doing. After I asked many people I finely understood what it was. I learned a lot through this project like the race to the bottom and sweat shops.
Before this project I had no idea what globalization was. This meant that at the beginning of the project I had a hard time with the work we were doing. After I asked many people I finely understood what it was. I learned a lot through this project like the race to the bottom and sweat shops.
Jihad vs. mc world
African Imperialism: Creative Historians
Story: Blood Red
The room starts shaking and sparks are flying in every direction, as I think to myself, Time travel isn’t that hard. As I think that, there is an explosion and everything goes white. A week after the accident his mom started her speech at his memorial, “His name was Tony; he had a lust for adventure and excitement and was always getting into things. He was tall and skinny and no one ever paid attention to him, so he learned to cope with not having any friends by learning. He had a knack for physics. His ability to understand the world in a deeper way gave him an understanding of things not thought possible by other people. He used to spend nights at his desk, the light reflecting off the white paper made his blue eyes shine with an iridescent glow. If it wasn’t for school, he would have spent years in his room coming up with equations and formulas. His room was messy as is common with most brilliant people, a graveyard of sorts composed of torn apart electronics and components and a mound of paper inscribed with work he deemed unfit.”
I wake up in a cold dimly lit room dazed and confused. I sit up and feel the tattered bed covering. My legs feel weak as I stand up. At the edge of the room I see what looks to be an exit. I walk over to the rusted door and grab hold of the handle which looks like it has seen better days. As I open the door, I am blinded by the bright sun and hot humid air rushes over me. My eyes adjust to the light. I see a city of weathered shacks, and all of the sudden I feel something put to the back of my head. Then I hear a loud click and I freeze. I realize that the person behind me is young.
And then I hear a girl’s voice say, “Who are you and what do you want?”
I then slowly turn around with my hands up, and I start saying, “Its ok I mean you no harm.”
Suzan, “prove it!”
I explain that I have no idea how I got here and that I am not from around this place. And then she lowers her gun and tells me that her name is Suzan. Then she tells me that we are in Freetown, which is a city in Sierra Leone, which is on the west side of Africa. Then she tells me the most disturbing thing; there is a civil war going on and that thousands of people and buildings have been destroyed. At that moment I realize what I had gotten myself into; I am now in the middle of a war.
Then I collapse onto the chair outside when I realize I might have done something much worse. I ask Suzan what the date is and she tells me that it is 1998. That means that I am 232 years in the past. Anything I do here could severely change the future. I need to get back to the future. Suzan starts to stare at me awkwardly and then she asks if I’m crazy and starts to back off. I tell her, “no” but she just stared. It seems like hours before we say anything. Then I ask her if she has any food and she says, “No, I was going to the market before I found you. Let’s go.”
As we start walking down the dirt road, I ask Suzan, “What are we getting at the market?” “We are getting ingredients for Maafe” she replies.
“What?”
She clarified, “I am sorry. I am getting ingredients for ground stew.”
Sometime later, we arrive at the market. The ground is dirt and there are tables packed with items of every kind. The market is covered by a wooden structure with rusted metal panels or tarps to protect from the frequent rain. The market is a busy place. People of all kinds are walking around browsing the tables for useful ingredients. Suzan walks up to a table and says something in a language that I have never heard before. The person there hands Suzan a sack with was appears to be peanuts, tomatoes, onions and chilies. We head to a different table where Suzan buys some meat and rice.
I hear yelling at one of the other tables then suddenly gunshots ring out over the market, then pure hysteria ensues as people flee in every direction to save themselves. I and Suzan hide behind the table we are at and I looked out to see what has happened. I see the gunman collecting what appears to be diamonds off the table and run away. I look at Suzan, who has the look of utter terror on her face, then I ask what just happened and she replies “That is why we are in a war, a war of diamonds.”
We start walking back to her home in silence the whole way. I am too busy thinking to say anything. She notices this and leaves me to myself. Once we got to her home, I sit at the table still thinking, How do I get out of this? How do I get back home, back to my time before I mess up the time line too much or create a world ending paradox? Susan is cooking with the ingredients we got earlier that day.
That night I ask Suzan how she found me. She tells me that she heard a loud hissing noise followed by the sound of thunder and when she went outside she found me lying on the ground. After she tells me this I try to go to bed. I start to dose off, and then I hear a random gunshot. After many times of this happening, I eventually go to sleep. I wake up in the morning to the sound of pounding on the metal door. The man outside is yelling in the same language that Suzan used at the market. Suzan tells me to hide while she deals with the new visitor. I cannot see the man at the door, but after a short conversation with Susan the man leaves. I ask Suzan what just happened. She tells me that it was the local military looking for someone who was not from around here.
We guess they were probably looking for me, so I hide in a small cellar at the bottom of Suzan’s home. The cellar is only big enough for a bed and a small table. Suzan brings me some paper and pencils so I could figure out how to get back to the future. After weeks of being in the cellar, I modify my original design to allow for the limited technology of the time. Suzan starts to gather the parts I need to make my device. During the weeks I am doing this, the military starts to increase their search.
One day I can’t stand being in the dark cellar. My device is nearly ready, and I think that there could be no harm in leaving. As I am about to open the trap door, I hear the metal door above me get knocked in. Men run in to grab Suzan and carry her out of her home. Once they leave I open the trap door and run out to see where they have gone. I see them throw her into the back of a truck and drive off. I run back inside and grab the wormhole generator. It is a small disk like device that can allow for one time jump. I put it in my pocket, and then I run out the door and after the truck.
The truck drives into an old military compound. From a distance I see that the compound has very tight security and is surrounded by a 10 foot high wall with what looks to be glass shards cemented to the top of it. There are guard posts on all four corners of the wall and the guards are armed with guns. I notice that one of the guards is dozing off. I wait for another truck to enter. I jump onto the side of the truck facing the sleeping guard. Once inside, I sneak past the guards. I hear two of them talking about a girl some of the soldiers captured for suspicion of being a Revolutionary United Front terrorist. They suspect she is making a bomb with the parts she is collecting.
I enter through a broken window. I end up in some sort of storage room. I open the door and walk slowly down the cinder block hallway. Right as I turn the corner, I bump into a guard. I get startled and fall backwards. He aims his gun at me, and I put my hands up. The guard backs me up by the arm and hauls me into the room were they are holding Suzan. She looks at me and asks why I risked myself for her. I tell her that it is my fault that she got taken, and I can’t live with that on my conscience. Right after I say this, a muscular man walks in. He is wearing a dark green military uniform with a red beret. On his side he has a holstered machete.
Then the man begins to speak, “So it looks like we have some young Revolutionary United Front terrorists. What were you planning on destroying with your bomb?”
I reply by saying, “We are not terrorists!”
“Then why were you collecting all those parts and chemicals?” the man asks.
”We weren't making anything.”
The man then yells at us, “Stop lying to me! I know you were doing something!”
He then pulls out his machete, “You both will die if you don’t tell me what I want to know”. Then he walks over to me. I pull out the device and set the dial to one year then throw it to Suzan. In what seems to be slow motion, she catches the device which activates when it makes contact with her hands. She looks at me one last time, and then she starts getting pulled into the wormhole, her brown eyes asking one question, “Why?” And in one moment she is gone, as the man swings his machete at me.
Roughly one year later (1999)
Suzan wakes up on the floor of her home confused as to what has happened. She looks around her house and notices that it seems untouched. She enters the cellar and sees a message written on one of the pieces of paper and it reads, “Thank you for helping me.” She thinks to herself, You’re the one I should be thanking.
I wake up in a cold dimly lit room dazed and confused. I sit up and feel the tattered bed covering. My legs feel weak as I stand up. At the edge of the room I see what looks to be an exit. I walk over to the rusted door and grab hold of the handle which looks like it has seen better days. As I open the door, I am blinded by the bright sun and hot humid air rushes over me. My eyes adjust to the light. I see a city of weathered shacks, and all of the sudden I feel something put to the back of my head. Then I hear a loud click and I freeze. I realize that the person behind me is young.
And then I hear a girl’s voice say, “Who are you and what do you want?”
I then slowly turn around with my hands up, and I start saying, “Its ok I mean you no harm.”
Suzan, “prove it!”
I explain that I have no idea how I got here and that I am not from around this place. And then she lowers her gun and tells me that her name is Suzan. Then she tells me that we are in Freetown, which is a city in Sierra Leone, which is on the west side of Africa. Then she tells me the most disturbing thing; there is a civil war going on and that thousands of people and buildings have been destroyed. At that moment I realize what I had gotten myself into; I am now in the middle of a war.
Then I collapse onto the chair outside when I realize I might have done something much worse. I ask Suzan what the date is and she tells me that it is 1998. That means that I am 232 years in the past. Anything I do here could severely change the future. I need to get back to the future. Suzan starts to stare at me awkwardly and then she asks if I’m crazy and starts to back off. I tell her, “no” but she just stared. It seems like hours before we say anything. Then I ask her if she has any food and she says, “No, I was going to the market before I found you. Let’s go.”
As we start walking down the dirt road, I ask Suzan, “What are we getting at the market?” “We are getting ingredients for Maafe” she replies.
“What?”
She clarified, “I am sorry. I am getting ingredients for ground stew.”
Sometime later, we arrive at the market. The ground is dirt and there are tables packed with items of every kind. The market is covered by a wooden structure with rusted metal panels or tarps to protect from the frequent rain. The market is a busy place. People of all kinds are walking around browsing the tables for useful ingredients. Suzan walks up to a table and says something in a language that I have never heard before. The person there hands Suzan a sack with was appears to be peanuts, tomatoes, onions and chilies. We head to a different table where Suzan buys some meat and rice.
I hear yelling at one of the other tables then suddenly gunshots ring out over the market, then pure hysteria ensues as people flee in every direction to save themselves. I and Suzan hide behind the table we are at and I looked out to see what has happened. I see the gunman collecting what appears to be diamonds off the table and run away. I look at Suzan, who has the look of utter terror on her face, then I ask what just happened and she replies “That is why we are in a war, a war of diamonds.”
We start walking back to her home in silence the whole way. I am too busy thinking to say anything. She notices this and leaves me to myself. Once we got to her home, I sit at the table still thinking, How do I get out of this? How do I get back home, back to my time before I mess up the time line too much or create a world ending paradox? Susan is cooking with the ingredients we got earlier that day.
That night I ask Suzan how she found me. She tells me that she heard a loud hissing noise followed by the sound of thunder and when she went outside she found me lying on the ground. After she tells me this I try to go to bed. I start to dose off, and then I hear a random gunshot. After many times of this happening, I eventually go to sleep. I wake up in the morning to the sound of pounding on the metal door. The man outside is yelling in the same language that Suzan used at the market. Suzan tells me to hide while she deals with the new visitor. I cannot see the man at the door, but after a short conversation with Susan the man leaves. I ask Suzan what just happened. She tells me that it was the local military looking for someone who was not from around here.
We guess they were probably looking for me, so I hide in a small cellar at the bottom of Suzan’s home. The cellar is only big enough for a bed and a small table. Suzan brings me some paper and pencils so I could figure out how to get back to the future. After weeks of being in the cellar, I modify my original design to allow for the limited technology of the time. Suzan starts to gather the parts I need to make my device. During the weeks I am doing this, the military starts to increase their search.
One day I can’t stand being in the dark cellar. My device is nearly ready, and I think that there could be no harm in leaving. As I am about to open the trap door, I hear the metal door above me get knocked in. Men run in to grab Suzan and carry her out of her home. Once they leave I open the trap door and run out to see where they have gone. I see them throw her into the back of a truck and drive off. I run back inside and grab the wormhole generator. It is a small disk like device that can allow for one time jump. I put it in my pocket, and then I run out the door and after the truck.
The truck drives into an old military compound. From a distance I see that the compound has very tight security and is surrounded by a 10 foot high wall with what looks to be glass shards cemented to the top of it. There are guard posts on all four corners of the wall and the guards are armed with guns. I notice that one of the guards is dozing off. I wait for another truck to enter. I jump onto the side of the truck facing the sleeping guard. Once inside, I sneak past the guards. I hear two of them talking about a girl some of the soldiers captured for suspicion of being a Revolutionary United Front terrorist. They suspect she is making a bomb with the parts she is collecting.
I enter through a broken window. I end up in some sort of storage room. I open the door and walk slowly down the cinder block hallway. Right as I turn the corner, I bump into a guard. I get startled and fall backwards. He aims his gun at me, and I put my hands up. The guard backs me up by the arm and hauls me into the room were they are holding Suzan. She looks at me and asks why I risked myself for her. I tell her that it is my fault that she got taken, and I can’t live with that on my conscience. Right after I say this, a muscular man walks in. He is wearing a dark green military uniform with a red beret. On his side he has a holstered machete.
Then the man begins to speak, “So it looks like we have some young Revolutionary United Front terrorists. What were you planning on destroying with your bomb?”
I reply by saying, “We are not terrorists!”
“Then why were you collecting all those parts and chemicals?” the man asks.
”We weren't making anything.”
The man then yells at us, “Stop lying to me! I know you were doing something!”
He then pulls out his machete, “You both will die if you don’t tell me what I want to know”. Then he walks over to me. I pull out the device and set the dial to one year then throw it to Suzan. In what seems to be slow motion, she catches the device which activates when it makes contact with her hands. She looks at me one last time, and then she starts getting pulled into the wormhole, her brown eyes asking one question, “Why?” And in one moment she is gone, as the man swings his machete at me.
Roughly one year later (1999)
Suzan wakes up on the floor of her home confused as to what has happened. She looks around her house and notices that it seems untouched. She enters the cellar and sees a message written on one of the pieces of paper and it reads, “Thank you for helping me.” She thinks to herself, You’re the one I should be thanking.
Reflection
during this progect we had to make a historical fiction based on a contry in africa that we chose. before hand we had to do reasurch on ouer contys, manly we had to find a problum that the conty had/has and dig depper into it to crate a story based on that situation.
one of my literary strinths in this project was the plot. () plot is in my opinyion the moast important eliment in the story because it basicly is the story, all uther eliments recwire plot to make sence.
the literary eliment that i had a hard time with was round caricters, i had this struggle because of surtan righting handycaps that i deal with making it harder to make langer story so i was unable to get as mutch detal into suporting caricters. lukaly i was able to give detal on my main caricter.
during this progect we had to make a historical fiction based on a contry in africa that we chose. before hand we had to do reasurch on ouer contys, manly we had to find a problum that the conty had/has and dig depper into it to crate a story based on that situation.
one of my literary strinths in this project was the plot. () plot is in my opinyion the moast important eliment in the story because it basicly is the story, all uther eliments recwire plot to make sence.
the literary eliment that i had a hard time with was round caricters, i had this struggle because of surtan righting handycaps that i deal with making it harder to make langer story so i was unable to get as mutch detal into suporting caricters. lukaly i was able to give detal on my main caricter.