Happy Birthday, Little Blog!

     Happy Birthday, Life as a Starving Poet! You are now officially one year old, and I congratulate you (and myself) for surviving this long. So how did I do it? Well, here's the answer:
     Finding things to write about isn't always easy, and trying to write too often can have terribly chaotic results. Some of my worst posts come from when I was trying to write every day and was simply rambling to take up space and produce something. I have learned, however, that quality is better than quantity, which is why I rarely write two days in a row, unless I have something terribly amazing to talk about. 
     Most of my topics come from random bits of life that I notice. For example, I'll be sitting in class and a teacher will say something that sparks an idea and suddenly I have something to talk about. Or I'll be reading and a few sentences will catch my eye and remind me of a post I was planning to write and I'll take note of this idea and come home later to share it with the amazing readers of the internet (that's you, people. Smile for gosh's sakes!) And then sometimes, when I haven't written in two weeks and am feeling terribly guilty, I'll pull up a chair and sit at my computer with a blank page in front of me until I get and idea. It all depends, really, on the things I see and hear everyday. Of one thing I can be sure, though: as a starving poet, life really does get pretty interesting (sometimes) and I will always have plenty to write about. 


Well folks, that's all I have time for tonight!
Thanks for listening and may Life as a Starving Poet have many more successful years.
Maggs :)

Being Thankful

     Some people might look at the day I had today and call it quits, dive under the covers, and wait for Tuesday. I woke up at five a.m. (one hour earlier than usual) to make a before-school doctor's appointment and proceeded to be groggy for the next hour as I got ready for school. When it was time to leave, I stepped outside expecting a nice, if a little chilly, April morning. Instead I found snow and freezing temperatures. Then, as I was looking through my locker at school, I realized I had forgotten to take my biology worksheet home, meaning I would have to attempt to do it during my other classes before 9th hour bio rolled around. May I also mention that it was a Monday? After a crazy day at school, I came home with a worksheet full of nasty algebra, two tests to study for, a short paper to write for gym class, and the thought of yet another big project due at the end of the quarter hanging over my head. What a day. However, I'm not headed for bed just yet. Instead, I'm taking this opportunity to be just a bit preachy and hopefully send a message to some of you out there.
     Yeah, my life can be a little difficult sometimes-- piles of homework, overloaded schedule, and I don't always get along with everyone-- but compared to a lot of people, I have it extremely good. My immediate family are all healthy, I have plenty to eat, I have a good house and a warm place to sleep, and I live in a small town where it's safe to walk places and everyone knows each other. There are more things I'm thankful for (good books, Kit-Kats, comfy sweatshirts), but those are the big ones. 
     So today, instead of complaining and wishing things were different, I'm taking the opportunity to look at the best parts of my life. And that's when I realize things aren't so bad after all.


Thanks for listening,
and remember-- it 
could always be worse!


Maggs :)    

A Fairy Tale Piece of Reality

     As I have discovered by now, fairy tales aren't true. Not everyone can be a princess, fairy godmothers aren't always there when you need them, and not everything has a happy ending. However, fairy tales are rooted in truths. After all, there are some people who live in castles, men and women do occasionally fall in love, and once in a while, things turn out happily ever after. And if you can find one of these themes in our everyday world, take a chance, chase after it, and seize the moment because you might not see anything like it for a long time. Fairy tale settings are also based on elements of truth, and if you find one such place, take notice of it because hey-- it's cool.

One of the cleaner, less chaotic aisles in the bookstore. 

     That's what happened to me this weekend when my family and I drove into a nearby big city and discovered an amazing bookstore. After we had eaten lunch in a local restaurant, my parents took us down the street to a bookshop they had frequented in their college days. We stepped in side, and Oh. My. Goodness. The store was truly something out of a story book, although it wasn't exactly picture-perfect.
     You know the cluttered apothecary or the crowded shop in your favorite fantasy story? This bookstore has all of those elements, and more. The shelves are close together and filled to the brim with books. Boxes containing magazines, children's stories and historical fiction line the aisles. Scraps of paper litter the floors, and around each corner there's a footstool, originally meant to help patrons reach books, but now covered in stacks of dusty old tomes. The shelves lean in, providing an almost a claustrophobic feel to those who wander in search of a good read. The store rises for three stories, each one more chaotic than the last, and sells almost any book you can think of (and the ones you can't), if you can find it. All in all, the bookstore is a place that seems to have leapt right out of the pages of a novel. Or maybe, it's leapt right in. 
Thanks for listening,
Maggs       

Thoughts on High School

     High school is a crazy place. Everywhere you turn, there are bullies demanding lunch money, blonde cheerleaders with pompoms, and angry wrestlers duking it out in the hallways. Nerds run every which way, avoiding the scathing glares of the "in crowd" and druggies stand in corners, waiting for the teachers to leave so they can start smoking. Large football players argue loudly about last night's game while skater boys tromp around in their clunky shoes and baggy sweatshirts. 
     But really. How much of this is true? How much of this is just urban legend, made up by the classes before us and publicized by the media? Honestly, quite a bit:

Top 7 Biggest Lies of High School

• You'll use this when you get older: Every kid who has ever attended high/middle school in the United States has heard this one. And truthfully, they're lying. Unless you want to become a mathematician, you probably aren't ever going to factor trinomials again.
• Being in the band is extremely uncool: Biggest. Lie. Ever. I mean, yes, we band geeks are very geeky, but we're geeky in a fun, lovable way. If you seriously doubt this, I suggest spending some time with us-- maybe sitting in on a practice or attending a marching show? 
• Everyone goes to parties on the weekends and gets drunk: Well, yes, some kids do go and get drunk. But most of us? Yeah right. On Saturday nights, you can find me at home with a good book or having a mini-movie-party with a couple of friends. 
• Cheerleaders rule the school: Big, definite no on this one. They may be considered the coolest in their own social circles, but they don't usually take charge of the entire school and terrify the underclassmen.
• Lunch money= bully magnet: For the record, I have never witnessed anyone being shoved up against some lockers by a thug and having their lunch money stolen.
• Homework rules you life: In middle school, the teachers were constantly telling us that the homework level in high school would be insane, and we'd have to start forming gook working habits so that we would be ready to fulfill all of the learning requirements we were presented with in high school. In reality, going from middle school to high school is only slightly harder than going from 7th to 8th grade.
• You'll never fit in: For the most part, this isn't true. Yes, there are some kids who really don't fit in anywhere. However, almost everyone finds a group to hang out with-- the band geeks make friends with the choir kids and the theatre people, the math nerds and computer dorks chill together, and even the weird kids form their own cliques. 

Remember-- many of the things they say about high school aren't true, and for the most part, it's a pretty great place.

Thanks for listening,

Maggs  

  

To Write a Sonnet

     As the poetry-gurus among my readers may have noticed, my last poem was in sonnet-form, a way of writing a poem with a catchy rhyme scheme, a good rhythm, and a short-and- sweet length. For all you non-poetry-gurus out there, and also for those of you who don't have a clue, I have made a guideline for writing a sonnet in a relatively painless way.
     But before you (attempt to) write a sonnet, you should know the basic guidelines. A sonnet has to be 14 lines long. It is composed of three quatrains (short sections of poem with four lines each) and a couplet (two-line poem that rhymes) that ties the whole thing off. If you're writing in iambic pentameter (the usual format for a Shakespearean sonnet), each line has to have ten syllables, and the pattern of the syllables must go unstressed, stressed, unstressed, stressed, etc., until the end of the line. In addition to all this, the first line of each quatrain has to rhyme with the third line of the same quatrain, and the second line has to rhyme with the fourth line of the quatrain. 
     Now that you know the anatomy of a sonnet, here's how to actually write one yourself:

How to Write a Sonnet  

(AKA, poet-ing for the non-poetic)

• First, think of a topic. It should be something you feel strongly about or will have a lot of inspiration for. For example, if you just got a new puppy, you could try writing your poem about him. On the other hand, it wouldn't be a good idea to write about something you don't care about, such as the list of formulas you're required to know to pass your algebra final. 
• Second, you need to find a line that grabs the audience's attention. For example, Shakespeare starts his 18th sonnet (a love poem) with the line, "Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?" Now, that might not sound very romantic to us here in the 21st century, but think about it: Ladies, if a boy came up to you one day and told you that you were so absolutely incredible you reminded him of a beautiful day in June, wouldn't that just melt your heart? 
• Now remember, this line must be 10 syllables long, and it must end in a word that you're willing to rhyme with in the third line of your first quatrain. Also, don't forget the syllable pattern: unstressed, stressed, unstressed, stressed.
• Next is the second line: this one's not too bad, because you don't have to rhyme with anything yet. Expand upon the first line a bit.
• Third and fourth lines are a little harder: you have to keep the syllable pattern, and you also have to rhyme. Try keeping a piece of scratch paper next to you so you can try out lines and make a list of possible words you could rhyme.
• In the second quatrain, expand more upon the first stanza (a stanza is a section of a poem, sometimes with its own set of rhymes). Shakespeare doesn't just tell his girl that she's like a summer's day, he also goes on to say things like, "thou art more lovely and more temperate" (meaning, you're as wonderful as a day in June and then some).
• Take a deep breath: you're almost there!
• The third quatrain is almost like a cliff hanger. It shakes things up, adds a little conflict and, "wait, what?!" to the poem. Shall we look once again at Shakespeare's 18th sonnet? To start his third quatrain off, he says, "But thy eternal summer shall not fade". Yeah, so what? Well, folks, he basically just told her that she's always going to be beautiful, even when she's old. Awww, what a guy!
• So for your sonnet about your puppy, if you talked about how sweet he was for the first two stanzas, you might want to mention the way he tries to eat everything in sight, or those puddles he leaves around when you go off without him in your third quatrain.
• Lastly, we have the couplet. Although it's not as long as the other stanzas, it's just as, if not more, important. Remember the conflict in the third quatrain? Well, this couplet resolves that, "wait, what?!" moment. It also ties up any loose ends in the sonnet and leaves the reader with a lasting impression of your writing. In my opinion, no one does this better than Shakespeare as he closes his aforementioned love poem with, "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see/So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."  If you were wondering how Shakespeare's girl could be pretty even in old age, the couplet sums it up perfectly. As to what it means, well, you're going to have to figure that out for yourself.

Thanks for listening, and good luck 

with your sonnets, my poetic friends!

Maggs

        

Dear Valentine:

A Vengeful Valentine's Day

A sonnet for my precious valentine:

the one who holds my heart and my esteem.

Will you be good to me, will you be mine?

Will you be kind as at first you did seem?

You are the best there is, or so I think.

And our love is as perfect as could be.

When I found you I found my missing link

'cause I am sure that you're the guy for me.

But what my heart says is not always true,

 and love is not as great as I first said.

Because, Valentine, when it comes to you,

I sometimes wish that you were cold and dead.

To you all I say: "Happy Holiday!"

(One that's better than mine was, anyway)

Copyright MPK 2011, all rights reserved, unauthorized use is prohibited.

What Are Our Kids Learning?

     While recently watching such Disney classics as "Toy Story 2" and "Cinderella", I began to wonder: what, exactly, are the young impressionable children of the next generation learning from such films? Well, here's a list:

Top Ten Things Disney Movies Teach Kids

1. Hiding inside a traffic cone is a perfectly safe way to cross a street
2. Ogres are like onions
3. Never trust your stepmother
4. Animals can talk (but that's not necessarily a good thing)
5. Sing-- whether you want your prince to come or you have to take some disgusting medicine, singing always helps
6. Death by monkeys-- a terrifying, and all-too-real, possibility
7. Laughter is an anti-gravity agent
8. Talking to clocks, trees, and granite statues is completely normal
9. Kissing is both a romantic pass-time and a life saver!
10. Pixie dust-- cheaper than airlines since February 5th, 1953*

     Just in case you've been curious about those Disney movies and whether or not they're appropriate for your child, you now have a list that will hopefully help you decide which parts of Beauty and the Beast to censor.

Thanks for listening!

Maggs

*Did you get that cultural reference, America? If not, search for Peter Pan on Wikipedia.