6 Word Memoir

I created this for my Six Word Memoir piece. This six word statement is something that I like to think I live my life by! Giving and receiving love are both very powerful actions, and I think they are pretty necessary in life. 

Creativity

“Creativity” is a poem that I wrote for the emotional prose assignment. I really enjoyed turning creativity into a person. My first instinct was to make creativity a girl, however, I decided that was too predictable and a tad sexist so I decided to depict creativity as a boy, and I think it turned out nicely. I believe the qualities I used to describe creativity fit the word perfectly.

Creativity can be a friend to everyone. However, not everyone welcomes him. Although he reaches out at every opportunity, creativity is often shut down. People deny him of their friendship, out of fear of what he will influence them to do. Creativity is powerful, yet patient. He has a mind of his own, but he still desperately needs your help; your permission and empowerment to create. Although some may think he's intimidating, I promise he has the best intentions and is not high maintenance. Creativity will go with the flow, because he is calm and obliging. He is open minded and welcoming. When embraced, creativity will take you to new places. He will explore the unknown with you, and unleash tied down thoughts. Because he is caring, and he is passionate.

The Burning House

This assignment was inspired by theburninghouse.com. This website asks people to take a picture of the items they would take with them if their house was burning down. Although there are many practical items and documents that one should probably take, I chose a more sentimental rote. These are a few of my prize possessions.

Name: Hannah Phillips

Age: 17

Occupation: High School Student

List:

quilt- made by my mom

baby blanket- made by my mom

painting of me- painted by my mom

pictures that hang on my wall

Iphone

my cat Ginger

This is a skit that I wrote with my classmates Lila and Katie. This skit was supposed to contrast two opposite people, and who is more opposite than Snooki from Jersey Shore and Michelle Duggar from 19 Kids and Counting?! We had a great time imagining these two ladies interacting.


Snooki vs. Michelle Duggar
Snooki: Wooohoo, I'm pregnant!
Michell: Congratulations darling, you have been blessed with a gift from god.
Snooki: Yo boo! I know, it's gunna be mad cute. Have you seen this face??
Michell: I'm glad Jionni keeps you grounded sweetie. 
Snooki: Yeah, He's my big juice head, and I can't wait to ring this little juice head into the world.
Michelle: How long are you going to wait until you decide to have another precious child?
Snooki: Again?! These 9 months of my life, and I am not about to be doing that again.
Michelle: Oh, but children bring such light to your life, and joy too! That's why we named our 13th child joy. It's so much fun naming them all with the same letter! It's been a tad challenging, but well worth it.
Snooki: I can't wait 'til Jionni Jr. gets old enough to come out to Karma with me! We'll beat that beat up!
Michell: Oh my! Nono, dancing arouses unnatural feelings that only married couples should share. Me must shelter our children from life's temptations Nicole!
Snooki: Yeah, ok, whatever Shelly. You are so not a good time. My baby is like a party in my belly.

When I was asked to write a Clerihew about someone famous, my mind quickly went to Adele. I thoroughly enjoy blasting Adele's songs as they are so clearly very heartfelt. Adele is a passionate lady so naturally she deserves a passionate Clerihew!

Adele

You make me want to yell

Alone in my car

You sing about every scar

This is a haiku about the tops of trees. I've been looking forward to writing a poem about the tops of trees because when I walk to school I often notice that I don't look above my normal eye level or small sphere of vision. As soon as I look up I always notice the tops of the trees, and I feel that they are under appreciated. I was delightfully surprised when some of my thoughts about these trees worked in a haiku.

tops of the tall trees

nobody notices these

a precious secret

The Trampoline Speaks

The Trampoline Speaks is a poem that I wrote from the perspective of a trampoline! I loved being asked to put a voice to a voiceless object. I imagined the trampoline as friendly, wise, and patient. This was an assignment that was easy to be creative and imaginative with, as most Creative Writing assignments are. 

Oh do come

spend some time with me

come to me to bounce your troubles away

come to me to exercise without noticing

come to me to socialize with your friends

Right now, I am young

My springs are full of life

always eager

and ready for action

My large black canvas

remains taut and stern

Reliable?

Yeah, I get that a lot

Fling yourself onto me

and without hesitating

Jump up

Trust me

Trust that I'll be there

on your way back down

Ready to throw you back into the air

again and again and again

Come to me me

In the summer

When the heat is relentless

We can call up my friend the sprinkler

and she will gladly take part

in our fun

She and I make a good team

Just place her

near my stretched black canvas

and frolic and bounce in the spray

When I am old...

Yes, by then I will be ready to retire

My springs will be dispirited

My black canvas will no longer be too taut

But I will always remember

the wonderful times we've had when you came to me

to bounce

to exercise

to socialize

Yes

Even when I am retired

I know you will remember these times too

Cherry

This piece is a short memoir of an old car we had when I was growing up. This piece was created during a memoir starter exercise in which my teacher said a word and we had to write about something we associated with that word from our past. I believe that this story was inspired by the word red.


      That car was our friend. It was ours when we lived in Hawaii and it made the move with us to California. Her name was Cherry because she was red- she was some kind of station wagon. I remember sitting in the back seat with Sian. Whenever we went around a sharp bend our car seats would tip over, and we cracked up every single time. We thought it was the most hilarious thing. Mom or Dad would have to wriggle around and try to straighten the two of us back up. Looking back on it, it probably wasn't the safest of situations... but hey, we lived. I also remember not being able to reach the knob that wound down our window and as the windows weren't mechanical, Sian and I had to fend for ourselves. We developed a technique in which we used our stubby little legs to kick that know up and then side ways and then down, until it made a full circle... over and over again until that window was at a satisfactory height.
     One could also tell that Cherry was our car by the stickers that decorated mine and Sian's windows. We saved the most special stickers for those windows, from doctor stickers to the ones we earned in school. We had personalized those windows, and that car. 
    The day Cherry broke down for good was tragic. Hearing the news that Cherry would be towed away was like loosing a beloved pet, a member of the family. I remember Sian sobbing and begging Mom to ask the car guys to take Sian's sticker covered window out for her to save, and although it seemed like a reasonable request at the time, we also knew that it wasn't all that practical. We waved good bye to Cherry that day.. and to this day, we still name and personalize our cars. 

Ode to Measuring Tape

For this poem, I imitated the poet Neruda's style. He takes simple everyday (often under-appreciated) objects and writes beautiful poems about them. In his poems, Neruda uses line breaks very freely; he often has one descriptive word on a line by itself. He also depicts the objects as heroic. For this assignment, we were to pick an object out of a bag. I randomly selected a measuring tape.


The measuring tape
lengthy
intelligent
a jump rope
of numbers
ready
to share
the knowledge
patient
flexible
laid back
yet precise


created to aid
the creators
who will treasure
and care for
this jump rope
of brilliance
coiled
or stretched 
out
always ready
to jump into
action
gentle
like a butterfly
strong minded
like an elephant
constantly consistent
never skipping
the necessary


tiny digits
grow
larger
all equally profound


viciously versatile
gauge
all that comes
to mind
snake like
or stick like
always there for 
the creator
patient and intelligent 

The Two Stood Face to Face

I wrote this story for one of our in class writing assignments. As a prompt for this assignment, we were told that the first sentence of our story must be "The two stood face to face," and the final sentence must end with, "and then there was one." I chose to use this story for the Revision piece as I enjoyed the story line but I did not feel it was executed to it's full potential.

The Two Stood Face to Face

The two stood face to face. Their passionate love was so beyond obvious; every single guest at the wedding could feel it. Everything was going according to planned, but that was irrelevant because everyone knew that no matter what obstacles came along, the wedding would be beautiful. Not one person had stopped to worry about whether or not the weather would cooperate or if the cars would arrive on time. Well, that’s not altogether true, perhaps the wedding planner had... but he obviously hadn’t grasped how deep and genuine the couple’s love was.
The wedding was gorgeous: not too extravagant, yet not too simple. Everyone who cared about the couple (and the couple cared about in return) attended. It was obvious that this wedding was the perfect union of the couple. It was held in the open space, and the weather decided to cooperate beautifully. The sun was shinning down and the wind was donating a soft breeze. The decorations and flowers were calm and complementing. The simplicity of the setting contrasted the complicity of their journey perfectly.

When the priest reached his line, “If anybody objects to this marriage, please speak now,” the audience began to smile and giggle. Of course they knew this was standard procedure, but how could anyone possibly object?! It was humorous to think that one person there did not support and understand the couple. The guests had been with the couple throughout their journey. Through those dark days when the government tried to tell them that their love was a sin, that their love was unconventional. But they are past that now. No Grudges held. This couple can finally have the marriage that they’ve always dreamed of, not some phony “Civil Union.” This was the day they had dreamed of for years. Everyone had been waiting for this marriage and then, finally, there was one.

10 Ways of Looking at Music

This poem is a collaborative piece as each stanza was written by a member of my creative writing class! My job was to choose the subject that would be viewed 10 different ways and write the first stanza. The paper was then passed around the class and 9 other students wrote down a couple lines about music. Here is the ending product:

I

Music is the sound track to life

Running along side each story

Billions of genres

and sounds

Each person preferring a specific type

II

Music is like freedom

Belting it out

Alone in my car

III

Music in movies

Makes you feel

Like you're there

IV

Music is able to unlock such a strong feeling

to Feel everything the artist does

or to draw awareness to personal emotions

V

Is music the key to unity?

A creator of passion

Could it be a peace maker?

VI

Barely loud enough to hear

the music creeps down the hall

Sending shivers down my spine

Can anyone else hear it?

Or is it all in my mind?

VII

The most influential creations

Humans have aroused

Necessitated music's beauty

VIII

Is the music that we create

equal to the music of nature?

IX

Several beats and melodies

Fused to make one

X

Full of myths and legends

Interpret each differently

XI

The only thing to be heard

While Cinderella danced with her prince

was the soft, sweet music

XII

When the music skips

So does your heart

XII

The background tempo of the heart beat

The music of one's voice

Music surrounds us

Just sit

Silently

and listen

Playwriting

This play was created for an assignment in which we were asked to write a play over 500 words. Although the play itself was not hard to write, coming up with an idea proved to be a huge challenge! It was very hard to express a story that would only be conveyed to an audience through dialogue. This is my first attempt at playwriting.

The Face Juggler

Characters
Samantha: Your average teenage girl. She is a Sophmore in highschool. Samantha is popular at school, and is addicted to her iphone.

Dad: Samantha’s father is a classic American dad. He is not a lazy man, and he is a family man.

Setting
The family’s home. They live in a ranch style house. It’s tastefully decorated and tidy. The family is not rich however it is clear that they live comfortably.

Scene 1
Samantha is sitting at the kitchen counter playing on her iphone: texting, facebook etc.
Her dad walks in.

DAD: (calmly yet scornfully) Don’t you have better things to do Sam? Shouldn’t your teachers be overloading you with homework?
SAMANTHA: (looks up from her phone, then back down without a word)
DAD: You spend far too much time on that thing... (points at phone) I have half a mind to take it away.. See how ya cope for like 24 whole hours.
SAMANTHA: (not looking up from her phone) Mmhmmmm
DAD: What could possibly be so enthralling anyway?
SAMANTHA: (sassy but jokingly) Ok Dad, this is actually pretty cool.... Let me show you this new app! It’s called Face Juggler.
DAD: I hope you didn’t spend my money on this Samantha.
SAMANTHA: Nono, just come here dad. We have to take a pic.
SAMANTHA and DAD take a picture using the front camera on her iphone
DAD: K, now what?
SAMANTHA: Just wait a moment... (She turns the phone to face her dad showing a picture of their faces swapped)
DAD: Oh my! That’s horrible! (He chuckles deeply) Man these clever apps these days.. (He looks at the picture again, a second take) I look 10 years younger!

Scene 2
Later that night, Samantha is getting ready for bed.
SAMANTHA: Alright, good night Dad! I’m going to bed. See ya in the morning.
DAD: Ok honey, sleep tight. Oh and leave your phone out here for the night. I’m not going through it or anything! I just don’t want you texting boys ‘til all hours of the night.
SAMANTHA: (annoyed) Ohh my gosh, that is so unnecessary Dad! (groans) Whatever! I don’t text in bed anyway! That’s dumb. (she puts her phone down on the kitchen counter)
DAD: Thank you Samantha. Sleep tight.

Scene 3
SAMANTHA and DAD wake up like usual in their normal beds at the normal time. SAMANTHA rolls out of bed and walks into her bathroom where she plans on washing her face and putting on her make up. However, she sees in the mirror that she has her father’s face! Samantha runs to his bedroom to shake him awake.

SAMANTHA: (in horror) Dadddd! What the f*** is wrong with our faces?!
DAD: (sleepy and then in shock) Holy smokes! Jiminy Cricket! Son of a Gun! What did you do?!
SAMANTHA: (more upset) Me?! What did YOU do?! You took my phone last night! (sassy) Remember?!
DAD: I haven’t touched it Sam! It’s still in the kitchen...
SAMANTHA and DAD run to the kitchen counter where SAMANTHA’S phone lies.
SAMANTHA: How could this possibly happen?! We both look hideous!
DAD: (in a forced soothing tone) Ok, calm down Sam sweetie.. let’s figure this out. What could possibly have gone wrong?
SAMANTHA: (in tears) I don’t know Dad! Just fix it!
After hours of confusion and tension and worry, the two dissect the phone and put it back together. They then restart the phone and go to their own rooms. When they come out their faces are back their own normal faces! SAMANTHA and DAD walk out of their rooms and see each others faces are back to normal, and they embrace each other! SAMANTHA continues to use her phone; however, much less than before. She deletes most of her apps and only uses it for the essential.

Dirt Brown

This is a story that I wrote for a Fairy Tale Revision Assignment. We were asked to take a classic fairy tale, and put our own spin on it. I chose to write a spoof of Snow White, titled Dirt Brown. My story follows a similar story line, however, the contrasting terms and situations I use are pretty obvious... For example, the title!

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful king and queen. The whole kingdom admired them and thought of them as celebrities. One day, the blond hair and blue eyed queen was quilting a baby blanket in the forest and speaking to herself about what she hoped her baby would look like, “She will be the fairest in the kingdom with flowing, golden hair and the most vibrant blue eyes....” All of a sudden she pricked her finger with her needle! Three drops of blood fell into the dirt, and she exclaimed, “Oh shoot! That hurt! My precious blood, soaking into this disgusting dirt! So filthy.” And she returned home to nurse her tiny wound.
The queen soon had her baby girl. However, this was not the little beauty she had hoped for... Her tiny princess had hair everywhere. With eyes and skin as dark as dirt, and as rough as bark. The gorgeous queen exclaimed, “This cannot be my daughter! She is ugly and would blend into the dirt.” The tabloids soon nicknamed the new royal baby “Dirt Brown.” Rumors quickly spread about how this child could possibly turn out so hideous, and the queen was so embarrassed that she ran away from the kingdom!
The king soon found a new wife, and they reached the decision that Dirt Brown was bringing a bad name to the royal family and that she must be taken away. The king and his new wife hired a huntsman to kill Dirt Brown. The huntsman threw Dirt Brown over his shoulder and whisked her away to the snowy mountain tops. When they finally reached the top, the huntsman plopped Dirt Brown down in the snow and reached for his knife to kill her, but when he looked up, the huntsman was blown away. “Dirt Brown, your beauty truly stands out in this setting! You are stunning and you do not blend in at all.” The huntsman could not bring himself to kill Dirt Brown and he told her to flee and hide from the evil new queen.
Dirt Brown ran and ran as far as she could... and although she was colder than you can imagine, Dirt Brown couldn’t have cared less because she knew she was pretty now and that her surroundings had finally brought out her beauty. Dirt Brown finally reached a lovely cabin. She knocked on the door many times, but no one answered. After deciding that this was a life or death situation, Dirt Brown entered the cabin through an open window. To her delight, the cabin had many lite fireplaces and seven extremely cozy beds. Dirt Brown took all the blankets and moved them to one bed, the one closest to a fireplace, where she soon fell into a deep and warm sleep.
When Dirt Brown finally lifted her heavy eyelids, she was shocked to find seven extremely white people surrounding her! Naturally these, very white people were curious as to why she was in their home and where she had come from; however, these white people we also astonished by her dark coloring and began to praise her beautiful eyes, skin, and hair. Dirt Brown explained to them that she was a princess who had been banished from her kingdom because she was not fair or beautiful enough. These seven people then told Dirt Brown that they were all albino! The seven friends were all extremely fair and white because they had no pigment or coloring anywhere in their body. They all agreed that Dirt Brown was gorgeous, and that they were very envious of her powerfully dark coloring.
The seven albinos and Dirt Brown sat down to enjoy some dark brown hot chocolate and discuss Dirt Brown moving in. They soon reached the decision that they needed some variety and beauty in their house. Dirt Brown was overjoyed to be accepted and thoroughly appreciated for her beauty in her new home. Dirt Brown and the seven albinos lived happily ever after in the snowy white mountains.

If I Were to Select a Reader

In this poem I describe the person who I would like to read my poetry. In retrospect, the physical features that I describe in the poem somewhat resemble myself; however I truly wasn't envisioning myself as the reader. The girl I describe would do a beautiful job of performing my work.

Selecting a Reader

She is petite

with striking features

and a voice like Adele's

a voice that you can't ignore

her voice adds to each and every word

that I have written

making each word even more powerful and important

than I intended

and expected

this voice will pour into every single corner of the room

unescapable

but it's perfect

because you don't want to miss a word

this reader, she wears her hair up

because she is bold

and has nothing to hide

oh, and she won't be fiddling with it

her eyes are not intimidating

but they are a tad demanding

so the audience doesn't zone out

and they applaud loudly

on her ears

she wears delightful earrings

they add to her very simple outfit

but they don't take away from her face

they help to intensify her eyes

she pronounces each rhyming word

but no one will be able to predict what comes next

because I made it that way

Naturally, she adores my work

and me

she helps me

when I can't think of that specific word

that one word

that is necessary in my poem

she knows it

because her vocabulary is extensive

and she knows exactly what I am going for

it's as if we have a touch of telepathy

when she speaks her arms move naturally

just the perfect amount

not over dramatic

or over thought

but meaningful

and purposeful

she will come to me

to ask how I would like her to convey my poem

but an answer is never necessary

because she gets me

Where I Am From

I am from England, New York, Switzerland, and Hawaii.

I am from the Ladies of Arlene.

I am from Dewing Park.

I am from laughter and friendliness.

I am from water polo and swim team.

I am from family friends.

I am from traveling.

I am from strength and commitment.

I am from adventures.

I am from children.

I am from business and excitement, enjoyment and relaxation.

I am from good examples and good times.