Haiku

I promised to try to post something I have written at least weekly. I was pretty busy last week and wasn't able to post like I would have liked. This week is shaping up to be busy as well, so I thought I would get a head start. I wrote this poem (a haiku) yesterday on my way to work. Now, if u are picturing me scribbling furiously as I drive down the road, that is not quite what I meant. I suppose I should say "I thought of this poem while driving to work." I did wait until I parked before attempting to put it on paper. Before I share the poem, here is a bit of backstory for those of you who don't know. Just over five years ago now, I lost my sister and best friend to a form of cancer called Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Rebekah and I were like most sisters growing up; we fought a lot and were not very tolerant of each other's personality quirks for a long time. Things got a little better in high school, and after reaching adulthood, we became friends. When she died, I felt as though I had lost a part of myself. I know she wouldn't want me down here grieving for her every day, so I wrote this poem to help me with closure while we are apart.

Goodbye my sister,

Life-long friend; Rest in heaven

'Til we meet again.

Columbus Ships Nina and Pinta Home-School Trip

As promised, here are some more pictures of our home-schooling adventures. This was a trip we took with our home-school group to see the Nina and Pinta reproductions--they are a floating mini museum and the tour guides are very knowledgeable and informative. Here is a link for anyone interested...they tour all around the U.S. (anywhere the ships are able to sail) http://www.thenina.com/. The Nina is the most historically accurate Columbus ship reproduction ever built.

Munchkin walking towards the Nina. This ship is the one actually built to the scale of the original and with tools like what they would have used in Columbus' time.

Here, the kids are listening to the tour guide tell them about the shore boat on the Nina.

View of the Pinta from shore. This ship was built a bit bigger than the original scale, and built with more modern tools as well if I am remembering correctly. All in all this was a pretty fun trip with the group, though it got a little warm before the tour was over (we went in early September). 

This is my view of the Pinta from the deck of the Nina. I like the perspective here with the beam above me showing in the foreground. I need to play with these pictures some, because I know they would look nicer with some editing. I'll have to remember to do that in all of this spare time I have.

I do occasionally find snippets of spare time; it was in one such snippet that I wrote the following poem. (Inspired by how crowded I felt surrounded by the other home-schoolers...which our guide informed us was about how many sailors would have been on the deck.)

Standing hunched:

Ceiling too low.

Feeling bunched

As others crowd close.

We all want to see.

There floats a ship;

What once was a tree.

Covered in pitch,

Black in the night,

The moon and stars

Might be their only light.

Aboard the Nina,

Columbus' favorite ship,

I look toward the Pinta

Glad I didn't take this trip.

Three little boats

On the ocean so large

Wind in the sails...

Sailing so far.

But to where and to what?

West to the Indies...

But what if they got lost?

I wonder if they were scared.

I would be...wouldn't you?

Unwashed bodies

All crowded close.

No bathing for months...

That would be gross!

Long dangerous journey 

On a ship so small.

It's a wonder they lived,

Any one of them all.

But lived they did, 

And made history too!

There it is...hope you enjoyed it. I am planning to try to write poems about historical events, people, or places to make learning about them more fun and perhaps a little easier. This one was more for fun and my own amusement...and to sharpen my poetry skills hopefully.

Check out my Link Parties page for a list of all the parties I link to each week.