Homeschoolers' Work: High School

To start off this new section of our display of homeschoolers' work, here are some lovely poems from 16 year-old Nina in Montana:

Writing Thank-You Letters 9/13/07

When I was seven

There was fleeting thanks
My thanks:
A quick brown bird
Lit on my shoulder, flew off.
Of course!
“Thank-you for...”
Well, not enough to hold a pencil for long

When I was fourteen

My lashes were darkened with mascara
I wrote
Quick
Nice
Clever notes
“And I know you will send me
More stuff now”
Oops.
Don’t think that

When I was eighty

I sealed my envelope
And I put a stamp in the corner.
The stamp
Had a dog hair stuck to it
And a smile.

Gravel 9/21/07

Sunwashed, it is just
Broken rock
Scuffed with dust
Kicked aside by uncaring boot heels
Some, though
Scrape their hands through the scarred
Stuff
For that one unique piece
Then another, and another
To fill their pockets.

(untitled) 9/27/07

An unconventional peace–
Black cowskins sewn over
Cumbersome joints,
Caked with dung, and licked
By grey tongues of sky;

The cows swing their wide foreheads
Through tousled fields of worn hay–

Chewing cud is their
Philosophy.

Le Chat Fantastique 10/4/07

Her golden eyes
Gaze upon
Silken chocolate
Her whiskers
Are aristocratic lace
She surveys
Flurried winds
In the grass below her
And settles more comfortably
On the provided fence
The sun bestows its lustre
On her rippling fur coat
And if, perhaps, a clumsy horse
Should amble by
Le Chat
Will only flick an ear
With elegant
Disdain

(untitled) 10/16/07

Children’s laughter lifts
The rainbow–filmed soap bubbles
That burst into blue

The High Dive 10/2807

I was
Reeling out of control
Jerked off the lofty exposed skyline,
My stomach twisted like the water
below
Into roaring lights, I sang
Like an arrow down a tube of air
That I could not grasp:
My limbs were flying akimbo
By Pandora’s fury;
My gasp grabbed breath
Back to my tottering lungs–

And I saw that I had not yet jumped.

A Ditty 11/2/07

Hen Nellie went to the parlor
To have some jam on bread
A losel had already eaten it up
So Hen Nellie ate her chicks instead.

(untitled) 11/9/07

Waste time!
Watch it drip
Like honey off a silver
Spoon
Tie a thousand knots
In a white horsehair, under
The noonday sun
Be melodramatic,
Read something
You didn’t mean to read,
Or sleep–
And ask the bees
If they know
What time is.

Penelope 11/21/07

Perhaps you think I have waited, for you
In a cushioned chair, my feet propped
On an embroidered footstool.
Nay, I have had naught
But clever foes’ daggers at my back
Who design to sever my resolve: to stand fast
Beside the windblown crags, for you.
The salted sea has been changeless for me
Day after day, while you
Have drunken to battle-lust and glory
On the windy plains of a distant land.
Now you say you are but a name,
A blade lacking burnishing.
I have stood fast for your name, Ulysses,
I, your aged wife, have stood beside
This grey shore, with only a name
For twenty years.

In your westward glancing heart I glimpse
That heart which hath moved heaven and earth:
Keen swords, flashing fire, falling stars
Beyond your drenched mast–
I knew you then, I know you now.
The yearning gust that blew you in
Will blow you out again.
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail,
So go;
And if you seek beyond the arch
Of your desires, you will
Forever sail for me
Along the froth-edged waves
Of the sunset sea.

Here is an example of an English assignment that our 9th grader Gabriel completed. The assignment was to create a scene which follows on from something in the book Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. The point of the assignment was to make it believable: to not only keep with the storyline but to make sure that the character, Doc, acted and spoke as he does in Steinbeck's book. Further, Gabriel was challenged to write in the same style as Steinbeck. The following is a rough, uncorrected draft:

It was a hot steamy day. The road in front of the car shimmered with heat waves. Doc lent partly out of the open car window. Sweat dripped down his face and his head throbbed painfully. A storm was brewing, dark clouds pressing down on the countryside, the pressure of the oncoming weather was making Doc feel sick. He drank a can of beer, which made him feel worse. The road moved and waved in all directions, everything felt unreal to Doc, except the black thunder clouds and his headache. The face of the dead girl appeared on the road in front of him. Her long dark hair swirled around her head as if in water and she stared into the face of Doc. She gave him a sad smile, than disappeared. Doc stared at the road and wondered who the dead girl was.

A moment later the pale face appeared in the side mirror. Doc looked the other way. But the face followed. “Leave me alone!” he yelled at the apparition. The girl gave him one last look and than slowly faded from his mind. The road went on and on into the distance, a never ending path of tar and heat. The pressure from the storm was getting worse. Doc felt bleary and tired and the only comfort in his life at that moment was the thought of returning home - sitting down, having a few beers, listening to music...

Docs eyes drooped. The stifling air was all around him, pressing harder and harder on his head. A fly buzzed against the window. Droning on and on...

Doc awoke. His view was obscured by long yellowish grass. It took him a couple seconds to realize that his car had done a nose dive into a ditch when he had passed out. “Oh damn...” He clambered out and surveyed the damage. The car was face down in a ditch of weeds, the end pointing towards the road. It didn’t look in too bad a shape. Doc felt glad that his neck was still intact. He sat down on the edge of the highway and waited for someone to come past who could help pull the car out. Above him black clouds were racing across the sky. The whole land seemed to have suddenly gone silent, waiting for the heavens to burst and the terrible power of nature to come dashing down onto the earth. Doc looked up and watched the lightning dance and flair in the distance. It came steadily closer and at last broke. As it sometimes happens with summer storms, there was no warning, no light pre rain, it just came down in one ferocious wave. Doc ran to the car and sheltered in it. His one consoling thought was that his headache was gone.