Imagination

La familia at Zion's National Park in April

Poetry has haunted me for decades. I love reading it, love the swirl in my brain when I come across a textured, layered piece of poetry. Emily Dickinson is my homegirl. I used to write poetry sometimes, but have found that the necessities of the now keep me from really doing anything with it. Well, that, and my laziness.


However, Vanessa is a poet. My daughter, this girl who has a notebook and pencil growing out of her hands, loves writing acrostic poems and will say things like, "I love iambic pentameter!" or "Hey, you just used alliteration and assonance in the same sentence!" I thought I'd provide a sample of one of her poems for you here.


"Alone in the House!" By Vanessa


As the night turns black
and the air turns chill,
courage I surely lack,
No excitement, neither thrill.
Creeping, creaking in my ear
frightful shadows coming near.
No, just leaves, swaying in the breeze
and those leaves fall down from trees.
Dogs bark, trains whistle, cars zoom by.
Come on be brave, try, try, try!
The sun comes through
the mountains blue
the day has come
what has become
of the dark, dark night?
My room is flooded with light...
a brand new day.


On another imaginative note, Sam recently wrote (with some typing and illustrating help from his sister) a story entitled "Food Wars" (you know, like Star Wars). It contains characters like Darth Sushius (a big, scary sushi roll), the Raspberry Rebels, Luke Lemon, Anakin Apple, and so on. The first chapter is entitled: "The Dark Side Attacks!" Oh, and on the inside of the front cover it says, "Dedicated to: Cameron & Max." Awww, I guess they really do love each other after all!


Cameron is almost five. This age should be known as the "I-say-so-many-things-that-are-funny, my-mom-can't-find-pen-and-paper-fast-enough-to-write-even-a-tenth-of-them-down" age. The other night we had the home teachers over. It was their first visit, and we were trying not to show them how chaotic and loud our house is most of the time. Things were going pretty well when Dave asked Cameron, who was sitting on his lap, to give the closing prayer. Cameron said, "Can I say the prayer like a bat? Can I bend backwards over your lap and cross my arms in front of me like I have bat wings?" Dave told him no. Cameron was fine with that, but during the prayer, he said, "Thank thee that the visiting teachers could come." I could not control myself. Vanessa and I began laughing so hard. I'm sorry for laughing, Cameron. I do feel bad. Really, how are you supposed to know the difference between home and visiting teachers? Also, yesterday at church, he told me that my forehead looked like it had cracks in it, referring, of course, to my many wrinkles. Nice.


Max just turned two. Boo. Hoo. Hoo. I seriously can't handle it. Sam will often comment on how grown up Max is getting and how he wishes he could freeze him so he'd stay little. I agree. It's just not cool. But, one of the advantages of their getting older is their growing language ability. He's starting to put words into sentences, "Daddy car." "Me's coat." He calls Cameron, "Dameron." He's also obsessed with the song by Taio Cruz, "Dynamite." He shakes his little, adorable booty and tries to sing along. Yes, that song is about partying really hard, but don't worry, he does have a spiritual side to him. Today, we pulled up to the bank and he saw the white marble building and said, "Temple!" Yeah, I, too, would have much rather been at the temple than at the boring old bank!