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Ever since I was a little girl I've always liked writing and reading poetry. What is poetry you ask? Poetry is a type of literature. It focuses on artistic writing and putting words together just for it's meaning, sound, and rhythm.

Some poems are simple and funny, like a nursery rhyme.

The Incy Wincy Spider

The incy wincy spider went up the water spout
Down came the rain
And washed the spider out
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
And the incy wincy spider went up the spout again


While other poems are long and with lots of symbolism. Symbolism is when a person, place or thing represents another object. For example:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers
By Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

In this poem symbolism is used to compare wishing for something or hoping for something to a little bird. Like a little bird, hope or wishes "perches (sits) in the soul and sings a tune (song) without words." It also goes as far as to say hope or wishes can be heard in the "chilliest (coldest) lands (places)" and never asks for a crumb (a little food) from anyone.


Other poems have a structure to it like a haiku with seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five. Here is an example of an American poet named Richard Wright writing in a haiku style:

Spring begins shyly
With one hairpin of green grass
In a flower pot.

Like all forms of literature, all poems have something different to bring the reader. They can be short and sweet or long with symbolism. Poems can describe an object, a moment in time, and a loved one. In fact, there is no rule in poetry that says you have to write about one specific thing. A poem can be funny, happy, and sad.

Also, Poems are so inclusive that even a child can get creative and write a poem. As a fun activity, I encourage families to try and write short poems together. After all, poetry is for everyone! I think that's why I like it so much!



  

I called this year's animal a pig and people acted like I was crazy! 'No, it is a wild boar!' 'Yes,' I replied, ' a pig.'

Domestic pigs, the ones with curly tails and not a lot of hair, which live on farms, are close cousins of the wild boar. They are all in the same family... porcines, or more scientifically, Suidae.

Porcine can be used to describe something or someone acting like a pig, usually eating greedily. This word is also why pig meat is called pork. As for Suidae, the 'sui' sounds like 'sw', and so another word for pigs is swine.  

Wow. What an awesome and interesting holiday vacation back in the United States of America.
We went back to USA to visit with my family as well as Chris's family. It was so nice to see them after roughly a year and a half teaching in Tokyo and Takamatsu.

We left Japan from Takamatsu very early in the morning to catch a flight to Tokyo to catch a flight to the USA. Fortunately, all went well with the weather as well as the connecting flight. Considering it was in the middle of the winter, the weather in the USA is very unpredictable, however this year the USA is having a very mild winter, so the weather was nice and no snow.

We spent the first 5 days with my family, and this was actually over Christmas, so we spent the specific day with them. It was so nice to see my children and grandchildren open stockings from Santa Clause, as well as open presents from me and other family members.

I have to say that the most exciting part of my visit was meeting my granddaughter for the first time. She just turned 3 months old, and it was a privilege to be able to spend time with her and my other granddaughters. What a special time. But spending time with my daughters, as well as my parents and siblings was special as well.

Well now it is time to catch a flight to Michigan to visit with Chris's family. We had another very early flight to Chicago, and then had to pick up a rental car, and then drive to Michigan to her mothers house. Again, it was a very special visit, as we had the opportunity to be there over New Years eve and New Years Day.

OK, so here comes the wild and crazy trip back home to Takamatsu.
We left Chris's mother's house at 9:00pm, and then drove the rental car back to Chicago, and dropped it off at the airport facility. The trip was right on schedule for the timing to get to the Chicago airport in time to catch the first leg of our trip home. We caught the first leg of the flight to Denver, and then caught the next leg of the flight to Vancouver. Each of the flight were good as they were right on time so we had no problem catching the next flights. We then caught the next leg from Vancouver to Tokyo, and again, the flight was right on time and was ok. Remember however that the flight is 11 hours long.

This is the interesting thing. W e had to spend the night in Tokyo as all the late flights have already left for Takamatsu. As we were waiting for our luggage to pick up in Tokyo to take to the hotel in Tokyo, we waited, we waited and we waited. No luggage.We them got in touch with the agent from ANA, and tried to figure out where our luggage was. No one seemed to know what happened to both of our luggage. They said they would try to locate them, and would call us when they are found. We took a shuttle to the hotel for a 1 night stay, and the crazy thing about it is we obviously had no clothes, toilet stuff, etc.... Prior to cashing another very early flight from Tokyo to Takamatsu, we traveled with no luggage. We have now not received any phone calls as to where the luggage is.....

Finally it ended up taking a total of 3 days for ANA to find our luggage and return it to us at our apartment.

All said, the trip back to the USA was awesome, and would not trade the time with family for the world.