Allusion

# 3 Neither Silver Nor Gold

From Lexington and Concord

To the red and yellow of Germantown

Painting by John Trumbull

Over the hills and halls of Mount Vernon

Down to Virginia’s Yorktown.

Weak are the soldiers bones,

 But still the Bullets crack.

The soldier thinks of home.

And so America the beautiful?

She still stands strong.

Fighting, slowly breaking the chains

Of English power held too long.

Painting by John Trumbull

So ask yourself,

Is it all about the grandeur?

Nay, it’s a soldier’s brave heart that will make Britain fall.

Its all in the doer,

Never the silver or gold.

So when the fireworks burst into air,

Behold!

The American flag flying fair.

Beware, old England,

Painting by Joh Trumbull

For I fear that your ships of gold

And guns of silver and steel

Had no effect on our vice and hold.

It seems unreal,

How courage, love and anger

Are even greater still.

So take this as a reminder

 And never forget the heart of the ranker.


 #2 Something More

Painted wood slowly rotting,
metallic wire turning to rust,

Sculpture by Natalia Russell

a once beautiful emerald peeling off.
But still,
waiting.
Remaining.
Trapped.
Golden waves and curls,
a swirling dress,
and electric blue eyes.
She dances, twirls and sings
all just for show though.
For those little origami birds.
The dreams taunt her with something better,

something shes never known.

For all she sees

is an emerald cage,

and those little origami birds,

since the day she was born.

Fear not though, gorgeous.

You have not lost hope.

For the world awaits you.

You will see what it holds.

The cage will finally crumble,

and the birds shall do what they please.

And you?

You will have it all at your fingertips.

Oh, what it would be like!

To be free from these dreadful bars.

 

#1 Lion's Breath

A land of shimmering plains

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

 by C.S. Lewis

of flowing rivers and creeks
Narnia, they say. 
The beautiful land, slain.
Oh, so cry the creatures for their lost land!
Is all hope lost?
Nay, for the four children come,
of Adam's flesh and Adam's bone.
They have crossed,
from the land of Wardrobe.
Calling back the one who saves.
For he shall save them all,
with lions breath like heavens air,
and the sound of his roar.

Painting by Eugene Delacroix

At the bare of his teeth,
winter will meet its match.
For he shall save us all,
at his dying breath.
And all wrong shall be right,
 for he made the ultimate sacrifice.
So don't fear,
sweet child of eve.
Adam's flesh, and Adam's bone,
they will sit at Cair Paravel in throne.
The evil will be over and done. 

 

        I generally don't write poetry. Unless, of course, its an english assignment!  So, naturally these poems were pretty difficult to write.It was hard just trying to make them flow all together and just plain sound pretty. I inserted stylistic elements throughout the poems, like using similes to convey imagery so the reader can imagine it going on in their head. I also used a ton of personification in the first poem, to make it seem like Aslan (a lion) was almost human. This helped show how much he really meant to the book, and the major part he played. I used imagery in every one of the poems, because I like to be able to imagine things in my head, and see them play out, which imagery does. The revision really helped though, because a lot of brainstorming went in, and I don't think that i would have come up with a lot of things if not for the revision process. 

        In all of them but the historical one, they relate to me specifically. The first one I wrote a poem about that book specifically because the whole book is an allusion to Christ and his sacrifice on the cross, which is something in my religion that I consider awe-inspiring. The second poem is about being trapped in adolescence, before you can go out and really start your life and fulfill your purpose. Sometimes I feel like I'm trapped like the girl in the cage, but we all have to learn and shape who we are before we meet the world. This poem is my favorite because it flows nicely and I just plain like it. It seems a little bit like I hate my life, but this poem is just describing a feeling of being trapped sometimes, like when school is really hard, or family life sucks. Overall, I really liked writing these poems because I usually express my feeling in art or just talking, but this is a completely different form of art. 

I Believe in Hard Work

Photo credit: Lacy Lichtenhan (me)

         Your dreams aren’t going to just come true for you. They take passion, determination, sweat, and hard work. I have learned this in the past fifteen years all the way from taking my first step to taking my first job. All through life my parents, my teachers, my coaches and the media have told me that hard work equals success. I used to disregard it, and not truly listen, but I guess that’s why they repeated it so many times. The first time I really heard it was when I got a report card in sixth grade with all F’s. It made me pretty mad, especially when someone called me a dumb blonde. So I decided I didn’t just want to be a dumb blonde. I knew I was smarter than that, and I wanted to be someone that could leave a legacy, someone that people would remember. Ever since then I have had determination embedded in my heart, driving me forward when I feel like giving up. Hard work isn’t just doing your homework and going to practice, it’s going the extra mile to be the best that you can. I’m definitely not saying that everything goes perfect; I’ve had some major rough spots, but always came back for the finish. I’m sure that there will be even more bad days, months, and years to come.There will always be another mountain to climb until the day I die, but you have to conquer one to get to the even greater one Why is life so hard? It’s because everything is hard work, even dragging myself out of bed in the morning after hitting the snooze button five times. I believe people who have everything given to them can become lazy, selfish and insensitive. It spotlights a person’s character; shows who is going to turn up their sleeves and be ready, who is going to turn up their nose, or who is even going to show up at all. A lot of our accomplishments are because of luck, but I find it hard to rely on the possibility of winning the lottery to determine my future. I value hard work, because it’s proven that things that seem impossible can be done and that anyone can do it (even blondes)!

Will the World Really End December 21st, 2012?

                                                                                                                                          

photo credit: Lacy Lichtenhan

As December 21^st, 2012 approaches, many people prepare themselves for possible end of the world (as we know it). December 21, 2012 marks the end of the 5,125 year cycle of the Mayan calendar, which is called the Great Cycle or the 13 Baktun Cycle. The Great Cycle is a period of time that when it reaches the end, humanity will enter the next stage; where it's a continuous cycle of birth to death to rebirth. The Mayans felt that these cycles held great amounts of power and that these cycles become events on earth.  Some people say that planet Nuribi will collide with us, or that alignment of the universe will cause a shift. Many people see this and just go ballistic, because for some strange reason they think that a calendar ending means that the world has to end as well. I don’t let my future be determined by someone who lived 5000 years ago. Especially by someone who just looked at the stars and earth cycles. I might consider it if there was proof to back it up, but there just isn’t any.

     

           Where is the hard-core evidence that there will be a doomsday? There is no reason to believe that Nuribi would collide, or our scientists would be tracking it since 2000. A planetary magnetic reversal, however more plausible than the other theories, would not end life, because we have proof that the Earth has indeed experience more than one magnetic reversals.       “2012 Doomsday?” By TheFutureAwaits, Macomb, MI <http://www.teenink.com/opinion/current_events_politics/article/403081/2012-Doomsday/>.

      

            It’s not just the Mayans though. Over the past two centuries there have been numerous other predictions to when the world will end and why. Many of these predictions have been based on religious beliefs. In 1848 many Christians quit their jobs and sold their possessions to prepare for the return of Jesus Christ. William Miller predicted this based on a little math and prophesies in the book of Daniel. The designated days came and went, so he changed the date. That also came and went. He still believed until his death in 1849. It is now known as the Great Disappointment because of those now job-less people. The Jehovah Witnesses also made about 10 predictions since the 1900’s that never happened, so instead they said it happened and we just couldn’t see it. These are but a few of the numerous predictions made by Christ-based religions, but what’s interesting is that in the Bible itself, it says that no one will know when the time will come but God himself (which I believe). In the more recent decades, predictions have been based on science and astrology. On May 18^th, 1910, Halley’s Comet passed and was thought to bring with it a tail of gas that would smother earth with its deadly poison. It didn’t even cause allergies. It was however, the first time that actual science caused apocalyptic panic, not just religious misapprehension. Y2K is the well known year 2000. People all over the world stacked water bottles and canned food (including my mother) and read survival books. Many suggested catastrophic problems ranging from huge blackouts to nuclear holocaust. It was the designated day where all the computers would go absolutely haywire because of the oh-so-scary 000 that the computers could not process. When January 1^st rolled around, a clock in Japan went out and a few computers had glitches. A new millennium rolled right in.

                 

          You see? There is no more reason, if not less of a reason the earth will end in December than all of the other predictions. I don’t think that we should base our apocalyptic beliefs on these predictions, but rather on the way we treat our earth. Why wouldn’t the world end? We destroy it with pollution, over population, and wasting of natural resources. Yes, people are making a difference but just a tiny dent in the overall downhill slide. It’s all about the money involved in the production. People are going to keep polluting the earth because of the money they get from their production. Maybe if we could find a more economic and environment-friendly way of production, then things would start looking up. But until then, predictions based on stars and prophesies are not going to destroy us, but we are going to destroy ourselves. I can easily see the world ending in the next century if we don’t actually change things.

We all affect the natural environment, but we are often are unaware of how much we affect it. There is no part of the earth that does not remain affected by our actions. Our actions are now threatening the health of our planet, the land we live and work on, the water supply, the ozone layer, the animal species as well as the health of our species           "What Can We Do to Save Our Environment." StudyMode.com. 

 28 Feb. 2011. <http://www.studymode.com/essays/What-Can-We-Do-To-Save-601589.html>.

       The world very well may end soon, but not because of prophesies and predictions made thousands of years ago. When you compare those to the ones already made and proven wrong, it seems silly to even consider it. We need to look at the picture of our whole earth and see what we are doing to it, change what we are doing to it, and then maybe we can stop worrying about the world ending.

                http://www.flickr.com/photos/papajoehermit/5962911416/

Me

photo credit: me :)
Hey my name is Lacy and life is great. Thats what my blog is about in case your wondering! Love the things you do, and keep doing it, like I do. I love horse back riding, photography, art and friends/ family.