3 Poems Assignment

Acrostic: 
-Draft:
                          My Greatest Gift

Many mornings, I wake up, and

You are always there to greet me.

Getting ready for the day, all I see is you,

Relaxing in your bed,

Eating your food,

Always making me feel good.

Then, after finishing my preparations, I

Ensconce on the couch, and you

Sprint to my side, and jump,

Touching down and lying down next to me,

Giving me joy and happiness.

In time for the bus, I

Flee from the couch and run to the door, still

Thinking about the greatest gift I had ever received.

-Final:

                         My Greatest Gift

Many mornings, I rise from my bed, and

You greet me like the sun from the east.

Getting ready for the day, all I notice is you,

Relaxing in your square, soft bed,

Eating your food from your bowl by the bathroom,

Always expanding my heart.

Then, after I’m done prepping for the day, I

Ensconce on the couch, and you

Sprint to my side, and jump,

Touching down and lying next to me,

Giving me the love I need.

In time for the bus, I

Flee from the couch and run to the door, still

Thinking about you and all others like you, the greatest gifts to the world.

Sestina:

-Draft:

                                          The Dream

 I’ve had many dreams in my day

  but this one sticks out the most.

  My dreams are usually about sports or family,

 but this one is a little different.

  It involves celebrities, dances, and songs

 and it keeps you wanting to stick to the end.
 

  I begin my dream at the end

 of a very long and tiring day.

  All I wanted was to listen to songs

 from today that I love the most.

  But I watched it in a way a little different,

  by watching The Tonight Show with my family

 During this show, my family

 watched a Lip Sync Battle to the very end

and when it was done, I felt different

than I had when I watched one the other day

 I thought for a while, and when I thought the most

 I thought I might be able to compete with these types of songs
 

  So I went to Twitter, and challenged Jimmy Fallon to two songs

 At first, in front of my family,

 And then if he thought I was a “singer” with the most,

 I could “sing” on the show, but at the very end.

 He accepted my challenge, and on one particular day

 I did things a little different.

When I got to Studio 6B, I was treated different

Getting a lot of attention to prepare me for my songs

And then, at 3pm on that day

 I got on stage in front of my family

 Jimmy and I did our tunes, we had fun, and in the end,

 The producers wanted me ‘cause out of all of the challengers, they like me the most

 So I went on the show, lip synced, and had the most

Fun I’d ever had, even though it was so different

 Than anything I’ve done, especially since the end

Of just listening to all of my favorite songs.

 And the best part was that my family

Was so proud of what I did that entire day

 Then at the end, after I got the most

 Out of that whole day, I felt really different

 Because I sang those songs, and I lip synced to not just my family.

-Final:

                      The Dream

 I’ve had many dreams in my day

 but this one sticks out the most.

 My dreams are usually about sports or family,

 but this one is a little different.

 This dream involves celebrities, dances, and songs,

 and it keeps you wanting to read to the end.
 

  I begin my dream at the end

  of a very long and tiring day.

  All I wanted was to listen to songs

  from today, the ones I loved the most.

  But I listened in a way very different,

  By viewing The Tonight Show with my family.

During this episode, my family

watched a Lip Sync Battle from beginning to end

and when it was done, I felt different,

 like a­­ guy who changes their goals every day

 I thought for a while, and when I thought the most

 I thought maybe I could compete with these types of songs
 

 So I took to Twitter, and challenged Jimmy Fallon to  lip-synced songs

 At first, in front of my family,

 And then if he and others thought I was the “singer” with the most,

 I could “sing” on the show, but at the very end.

 He accepted my challenge, and on one outstanding day,

 I went to New York and did things a little different.

When I got to Studio 6B, I was treated different,

I was a famous celebrity while I prepared for my songs.

And then, at 3pm on that day

 I got on stage in front of my family

 Jimmy and I did our tunes, we had fun, and in the end,

 the producers wanted me ‘cause out of all of the challengers, they liked me the most

 So I went on the real show, lip synced, and had the most

 fun I’d ever had, even though it was so different

 than anything I’ve done before, especially since the end

 of always singing those splendid  songs.

 And the best part was that my family

 Was so proud of what I did that entire day

 Then at the end, after I got the most

 Out of the day, in my dream, I felt very different.

Because when I “sang” those songs, I felt like anything was possible for me and my family.

Terza rima:

-Draft:

                                      How I Quit

 I’ve been competing in two sports for about nine years

  playing them in the spring, summer, and fall,

 I did not think either would disappear.

 Freshman year, I got the call

 to play on my high school teams,

and that’s when I first thought if I should play it all.

 The fall season brought me to the TPC.

 I loved playing there with all my heart

 and I never felt bad when I put in the tee.

 But then the spring came, and I took part

 On the field with my other favorite sport.

 But for some reason, my good feelings fell apart.

With these bad feelings, I decided to abort

 my mission of playing two games.

-Final:

                               How I Quit

 I’ve been competing in two sports for about nine years,

 playing them in the spring, summer, and fall,

 I did not think either would disappear.

 It was freshman year when I got the calls

 to play on my high school teams,

and that’s when I first thought “Should I play it all?”

 The fall season brought me to the TPC.

 I loved this place with my brain and my heart

 I felt like a pro when I put in the tee.

 But then the spring came, and I took part

 on the sandlot, playing my other sport.

 But for some strange reason, my good feelings fell apart.

So like lots of others in the world, and with a lot of support,

I gave up on a passion that I felt had to be let go.

Tone Passages

First Passage: Tone-Loving

       I stared at her from across the room. I saw her eyes, so bright and blue, and her hair, so blonde and curvy, and her skin, so pale and perfect. I couldn't look away.
      I turned to my friend. "Wow," I said to him. "Do you see that girl over there? She's so... beautiful."
      I turned away and looked back towards her. For a moment, the only thing I could see was her. She was the greatest thing I had ever seen.
      I looked at her for a little longer, and then I finally got the guts to go over and talk to her.


Second Passage: Tone-Disgusted

       I stared at her from across the room, but only for a second. What I did see was her eyes, so large and gray, and her hair, so brown and uneven, and her skin, so burnt and warty.
       I turned to my friend. "Wow," I said to him. "Do you see that girl over there? She's so... gross."
       I kept looking at my friend so I didn't have to look back at her. But I couldn't get her out of my head. She was the worst thing I had ever seen.
       I tried not to think about her, but her face kept popping in my mind, so I finally walked out of the room so I didn't have to see her anymore.

2006 AP Excerpt Distillation

Describing how people tend to torture nature in the passage from an eighteenth-century novel, the narrator utilizes an agitated tone to condemn what these people are doing. The narrator adds words with negative diction and connotation, such as "cruel nastiness" and "stupid curiosity," to characterize the narrator's disgust towards hurting nature like these people do sometimes. Through the use of these strong and hurtful words, the narrator hopes to make readers who do hurt nature think differently about their actions and possibly help preserve the world they were hurting before. This passage helps people see the horrible actions done to nature, and it shows how people need to create a better society where nature is conserved and respected.

My 200 word Sentence

One day, I wanted to leave my home, my large, brown home, in search for a place where I could be free and do whatever I wanted to do, and I decided to go to my favorite place to go, Norton Country Club, and there, I would be able to do just that-swing my golf club as much as I desired in hopes of improving my game and myself- just as soon as I got out of the car, grabbed my clubs from the car, and walked to the clubhouse, where I would go inside and say hello to everyone I knew who was in there and also check-in for my round, which would begin on the tenth hole because the golf professional wanted the players to start on the back nine, and then I would leave the clubhouse and walk towards that tenth hole, grab my driver, my tee, my ball, and walk up to the blue tee markers, where I always play from, and when I arrived, I put my tee in the ground, put the ball on the tee, lined up my body towards the fairway, and swung my driver up and back down, striking my ball down the fairway and beginning my round.

Angry Letter Assignment

Louis Dion
Creative Writing
3/25/15
Angry Letter

Dear Me,

I’m going to make this quick so you can get back to practicing, but I have an important question to ask you: Why have you never had a hole-in-one?

You have been playing golf for twelve years now. You play almost every day after school. You’re the number one player on the golf team. You are amazing at playing golf. Plus, you play a golf course regularly that is all par threes! There is no reason for you not to have a hole-in-one by now.

You probably know this already, but there is about 12500 to 1 odds for making a hole in one in a round of golf. But, there are so many other factors that go into play. The amount of time you have played, your skill level, your extreme accuracy with your wedges and irons; there is no reason that you do not have a hole-in-one by now.

Now, I’ve compiled some more advanced stats about your performance. I calculated that you hit sixty-five percent of your greens in regulation, and your average distance to the hole is about eighteen feet. That’s six yards! All you have to do is aim six yards left or right from where you usually aim and you got yourself a hole- in-one. I know you can at least do that.

Now, what I want you to do is go out and play from sunrise to sunset every day until you get a hole in one. I don’t care that there is still two feet of snow on the ground. If you can see the hole and the tee markers, you can play.

Go out and get swinging, NOW! I don’t want to talk to you until you get the ball in the hole from the tee.

Sincerely,

Me

Synecdoche/Metonymy and Apostrophe Assignments

Synecdoche/Metonymy

My entire golfing career rests on this putt. A short putt, but an important putt, with a win at the Masters if I go on to make it. I look at the hole one more time before I stare back at the ball. Just like you have done twenty-five other times today, I think as I'm about to pull the trigger. Slowly, the square head starts back away from the ball, staying fairly square to the hole, with a little counterclockwise rotation.  It stops near the rear of my left shoe, then starts forward again. The head turns back clockwise and smashes into the ball, and the Taylormade starts rolling straight towards the hole. Rolling steady, tracking towards the cup, and finally... PLOP! I won.

Apostrophe
Everything started with you, Grandma. A lot of pictures I've seen of you are you with a club in your hand. Almost every story I've heard about you involves you on a golf course. You played a lot, even into your old age. I can still picture you now playing in your new home. With all of the people who play in the family, I feel like you started it all. So, I say to you, Grandma, thank you, because without your passion, I might not have mine.

Unorthodox POV/ Unreliable Narrator Short Story

Louis Dion III                                                                                                     Creative Writing                                                                                                           3/12/15                                                                                                         Unreliable Narrator/Unorthodox POV

A Day on the Golf Course

We were thinking of a place to go to discuss the new position at my firm, and you thought it would be a good idea to be interviewed on the golf course, since you have always thought you are read better when you have a club in your hand. Thinking that this was a very good option, I decided to make a tee time for the two of us. TPC Boston at two-thirty, a perfect time to play since it is just before the high school teams went out to practice.

I arrived at the course around one forty-five. As I pulled in, I saw you warming up by your gently used Corolla.

                “Good day, Mr. Johnson,” you said to me as I got out of my BMW.

                I asked with deep interest, “How long have you been here, boy?”

                “Oh, about fifteen minutes.”

                “Why are you here so early?”

                “Just wanted to make a good first impression, sir.”

So I put my shoes on, grabbed my clubs, and began to walk down the hill towards the two-story clubhouse at the bottom. As I walked in, I saw you were in awe of the facility, seeing the brand new equipment and accessories staring right into your lightly-colored eyes. We walked up to the counter, and I told the golf pro who we are. He tells us the total for the 18-hole round and the cart we were going to share. As you saw me taking out the company card, you stopped me:

                “I got this, sir. You don’t have to worry about a thing today.”

                “Are you sure? This round does cost a great deal of money.”

                “I don’t mind. This a once and a lifetime opportunity to play this course, so it is definitely worth it to pay a little extra cash today.”

After you paid for our round, we each received a small bag of golf balls to warm up at the 22-stall, grass driving range. We placed our clubs on our cart, drove to the range, and hit our balls, me with my brand new Titleists and you with your ten year old Callaways. We got back into our cart and then took the long, winding journey through the woods over to our first hole of the day.

We drove up and gazed out, looking at the beautiful landscape that the first hole brought. To the black tee markers we went, ending up parallel to them. Three-hundred thirty yards was the distance, so I decided to take out a long iron to start the day off right. But as I turned to my left, I saw you taking out your driver:

                “I like to be aggressive,” you said as we walked over to the tee. “Go big or go home, right?”

You gave me the first shot, and I hit my ball right down the middle of green fairway, but it stopped as soon as it hit the turf because of the rain that fell the night before. I walked away, and you began to walk towards the middle of the tee markers. Bending down to put your tee in the ground, your hand was shivering like a cold dog that stayed outside for too long. You stood up, took a deep breath, and lined up your body so your shoulders pointed towards the bunkers on the right edge of the fairway. I knew there was short grass on the other side of those sand pits, but you didn’t seem strong enough to carry the traps. You exhaled one last time, and with sweat dripping down your face, you began your backswing. Swinging the club head backwards until it was right above your head, then quickly reversing course, you smashed the club into your ball, and I saw the Nike swoosh fly away from the tee. I watched the ball throughout its flight, and as I saw it descending, I could not tell where it would land. But as I looked away for a second, I saw you picking up your tee and walking away, almost knowing exactly where it would land. I turned back around, picking out the ball around the blue-colored space around it. Ultimately, it landed where I could not see, and I thought to myself, Wow, this guy is really special.

Things went well for you during the first few holes, but I went off the rails right away. I could not make any putts on the greens, but you were making everything, as if you have played the course many times before. But things became to change for me. It was the fifth hole. I hit a good drive but an awful seven iron into the green. You kept my hopes up after that shot, telling me you had confidence in me making the almost impossible putt. A forty-five footer, uphill then back down, breaking to the right, to the left, and back to the right; most professionals just hope to get this putt within five feet.  Hoping to do the same, I hit my ProV1, and we both watched it roll. Halfway there, you intervened:

                “It looks good, sir.”

It did look good. As it began to go back down the hill, the ball straightened out after a long trip to the left and began to turn back to the right. Both you and I saw that at ten, five, three feet left that it was on track. Suddenly, the ball just disappeared.

                “Nice one!” You scream as you viewed the ball drop into the cup. “That’s one amazing birdie, sir. I always knew you could make it.”

You finished out the hole, ending up with a good bogey from the woods, and we drove over to the next hole of our round.

We played a couple more hole, but then we got stopped at the eighth hole, a par three that sometimes takes a while to play. While we were waiting on the eighth tee for the group in front of us to finish, we continued the interview portion of our round:

                “So you seem pretty young?”

                “Yes, I’m twenty-five, just out of law school.”

                “So why do you want to join Dion and Johnson anyway?”

                “Well, I’ve always been interested in being a lawyer, fighting against the criminals who are deserving of their punishments. I love taking a stance and fighting for that stance, and I know you guys do that every day in your cases, so I want to join you guys and continue what I love to do.”

                “That sounds like the person we need. So, what are some things that you can contribute to our firm so we can maintain our success?”

                “Well, I am a very good public speaker. Even if I don’t have the best argument, I can say it in a way that makes a lot of people, hopefully the jury, believe what is coming out of my mouth. Also, I’ve had a lot of experience in prosecuting, even though I am young. At my school, we used to have a mock trial every two and a half weeks, and I almost always was prosecuting. And most of the time, my team won the trial.”

                “Well that’s very good to know.”

We watched the group leave the eighth green, and we were able to continue our round.

About an hour later, we left the tenth hole on the course and drove towards the eleventh. A par three, but a very long par three, playing about two hundred yards on this day based on the scorecard attached to our cart. As the cart path turned left we gazed out and saw there was a water hazard between us and the green, and the green was severely uphill compared to the tee box. It seemed like the hole was going to play longer than what we thought it would play.

You trotted up to the tee, after a fantastic birdie at the last hole. You put the tee into the box with almost no fear appearing on your face, and then you place the ball right on top of it. You got up next to your ball, which what appeared to be a four iron, like I’ve seen you do all day, but then everything changed. Your backswing was choppy, your club head finished by your left shoulder, and your swing bottomed out four inches behind the ball. Your club jerked up, barely tapping the top of the ball, which ultimately rolled fifteen yards and slipped into the pond. I would have added another piece of equipment into that pond, but you reacted very differently:

                “Oh well,” you said as we were passing each other on the tee. “Not everything is going to go your way. Hmm, better luck next time.”

And after my shot, you did have better luck, standing up and hitting your next shot to six feet.

The round continued, with you playing fairly well and me looking like I’d never played a hole of golf in my life. As we played the last few holes, you tried to ask questions about the firm.

                On the sixteenth tee, ”So how many people work at the firm right now?”

                On the seventeenth fairway, “How many cases does the average lawyer work on throughout the year?”

                On the eighteenth fairway, “Does the firm offer many benefits?”

I answered these questions to the best of my ability, making you very sure of what you were getting yourself into. You stopped what you were doing every time I spoke, and I did the same for you. As we were finishing the round, it seemed that we were a perfect pair.

Putters in hand, we walked up to the eighteenth green, our final hole today. We both had similar twelve foot putts for par, and just like it had been all day, you made the putt.

                “Wow,” you said. “That was a tough putt; I can’t believe I made it.”

                I said back, “Nice shot.”

                “Good luck on yours,” you said, as you always did before my putts.

Even with the luck that you placed on my shot, I did not do great. I managed to three putt from the same spot as your putt, and I was about to explode on the green, but you had other plans:

                “Calm down, sir. It’s just golf.”

And even though that was so simple, it was so helpful, and surprisingly, I did not throw any clubs into the marsh in front of the green.

We got back to the cart, took off our hats, and connected through our hands.

                “I had a great time today,” you said as you gripped my hand with a lot of authority.

                “I did, too. I learned a lot about you and I hope you learned a lot about our firm.”

                “I sure did, sir.”

We drove the cart back to our cars. I dropped you off at your Corolla. I told you that I would call you over the weekend with the decision, since I still had one more interview to conduct. I also told you that the person I would choose would come into work on Monday. But as I drove away to drop off the cart, I knew, based on what I experienced on the course that day, who was coming into the office Monday morning.