Elements of Style

"Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style."

Kurt Vonnegut

"The words of the wise prod us to live well. They're like nails hammered home, holding life together. They are given by God, the one Shepherd."

Ecclesiastes 12:11

The Message

     Oh, the power twenty-six letters can wield. Writers know that it is the arrangement of the words which constitutes style- the writer's voice. Trinity students are seeking their voice and I am blessed to hear their early notes.

Maddie's Ability to Drown Out Noise

Madeline Keller

I struggle deeply

to focus

on things like

Math, Science, and Art

when people 

never stop talking

to leave me alone

with my thoughts.

A Prose Poem

Carly McGirt

     A long time ago there was a lady I knew who had cancer and was in the hospital for weeks. She had cancer and she died. My family and I prayed for her and I would always comfort, protect, feel sorry and show her love. She was one of my favorite people. I loved her like I love almost everyone the way they are. I really cared about her. I would take care of her while she was laying peacefully in the hospital dying. I started to cry because it's sad when people or animals die and I loved her so much. She was happy, good hearted and she loved the Lord, like me. She would always make me smile and feel joy. My family and I would go and visit her. She died from cancer. But she is peacefully with our awesome God.

My Love

John Chirchirillo

Love is painfully dry

but also moist, in a wonderful matrimony of

flour, berries, and sometimes chocolate.

From flat to puffy.

From England to France.

Scones and crepes are my love.

I Love You

Sophia Kalyuzhnaya

Funnel cake filled my festive mood,

when I saw you I went right to the counter

smiling.

I powdered that powdered sugar,

oh how I adore.

I make then I bake.

My love for funnel cakes is extraordinary.

Just the juicy, oily but delicious pieces of the

whole thing

make me happy.

Especially when you are accessorized with strawberries and ice

cream.

Oh, how I only

see you in carnivals, circuses, and festivals,

let's find each other.

We will be together one day, I promise.

I love you,

funnel cakes.

Poem

Alexander Jones

Two lovers, once young and lively, had now come far from delicious, flavorful bread. They sat in the toaster too long. They were now nothing but burnt toast. They popped out of the toaster oven after about twenty years, and they were both rock solid. They had been there for so long that they had nowhere to go. They were stuck with each other, burnt and still burning.

Love

Aaron McPeak

Love is hard and crunchy,

love is soft.

Love is cooked on a skillet,

love is brown.

Love is delicious.

Love is

bacon.

Untitled

Isaac Catchatoorian

Precariously opening her heart

scars that will hopefully fade

she has been fearful from the start

looking for the one God has made

lonely here and there

just one more chance would be fair

Untitled

Nick Miller

in the sun's glare

I was laying in the grass,

thinking, and sleeping.

looking at the clouds and wondering,

'how was the world created?'

Who was the creator?

and I wonder if the are happy with the

world.

Love

Jake Dudzik

Love is like a chocolate bar.

It tastes good

but it makes you lose control

when you have had too much.

With its milk chocolate outside

and wafer filling inside,

you are sure to have a sugar rush.

So much love

and so much chocolate

in this world.

But not everyone likes it.

This is the End

By Elizabeth Hemingway

This is the end

I can see it now

My death is upon me

My heart starts to pound

Im thirsty

Im hungry

But theres no food or water in sight

This is the end

I can see a bright light

I look up at my captor

And I then i start to beg

For him to grant me mercy

But he just shakes his head.

I fall to the floor

For sure I am finished

Then my captor says "Get up son"

"Youve only been in timeout for ten minutes."

The Aplomb of Error

"We must not say every mistake is a foolish one."

Cicero

106-43 BC

     The water that artists traverse appears calm, even serene to the untrained eye. But to the artist, the water is swift, seething with secrets that want to be found. Whitewater. The painter cries, "Canvas!", the sculptor, "Marble!" For the writer, the water is paper. Blank, white paper. Every writer needs this maxim:

"Don't be afraid of mistakes."

Sounds simple? Maybe. But, until you've stared at the white, unable to write the letter 'A', the simplicity of the maxim is not your reality. It is my joy to guide a group of young writers through the whitewater. For them, the maxim is becoming reality.

Lacking Aplomb

Time sprints by through ticking

not one's but 2's scratch

The proctor's pointed heels begin clicking

her steady gait causes fear to hatch

Lacking aplomb, frantic thoughts start sticking

Essay prompts go by in a flash

pencils skate across answers at a mad dash

Judgment turns strongly toward rash

TIME! 

Katie Metz

A Six-Word Sentence

by Izak Gainor

Love is the most prehensible subject.

Love Hole

Love is like a hole.

You don't choose it,

you fall into it.

You don't decide about love,

when you fall into the hole

The hole called love.

Sometimes you can't get out.

Jack Radford

Here is the story we read in class this week:

A Tale of Two Brothers

Genesis, Chapter Four, Verses 1-16

from The Message

     Adam slept with Eve his wife. She conceived and had Cain. She said, "I've gotten a man, with GOD's help!" Then she had another baby, Abel. Abel was a herdsman and Cain a farmer. Time passed. Cain brought an offering to GOD from the produce of his farm. Abel also brought an offering, but from the firstborn animals of his herd, choice cuts of meat. GOD liked Abel and his offering, but Cain and his offering didn't get his approval. Cain lost his temper and went into a sulk. GOD spoke to Cain: "Why this tantrum? Why the sulking?

If you do well, won't you be accepted? And if you don't do well, sin is lying in wait for you, ready to pounce; it's out to get you, you've got to master it." Cain had words with his brother. They were out in the field; Cain came at Abel his brother and killed him. GOD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "How should I know? Am I his babysitter?" GOD said, "What have you done! The voice of your brother's blood is calling to me from the ground.

From now on you'll get nothing but curses from this ground; you'll be driven from this ground that has opened its arms to receive the blood of your murdered brother. You'll farm this ground, but it will no longer give you its best. You'll be a homeless wanderer on Earth." Cain said to GOD, "My punishment is too much. I can't take it! You've thrown me off the land and I can never again face you. I'm a homeless wanderer on Earth and whoever finds me will kill me." GOD told him, "No. Anyone who kills Cain will pay for it seven times over." GOD put a mark on Cain to protect him so that no one who met him would kill him. Cain left the presence of GOD and lived in No-Man's-Land, east of Eden.

Students were asked to write character descriptions of the two brothers.

 Here is Katie Metz's-

Cain- Taller than average height, he nurtured a growing sense of self importance and entitlement. It took years to develop his keen understanding of growing produce. He views himself as a leader.

Abel- Average in all areas of life except his superb ability to read the emotions in people. Inadvertently, he caused much of the angst in Cain's life.

This week, we also discussed Ernest Hemingway's advice to writers:

          1. Use short sentences.

          2. Use short first paragraphs.

          3. Use vigorous English.

          4. Be positive, not negative.

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."

Ernest Hemingway

Words of the Day

(click on word for definition)

nyctophobia

thanatopsis

sepulchral

lyard

zeal