why must you be so cruel
it is you I have devoted my life to

it is your waves, currents I want to rule

ride them like never before I will to 

when you make that shift
change that current
makes me crave a lift
makes my drive for success recurrent 

why must you do this to me
change the forces against me
it is so frustrating can’t you see
when all i want is the best me on the

maybe one day I’ll learn the way

the way to fly through the bay

A powerful and special place is where you learn and develop yourself. for me, this place is the tech booth. when I am there my brain just flicks a switch and I go into a completely different mode. 

I could feel the power if this place from the first time I came through that door. And I knew my life would never be the same. the second time I took the class I achieved my goal was elected stage manager. In this position I was the most important and influential person in the musical. I  spent my days in the booth with my headset on directing the lights, sound, and backstage crew. It is an experience I will never forget. The feeling I get when i sit in that chair and put on that headset in indescribable. And the countless lessons I’ve learned will go on to help me for years. I learned that the individual is not important and in order to pull of something incredible everyone has to work together. I also learned that when leading you need to earn the respect of the people or they will not work with you with all their energy. It is in the tech booth where I have learned many life lessons and fully experience the power of place.

A powerful and special place is where you learn and develop yourself. for me, this place is the tech booth. when I am there my brain just flicks a switch and I go into a completely different mode. 

I could feel the power if this place from the first time I came through that door. And I knew my life would never be the same. the second time I took the class I achieved my goal was elected stage manager. In this position I was the most important and influential person in the musical. I  spent my days in the booth with my headset on directing the lights, sound, and backstage crew. It is an experience I will never forget. The feeling I get when i sit in that chair and put on that headset in indescribable. And the countless lessons I’ve learned will go on to help me for years. I learned that the individual is not important and in order to pull of something incredible everyone has to work together. I also learned that when leading you need to earn the respect of the people or they will not work with you with all their energy. It is in the tech booth where I have learned many life lessons and fully experience the power of place.

 My Experience in Nature 

As I sit here above the wilderness I see nothing but peace. The powerful breeze howling through the trees drowning out the distant sound of the cars. As I look across the tree tops to the setting spring sun, I see the green buds starting to sprout, a reminder of the warm wether yet to come. This makes me think back too the time before cars, before these computers. Where there is nothing but nature and humans lived a simple, peaceful life. 

Childish Trends

Economy, the introduction to Henry David Throeaus book Walden, is filled with many worthy arguments. His arguments about clothing are, in my opinion, more true today then when he wrote it. His arguments state that we do not need all these new cloths and material goods. He takes about how people think all these new cloths and things will make them happier when in reality it’s just a waste of time and money. 

In Walden he talks about his experience living with minimal belongings. He explores how people spend their whole life working towards getting a nice house and lots of fancy, expensive belongings thinking that it will make them a better person, when in reality it does not make them happy at all. He believes that people could all live without all these fancy clothes, houses, and belongings and still be happy. We, as humans lived happily without them for thousands of years so why do we need them now? 

“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.The childish and savage taste of men and women for new patterns keeps how many shaking and squinting through kaleidoscopes that they may discover the particular figure which this generation requires today. The manufacturers have learned that this taste is merely whimsical. Of two patterns which differ only by a few threads more or less of a particular color, the one will be sold readily, the other lie on the shelf, though it frequently happens that after the lapse of a season the latter becomes the most fashionable.” 

He also explores how the trends lead to many unnecessary purchases from people thinking that that new shirt will make them a better, more popular person. 

I believe that this is ever more true today then when he wrote Walden. With the creation of the internet these trends travel all across the world in minutes. And anyone can get their hands on anything online. This makes shopping so effortless, all it takes is a click to get new and trendy clothing and other material. The big fashion companies and factories that he dislikes so much are no longer based in Lowell but they are large multi continental Corporations using the cheap labor in developing countries to make clothing and materials for these overnight trends. I often see these trends in effect at this school. Fenn is full of trendy clothing that is craved by its wealthy population today but will be laughed upon tomorrow. If you look to the middle school you will see absurd amounts of overpriced, unpractical clothing. They are walking around with $300 headphones and shoes, all of which will be placed in their permanent position in the bottom of their closet in a few months. They will be replaced by newer, equally expensive versions which will also only be used for a few months. 

Thoreau said he learned nothing from his elders, so it’s ironic how I'm here 300 years later, exploring the truth from him, my elder. 

Simplify, simplify, simplify, -Henry David Thoreau 

I believe that their are three main necessities in life. The first is filling your day with things that you love and things that make you feel useful and accomplished. Feeling the sun and salt on your face as you fix a broken rudder out on the water right after feeling that rush of pride from success at school or work. The second is filling your life and home with people you love. Whether you chose to fill it with your family, your friends, with a dog or with solitude these people should be the ones that make you the happiest and fill your home with joy, laughter and happiness. The third is the purge of material greed. When you are not spending valuable time and energy looking for temporary pleasure in objects it allows you to be a happier person in the long term. It will allow you feel complete and contempt with the life you have and not have the urge to rely on happiness and pleasure from outside sources you will be abale to find it within.

Fall:

 Halloweens winds

Blowing the last leaf

Off the massive oak tree

The crisp dry air

Reminds me

Of the approaching winter

The famous New England trees

With their falling leaves 

Making me clean them out of my boat 

The masive oak tree

Towering over my house and yard

 leaves falling like rain

These are my first set of poems. I made sure to keep the focus on nature and my experiences of fall. I used many of  Fitzs poems as examples for mine. 

Summer:

The intense sun falling upon me

I’m already red, and crispy

 But I don’t care 

It’s time for the water

Time for the wind

Time for the sailing 

I’m finally free

The shackles of school 

No longer hold me

The days are long 

and filled with bugs 

But the sun, wind, and water keep me happy

These ones about summer are focused on the ocean and sailing. This is because that is what my summers are full of and that is my main passion. In addition I kept my focus on nature. 

Spring:

Birds chirping  from the trees

frogs croaking from the water

spring has come

When the buds appear 

and the trees turn green

spring has come

when the grand mats get rolled up

and the singlets say goodbye

spring has come

I can hear the birds chirping 

feel the intense spring sun

and smell the flowers blooming

In these spring poems I tried to use the same general set up in all of them to create a set of United poems designed to be read together. Like the others I kept the syllables all spread out and they are focused on nature with exception of the one on Wreseling. 

Winter:

when the garage fills up

and the shrink rap shrinks 

you know winter is coming

it is Christmas Day

And the first snow falls

putting the icing on the cake that is winter

when the snow falls hard

and shows no sign of stopping 

we pray for a snow day

as the old lift creeps up the mountain 

I look over the snow heavy pines

onto the Fresh powder

these I found to be the hardest. Partly because I am not a huge fan of winter. Party because I’m rushed and not in the mood. But nonetheless I am done. Like the rest I kept the focus on nature and my view of it

You Are Watching The Sun

The one poem that I connected with the most was You Are Watching the Sun.  This timeless poem with its metaphoric connection to a broken bike and it’s priceless ability to make me reminisce of the time I’ve spent looking over buzzards bay on a warm, windy summer evening. It reminds me of young me launching my Optimist through the muddy, sandy, beach. Seeweed brushing against my bare legs, all exited for a long day sailing in the classic buzzards bay sea breeze. That is the place this poem takes me. 

Economy 

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” -Henry David Thoreau 

It was just another English class and I was hoping that fitz would just continue with the nothingness of poems that we have been doing for the past week. But then disaster struck, he whipped out Thoreau’s book Walden and started reading Economy. Oh god I remember thinking, not this again not another one of these old writers from this town that all the old people are obsessed with. 

But as we continued and started to read Economy, the quotes started to get me into some me deep thought, contemplating life and the true meaning of it. My brain was on a Wild quest trying to find the meaning of life itself a task which has no simple meaning or easy answer. And that is the beauty of Thoreau, his work makes you think and ponder some of life’s most challenging ideas and think about what you really want in this life. 

When he said:

“I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inher– ited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labor in. Who made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres, when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born?”

I totally agreed. They have no option, no choice about what they do in life. How can one be happy when their life is decided for them? 

This I can relate to. In this world I feel so much pressure for success. My dad and his father went to Dartmouth and hbs and got a good job and family. My sister got straight As through brown, my brother is on his way to the Olympics and I am lost. I am not a hard working scholar with all As like my sister and I have not achieved the same successes on the water as my brother. This makes me wonder where do I fit in? How can I look across the table on thanksgiving an not be intimidated? Where will i find my success? And will it make me happy?

Foils Cutting through the salty waves

Sails cutting through the salty air

My mind focused on the task ahead

My Body alert and unbothered by the waves crashing over the bow and onto me, 

My eyes in pain and watering from the salty waves that managed to get through my salt crusted sunglasses 

It is here I am happiest 

Zipping through the water

Soaking in the sun and salt

——————————————

When the snow starts to melt,

And the birds start to chirp

And the boats come out of their hybaration

I know the time has come

Time for adventure,

Time for enjoyment 

Time for passion 

Time to say hello to the sun

Hello to the salt 

And hello to the cool cape cod breeze