Slow Down (a poem)

I have recently found a love in poetry. Not all poetry, but some. I like the kind of poetry that has a rhythm and flow. A poem with meaning, even if it's not apparent at first.

I want to share one of my favorite poems with you. I read it about a year ago on a blog. And it's been one of my favorites ever since.

Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short
The music won't last.

Do you run through each day on the fly
When you ask 'How are you'?
Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done
Do you lie in bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?

You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told your child
We'll so it tomorrow?
And in your haste
Not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say 'Hi'

You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short
The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry
Through you day.
It's like an unopened gift...Thrown away.

Life is not a race
Do take it slower.
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

This was written by a young girl terminally ill with cancer. Take the time to read it, it's worth the read.

Heir Apparent

First, I'm SO sorry about disappearing for a week. I was over in Portland for Regionals. It was a blast! I had so much fun and met so many new people.

Second, don't be mad at me. I know it's another book review, but my goal is to review half the books I read. And I'm not keeping up with that goal. ;D

Here I present to you the review of 'Heir Apparent' by Vivian Vande Velde:

About the book: In the future video games get WAY cooler. Instead of watching the game on a screen, you are part of the game. You hear the sounds, smell the smells, and feel the annoyance of dieing over and over again. ☺

Giannine Bellisario, the main character, is just a normal girl. But in the video game, heir apparent, she becomes a heir to the thrown. Her goal? To become that heir...without dieing. Sounds easy? It isn't.

What's ever worse, After some weird crazy people come and damage the gaming equipment, Giannine gets stuck in the game. So it's win the game, or start over, and over, and over, and over, and over...

There's just one catch, she has to win before her brain has an over load of video gaming. So it's not just finish, it's finish quickly.

My thoughts:
Not a very original plot, but Vivian is such a great writer. Mind you I would not pick up all of her books, but this one is good.

The characters were well written. I could easily picture them in my mind through out the book. Like I said above, the plot wasn't very original but Vivian has a really good writing style.

I loved the fact that most of the video game characters got to be bad guys one way or another. Giannine approaches the game in so many different ways, it aloud a lot of the characters to change in how they acted.

Page number: 315

Genre: Sci-fiction/Fantasy

Recommend for ages: +14

Bad stuff: Occasional language. One of the characters that pops up, around the end of the book, is dressed REALLY immodestly and uses it to get what she wants. And then some violence. Nothing detailed or gory. But she does get killed, in the game, over and over again.

Romance: None that I can recall.

Recommendation: I would have to give it a three out of five due to things that didn't need to be added to the book.

Vivian has some great books out there, it's just trying to find them. I will be doing a review of one that I whole heartily recommend, 'The Rumpelstiltskin Problem'.

Any comments or questions. I would LOVE to hear or answer them.

Quote by Laura Wilder

"I'm beginning to learn that the sweet, simple things of life are the real ones after all."

-Laura Wilder

A Limitless Book

I dreamt a limitless book,
A book unbound,
Its leaves scattered in fantastic abundance
On every line there was a new horizon drawn,
New heavens supposed;
New states, new souls.”
–Clive Barker