Nature Portfolio Assignment

Man´s Best Friend

They said it wasn’t possible to buy loyalty.

They said it was impossible to buy love.

“Wrong,” I said.

Because it was given to me

In just one small package.                                                    [5]

Man´s best friend.

She’s part of my family,

Like a sister in fact.

She´s there every time,
Whether they’re the bad times or the good;                         [10]

She’s there.

Man´s best friend.

She doesn´t talk back to me

When I chastise her.
She just listens.                                                                   [15]

Man´s best friend.

I always get that warm and fuzzy feeling

When I hug her.

Love, is what they call it.

Man´s best friend.                                                              [20]

She doesn’t complain or offend.

She just obeys commands and behaves.

Man´s best friend.

She welcomes me at the door

Every single day                                                                 [25]

Like if she waits next to the door

All ten and a half hours that I´m gone

Just for my arrival.

Man´s best friend.

And she appreciates everything little thing                            [30]

I give her no matter if it’s a pat on the back

Or a chew toy.

Her goal is to keep me happy.

You can tell by the way she’s always by my side.

Man´s Best friend.                                                             [35]

She never gets annoying.

Sometimes it feels like she knows me

More than I know myself.

She knows exactly when I need company
And when I need to be alone.                                             [40]

Man´s best friend.

She’s the whole package

She’s love,

Happiness,

Loyalty,                                                                             [45]

And my best friend.

Her name is Pekis.

And I wouldn’t trade
Her for anything.

The Most Beautiful Butterfly

It was December 24, 2011; right on the nick of time before Christmas; and my family and I were barley going to go buy our synthetic Christmas tree. We thought that the only trees left were going to be small and ugly but after hours of looking for a decent tree we found the perfect one for the special day. It was bright green and thick. The tree seemed as if it were glowing. We took it home and set it up. It was I who found something hiding from the light in the middle of the tree. It was a small cocoon. I had never experienced an actual live cocoon before. I had always seen them on TV and books but never in person. It was brown with a tint of boring gray. It was about an inch tall and about a centimeter and a half thick. The shape of it was so perfect and the way the layers were made it seem as if it were factory made. I was mesmerized and I didn’t tell anyone fearing that my parents would belabor the thought and think it wasn’t healthy to have in the house or that it was some alien creature.  

That night all I could think about was if there was something alive in there or dead and if whatever type off butterfly was in there was going to divulge itself sometime or not. I became very curious and started to get negative thoughts inside of my head. I thought to myself how a caterpillar could become a butterfly in the middle of winter in Chicago. Was it really possible for it to actually live? It wasn´t that long when till I got an answer.

It was the day after New Year’s Day and something magical had happened. It was a moment that I will never forget. I saw rebirth without it being actual birth.

I was sitting next to the Christmas tree texting some friends that day and a sudden crunchy noise had caught my attention. Without any emotions I looked towards the noise and saw the cocoon swinging a little. I felt my heart light up immediately to the thought that something beautiful was about to happen. The cocoon looked so thick and light at the same time and the butterfly seemed to be handling it so easily but taking its time. I just stood there watching it happen. I saw something black with yellow come out; it was a wing and then another. It happened so quickly as if this occurrence had flashed right before my eyes.  

It was inside the cocoon one second and the other it was on the tree starting to dry its wings. At first, it didn´t look like a butterfly. It looked like some weird alien looking creature with antennas. The wings were black with yellow and white dots on the edges. The butterfly closed her wings and they looked like owl eyes underneath. I had never seen such a perfect miracle like this one before. Beautiful, was the fact that I had a butterfly for a pet. I named it Hope.

(524)

Terrifying Weather

It was the third time I had gone to Mexico and it was the middle of summer of 2004. I was companied by my grandparents, both my brothers, and 2 of my cousins. One would expect to have sunny, warm and simple beautiful weather in the summer especially in Mexico but it was the complete opposite that one night.

The day had started off like any other summer day: clear skies, birds chirping, the sound of children playing outside, and the sun shining bright.  I remember myself even lying under the sun just listening to my surroundings. Everything seemed normal and joyful.  Hours later, around 5 P.M., the skies suddenly became gray without a warning and I couldn’t even hear the sound of children playing or birds chirping. Thinking it was already late, I went inside to watch Spider-Man. I became aware that it was barley 5 shortly after and thought about it but didn’t think about it. It came to mind for about 2 seconds and then the thought of the sudden weather arrangement left my mind in hurry.

It began to rain pretty hard around 6 and all I thought was, “it’s just rain,” and, “wow this rain smell is inhalable.” I stood next to the window next to my bed for about 2 hours just watching the rain pour and pour nonstop. It was amazing how so much water could fall from the sky so quickly.  “I wonder why God is crying so much,” I asked myself and with that I fell into deep sleep along with my brothers and cousins.

I woke up 5 hours later in which felt like 5 minutes. I had been awoken by loud thunder. The only people in bed around me were one of my cousins and one of my brothers.  I figured they had gotten up before me. A large lightning bolt along with thunder struck close by. I jumped in fear and ran out of the room without looking back. Luckily, I bumped into my nine year old cousin. I had never been so happy to see him in my entire life. I hugged him tightly. He saw how frightened I was and walked me to my grandparents. They were both next to the door looking outside. They said that it had been years since a storm like this one had happened and how weird it was for it to have happened in the middle of summer.

I sat next to them and watched the rain pour down. It was about 4 or 5 inches of rain.  Never in my life have I seen so much rain. The rain didn’t give up; it still kept pouring like rain there would be no more.  Then lightening companied by thunder took part too. I would hear thunder from my left and see bright white and yellow and blue lightning come from the right. The lightning seemed to come out of nowhere. The skies were completely smoky black. It looked like the clear skies and sun had been captured and hidden forever without hope of them coming back.

I wondered if it was near its end. Then all of a sudden it was silent outside. There was neither thunder nor rain drops. Everything had vanished except for the dark and mysterious skies. Moments later something unexpected came from the sky. It looked like piece of ice or salt. Then another, and another, then lots of them fell from above. It was hail and it seemed completely fine at first because the hail came in bean sized pieces but then after a minute or so it came down harder. The roof sounded like it was being attacked by hundredths of crows one after the other. The hail got bigger. They hail pieces were as big as two grapes put together. Everyone in the house that was awake backed a foot away from the door. It came to the point where thre3 four inch hail pieces fell from the sky. They were the biggest I had ever seen before. Everything became silent again and then thunder once more. This time it was harder than ever. It was just thunder. All electricity wen away in a celerity after the hail stopped.  My grandma set up three candles. She held one, and put the other two across the room on opposite sides.  Everything was dark and barely visible thanks to the candles. Not even the moon light had a sign of existing at the moment. The thunder sounded like big bangs on bass drums. BOOM! The thunder lasted for another five minutes when I checked the time on my grandpa’s watch. It was 3 AM. I had spent another 2 hours staring outside and I was not sleepy whatsoever. I wasn’t sure if I wasn’t sleepy because I was scared, because of mother nature’s noise, or because I just wasn’t sleepy. But what I do know is that I had perfect timing. Right away when I looked up from looking at the watch an incendiary bright yellow bolt of lightning struck down right in front of me. It hit the guava tree and it caught on fire. It was one of the scariest things I had seen.  It happened so fast too. First I see darkness, then yellow and then fire. I was sad that the guava tree was on fire but fortunately it began to rain again. It caused the fire to fade out and the guava tree was fine. I was actually happy that the rain had come back.

After seeing all this excitement and experiencing new things about nature I became tired and sleepy. I showed off my expressions by yawning and asking my cousin to walk me to the room. As he did, I rested in bed and shut my eyes. I slowly heard the rain and thunder fade away slowly and before in knew it I was dreaming about being at the beach.

(992)

The Marbles

A long time ago before the earth became existent, there lived 3 kids. Their names were Sandra, Jack, and Daniel. They were close friends and coherent to each other. They all lived together in what one may call paradise. Everything was perfect and they had everything they needed. The flowers blossomed in bright colors, the skies always clear and sunny, the animals around them harmless, and they had ever kind of vegetable and fruit to keep them healthy and strong. Nothing ever went wrong as long as they obeyed their master, the great and powerful Manji. He had powers that nobody else had. He had a cane that was considered a talisman because it would grant any wish he with just thinking of it. The great and powerful Manji Koala only asked for them all to follow the rules in the cane book especially rule number 1, which was the most important rule of them all. Rule number 1 read, “Do not let anything in the shape of a sphere hit the Quenchi River.”

The Quenchi River was very popular to everyone. It was their water source and everyone visited the well-known river at least 5 times a day. The friendly trio liked to play marble games on a hill right over the Quenchi River and one day something happened that changed their lives forever. Sandra, Daniel, and Jack were playing with their marbles. They were competing with each other to see who could make their marble go into a dirt hole the fastest. Sandra defeated Jack and Daniel and without thinking about her location, she jumped up and down. The marbles were shook by her poundings and rolled down the hill. Jack noticed them and tried to accost the marbles. They were heading directly to the Quenchi River! Everyone that noticed the 9 marbles rolling downhill tried their best to try to catch up to them but it was no use. Two marbles had fallen into the water and Jack caught up to the third marble but just managed to touch it after hitting the water. All nine marbles finally hit the water and everything became silent. Then a flash of light came out of the water right where the marbles had fallen. The marbles levitated into midair and it seemed as if it was growing. Everyone watched in awe until the great and powerful Manji Koala climbed down his tree. He became furious when he saw what had happened. There was nothing he could do for a can rule had been broken. “You fools! Do you notice what you have all done? It is the end! There is nothing I can do now. We have created something that we cannot stop. We have created planets,” exclaimed the great and powerful Manjin Koala.

The marbles became ten times bigger than their size every second. Everyone began to panic and then all of a sudden the planets got to the point that they were so big that the knocked everyone off including the Great and Powerful Mangi Koala. They thought all hope was gone, that it was the end as they fell. Until suddenly the fell on the third marble that had fell into the Quenchi River. That planet was named Earth. The first was named mercury, the second, Mars, the third, Earth, the fourth, Venus, the fifth, Jupiter, the sixth, Saturn, the seventh, Uranus, the eighth, Neptune, and the ninth, Pluto. They were aligned exactly in the order they had fallen and they looked exactly how the marbles did and Earth became their new home.

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Narrative Responses

The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls

            When I first read this poem I thought that it literally meant that the tide rises and that then it falls as in it goes back and forth. When I read, “The little waves… efface the footprints in the sands-,” I thought about how when I go to the beach the tide gets rid of my footprints as well. It was after putting my book away when I realized I wasn’t looking at the actually picture. I was looking at the small pictures that lead to the big picture. I felt really dumb when I realized the tide signified time and how it does the same thing over and over again even if the traveler never comes back. I liked how Henry Wadsworth Longfellow describes the foam of the waves as white hands. They aren’t actual hands but it gives a small idea of a hand actually washing away the footprints as if they were never there. The actual message that this poem was trying to tell me was that nature goes on doing its daily routine even if there is no one there to watch it. Death is something that happens to everyone and you never return to life again but nature (the tide) will not stop for anyone.

(210)

Grass

            When I first saw the Grass poem without reading it, I noticed how short it was. I thought to myself, “Oh, man. I am definitely going to have trouble understanding this.” But at the end I was wrong. It took me a while but I actually understood the message of this poem. The message was that the grass is like a type of decoration to all the disasters that we humans have made. The grass is a part of nature that somehow repairs all of the scars made in battles. We forget about the fallen heroes of wars too easily. We forget about all the people that died in wars trying to fight for us and it’s is true. You don’t see people today caring about people that died in war 10 years ago from today. It’s like we forget about the battles of the past and the lessons from history. It’s the reason why we make the same mistakes over and over again. The reasons for those wars are the same as the ones we first started with. When Sandburg says, “Shovel them under and let me work,” I think about someone actually working on something. The grass is referred to as a person covering up the dead with green.

(211)

The Earth on Turtle’s Back

            The Earth on Turtle’s Back, by Michael Caduto and Joseph Bruchac, was my favorite story in the Prentice Hall Literature book so far. I enjoyed reading about how the world came to be by just seeds and dirt on a turtle’s back. Caduto and Bruchac used mostly personification and metaphors to make this Native American story. For example, earths cannot grow on turtle’s backs and animals of course cannot talk in actual life. I would think that any other person that would read this story would take it seriously and just understand what it says but not me. I thought that this story was actually pretty funny without intention. Like when the pregnant woman fell her “grasp slipped off the tip of the branch, leaving her with only a handful of seeds as she fell, down, down, down, down.” At that part I imagined her falling and screaming and then stopping her scream to grab seeds and then screaming again until the swans come to her. This story made my head come up with a little movie about it with some behind the scenes parts that the story didn’t say. The Earth on Turtle’s Back helped my imagination blossom. When the pregnant woman fell down into the hole, it reminded me of Alice from Alice in Wonderland because Alice also falls down into a hole and ends up in a small adventure with animals and other creatures.

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When Grizzlies Walked Upright

            When Grizzlies Walked Upright and the Earth on Turtle’s Back, were similar because they were both myths and involved animals as having big parts in the stories. I found it cool how Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz had the imagination to create When Grizzlies Walked Upright. They don’t just explain how bears became to walk on all fours, but they also explain how the trees, rivers, and animals were created. They use good imaginary as well. When they said, “So he carved a hole in the sky with a stone and pushed all the snow and ice down below… known as Mount Shasta,” and also when the writers say, “Get down on your hands and knees. You have wronged me, and from this moment all of you will walk on four feet and never talk again,” you can actually picture the Chief of the Sky Spirits doing that.  These ideas of course doesn’t exist and cannot possibly be possible because there is no such thing as carving into the sky or telling dangerous animals what to do and them actually doing what you say. When the Chief of the Sky Spirits orders the bears to walk on all four, it reminds me of a story my grandma told me when I was four. I can’t remember it very well but I remember her saying that snakes used to have two legs and that an important woman was on a donkey and that a snake got to close to the donkey and alarmed it to freak out and drop the woman. God got mad at the snakes and made their legs disappear and that’s why snakes undulate today.

(276)

Walden

            This narrative was my second favorite because although it was somewhat Thoreau’s imagination, it was realistic and meaningful. Thoreau focuses mostly on simplicity. I had never thought about simplicity before. In his perspective simplicity is just the things one needs in life. He keeps it simple. When he first moves into the cabin in the woods in the winter, I thought was crazy. I mean it’s fine to move into the woods but not when it is “merely a defense against the rain, without paltering or chimney; [when it has] the walls being of rough weather stained boards, with wide chinks, which make it cool at night.” I could just feel the freezing weather at night when I read that sentence. Living in the woods, Thoreau also says, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” By this I think he meant that he just wanted to live the simple life. He just wanted what he needed and not become selfish and dependent like others in the world. This was wise of him because he was generous but I would never be able to survive in the woods like that by myself without heaters and stoves. Later he says, “I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to love and could not spare any more time for that one.” He knows that living in the woods isn’t all there is in life. He won’t fall in like other people have, as in the whole greedy and complex lives. Having less of something is like having more of it. For example, the poor people have the more than what rich people have. The poor people just have what they need and nothing more unlike the rich. The rich are spoiled and get whatever they want and whenever they want. The poor keep their lives simple.

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Atlantic Essay Responses

Divine Soil by John Burroughs, River Driftwood by Sarah Orne Jewett, and Walking by Henry David Thoreau, were the three Atlantic articles I read.  In my perspective, I found it pretty interesting how 3 completely different authors were all able to write about Nature and expand on their thoughts on it but yet be able to give out the same connection in different ways.

Out of the three essays I read, Walking was my favorite because it liked how Thoreau made it clear that one shouldn’t go walking for exercise but instead to appreciate and enjoy nature. Thoreau’s idea of walking is for one “to lose themselves… in the woods.” After reading this certain essay, I reminded about the movie Into the Woods. Chris and Thoreau had very similar thoughts about nature and society. Thoreau says, "To enjoy a thing exclusively is commonly to exclude yourself from the true enjoyment of it." This is very similar to Chris’ idea of happiness being shared.

While Thoreau focused more on nature and the get away from society, Burroughs essay The Divine Soil is more about the supernatural and how it affects nature. I was somewhat confused about this essay because I wasn’t very clear on what he was trying to say. It was like he was just writing what he thought. First he talks about how, “[people] never learn,” and the goes on talking about heaven and technically how we don’t appreciate nature because we have brought the account that nature is, “too cheap, too common, and too vulgar.” Then he begins to talk about spiritual roots and how they connect with nature. Burroughs says that the spiritual root conceptions “[do] not cheapen or degrade the spiritual,” and instead it elevates the material. The issue with this is that he never says whether what he talks about is bad or a good.

Burroughs also mentions existence and how things are linked together with survival. He connects the food we eat with the thought we think, the poem we write, or the picture we paint with the processes of digestion and nutrition similar to River Driftwood, by Sarah Orne Jewett.  Jewett begins with the food chain. Every time that a prey is consumed the consumer becomes a higher part of the chain. She also gives the idea that, “we are not certain what an angel may be; but the life in us now will be necessary to the making of one by and by.” I also thought that she tried giving the idea that consumers don’t exactly appreciate what we eat and we become what is eaten.

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