It's been a while...

Welcome to February 2013.  We hope to be more active this year, so stay tuned.

Some updates:

• Bookworm recently won a national Scholastic writing competition.  She was one of six winners out of over 3,000 applicants.  Let's all say congratulations!  Here's the link the her winning story.
• Thirsty has been quietly trying to read several books for a leadership training program.  He also continues to excel at Toastmasters International.
• Lady Grey has published several papers in medical journals over the past couple of years  and continues to submit regularly.
• We inducted Little Hulk into the Society as a junior member.  He only attends as desired and he'd rather play Mario or watch superhero cartoons than join us for most meetings.  However, he satisfies the criteria for membership, as he can now read.

At our most recent meeting (tonight), we presented short poems (3 lines or more).  Lady Grey slacked off and wrote hers at the last minute, but the other two are more thoughtful.

Bookworm's:

When the green grass

Blows and the skylarks sing

Kites soar high

Decorated with bling

The eagles follow up with

A soar and a shout

We want freedom, come on, let me out.

Thirsty's:

Eureka on an Airplane

A hybrid Haiku-Senryu by Thirsty

From high above Earth

The fifty-thousand foot view

Mountains are humbled

Lady Grey's:

Ironman, Ironman

Why can't you be Superman?

Antman, Antman

He ain't no Batman.

Our next assignment is to work on our Black Cat stories that we started a few years ago.  See you in a month or so.

Our 2010 Proceedings

We finally compiled our 2010 poems, drawings, and comics and included the recipes the Lady Grey has been compiling for years. She has many more, but we'll add that to next year's proceedings. We are happy to present to you:


Proceedings of The Black Cat Literary Society 2010

Feel free to print copies for yourselves, if you like, and by all means, enjoy the recipes. We think they are mighty tasty.

We will meet again in two week.

Cheers!

Poems for the Winter

We met January 21, after a long winter break. Christmas, birthdays, Disneyland, and sadly, a funeral marked these long weeks.

During this meeting, we presented poems that we wrote. Bookworm appended a song she wrote with additional lyrics:

Wintry Wintry Weather

Wintry, wintry weather
Brings us all together
Oh Oh Oh Ohh Oh Oh

Hot chocolate and bed
Rest your sleepy head
Oh Oh Oh Ohh Oh Oh

Songs and Christmas cheer
Pretty brown deer
Oh Oh Oh Ohh Oh Oh

Family and friends
Fun never ends
Oh Oh Oh Ohh Oh Oh

Thirsty wrote the following poem:

Winter Poem

Winter wind nips at the
Pine tree's evergreen needles.
Clear and crisp the wind
Bites my ears and nose.
Dark clouds ride in on the breeze.

The air turns gray.
Maybe it will snow.

Lastly, Lady Grey wrote this solemn poem:

The Dark Hours

Fall brings death and rotting leaves
Life falls to the ground at the season's command.
Next, winter brings its grey cloak and covers the Earth with stillness and sorrow.
The chill thrusts its bony fingers into all that dares to live.
Slowly the wind attempts to push away the emptiness of winter
and faint green tries to reappear, not always successful.
At last, faint buds sprout anew,
bringing with them hope and some semblance of order.
The dark hours lose their grip and resort to hibernation until next time.

Goblins are coming

This week we discussed the story "The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde" which was about an evil princess who captured her suitors and turned them into beautiful beads that she wore on a necklace around her neck.

Our new assignment is to read the poem, "Goblin's Market" by Christina Rossetti, which we will discuss in two weeks.

In honor of Constitution Day, during our meeting, we developed the Constitution of the Black Cat.

We the Cats of the Black Cat Literary Society endeavor:

1. To respect other people's ideas.
2. To not laugh at other people unless it is meant to be humorous.
3. To only meet if everyone has completed the assignment.
4. To be inclusive of all members during all Society activities.
5. To always do our best work.
6. TO HAVE FUN!

Signed,
Bookworm, Thirsty, and Lady Grey

Illustrations for Our Club

Bookworm drew three pictures for our club. Here,

this cat is having a hard time expressing himself.

Bookworm said these people are not angry--they are deep in thought about what they are going to write.

Bookworm's final submission.

Lastly, Thirsty, submitted this drawing.

Enjoy!

Acrostic poem week

Over the last two weeks, contrary to the assignment you saw from last time, we wrote acrostic poems. Here they are:

Bookworm:

Cat

Careful

As quiet as a mouse.

Tarantula spotted!

Thirsty

Daughter

Dearest Daughter,

Astounding,

Unerring,

Good-

Hearted,

Terrifically

Energetic,

Rarest Love.

Lady Grey

Name #1

Lady Grey is an

Awesome pen name.

Don't

You agree?

Girls everywhere are

Responding to it with

Envy and

Yearning.

Name #2

Luscious

And

Dramatic

You

Garner

Reactions

Everywhere,

Yes?

Since Lady Grey and Thirsty went to New York City without Bookworm last week, we decided to postpone the story assigned and instead wrote these acrostic poems. Therefore, this week we will read the story, "The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde" by Mary de Morgan.

Some exciting news:

Lady Grey found out that she will have two technical papers published in the next few months! Very exciting.

Thirsty submitted an article to a local sports magazine about his experience with running and Lyme Disease. Several years ago, after some extremely scary symptoms that occurred off and on for several years, he was diagnosed with Lyme Disease. He was afraid that he would never be able to run again, but luckily he was able to overcome the disease and strengthen his body and affected joints and resume running again. He even completed a full marathon!

Bookworm won second place in a talent competition in her after-school program for reciting a beautiful poem that she wrote about a year ago.

Cheers,

BCLS

Haiku and a reading: last two meetings

Bookworm wrote a haiku for the August 6th meeting.

Masks and spooky cats

Halloween is very fun

Trick or treat, eat up!

The rest of us just found haikus and read them out loud. We were also assigned to read "How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin" by Rudyard Kipling for discussion. Our favorite quote is the sloka (which isn't really quite a sloka) that the Parsee man recites:

"Them that takes cakes

Which the Parsee man bakes

Makes dreadful mistakes."

Next time we will discuss "The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde" by Mary de Morgan.

Cheers,

BCLS