The Running Down...

The Running Down

Original Poem by Janelle Spiers

The year is coming

To a close.

The adding minutes;

steady, grows.

All the world

will gather soon

beneath the sky

of dark-night moon.

All the world

will hold their breath

As this year passes

into death.

A new shall come

and life goes on,

the steady ticking

of clockwork song.

Every year,

so much the same,

The days roll by

Like quiet game.

They always take me

by surprise,

When wide awake,

The time still flies.

The constant clicking

of the clock

It fits so well,

A key, her lock.

I shall not let

Time slip fast away.

I'll use each moment

of every day.

I'll take the road

less travelled on

And hear the 'tick'

of clockwork song.

The year is coming

to a close,

but next year,

It shall be a rose.

Ripe in bloom

and fully grown,

Seize that time

And make it known.

A new shall come,

and life goes on,

the steady ticking

of clockwork song.

  ...and life goes on//the steady ticking//of clockwork song.

Remember to Smile :)

Sometimes, life feels very hard, dull, or painful.  I think that every single human being has had some degree of sorrow in their life, from physical problems to the death of a loved one.  But sometimes, when life feels very hard, dull, or painful, we must learn to soften the blow, rile up the monotony, or soothe away the sorrow.  I think that every single human being has had some degree of hardship in their life, and one of the best ways to cure that hurt, I believe, is too laugh.  And so, I give you words that I hope will make you laugh, not my words, I'm not very funny, but other words.  Please, let yourself laugh today and may that sorrow pass away. 

"I have nothing to declare except my genius." - Oscar Wilde

"I have never killed anyone, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction." - Clarence Darrow 

 "I’m a nobody. Nobody is perfect; therefore, I’m perfect." - Anonymous 

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." - Napoleon Bonaparte

"I believe that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade...And try to find somebody whose life has given them vodka, and have a party."
- Ron White

"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month."
- Theodore Roosevelt

"Man cannot live by bread alone; he must have peanut butter."
- James A. Garfield

 "A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well." - Anonymous 

 A boy was laying on the grass and looking up at the clouds. He was identifying shapes when he decided to talk to God."God", he said, "how long is a million years?" God answered, "In my frame of reference, it's about a minute." The boy asked, "God, how much is a million dollars?" 
God answered, "To me, it's a penny." 
The boy then asked, "God, can I have a penny?" 
God answered, "In a minute."

A History Lesson

A History Lesson

Janelle Spiers

A man huddled over his desk, scribbling away at a dark piece of parchment.  The paper was wet with black ink and the room smelled of it.  Eventually, he sat back and crossed his arms, reading over the words he had written.  He nodded knowingly and took up his pen again, dipping it in the inkwell. 

At that moment, the door creaked open softly and a small head poked inside.  The man looked up at his son and smiled.  "Come in, son."

"Sorry, Dad.  I didn't mean to interrupt, I just wanted to see how the story is going."  The boy closed the door quietly behind him and hurried over to where his father sat writing.  

“Ah, well, it’s tiring work.  You see, son, the problem is that none of these little people do what I want them to do.  I created them with a willful mindset, and they sure are stubborn.” He said, rumpling his son’s dark hair.

“Why don’t you just make them behave?  Can’t you just tell them what to do?”  The boy asked with a hopeful gaze as he looked over the neatly formed letters.

“No, son, I cannot do that, for that’s not how I intended my little people to act.  I give them all a choice.  I will not force them to do anything against their will, although I try to remind them the right way.”

“Who are you writing about now?”  The boy asked, climbing up into his father’s lap. 

“Noah,” the man answered, taking up his pen again. “He’s still on the boat that he built and all the animals are getting restless. His wife has been grumbling and his sons are starting to get agitated with each other.”

“Dad, how much longer will you leave him on the boat?  Hasn’t he been on it for a long time?”

“Well, the rain has stopped already, but all that water has to go somewhere, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, dad, but…”

“What is it, son?”  The man asked, resting his chin on the boy’s head.

“I just don’t want Noah to sin because of his family.  He’s got to make a good new start to the world, right?  Can’t you help him, somehow?”

“What would you suggest?”

“I think you ought to send Patience to help him.  She could help him to be gentle with his grumbling wife and his grumpy sons.”

“That is a wonderful idea, son.  Here, you write it.”  The man handed his son the quill pen, fresh with dark ink.  The boy set the pen to the page and began to write in big, bold writing.  The man smiled as he read the boy’s words spread out across the parchment.

After a few silent minutes, the boy said, “How’s that, Dad?”

“It is good, son. Very good.”

The boy scrambled out of the man’s lap and looked up into his father’s face.  “I think Noah will do the right things, Dad.  He will behave.”

“I hope so, son.”

The boy ran out of the room and closed the door behind him, leaving his father alone with his pen and his thoughts.  He bent back over the page and smiled at his son’s writing compared to his own; they were exactly the same.  The father read over his work again, took up his pen, and began again to write...

Unintentional Success

Unintentional Success

Original Poem Written 

 By Janelle Spiers  

Dedicated to Lauren Spiers

I'm trying to write a poem,

But I don't know what to say.

I thought it ought to be profound,

Someone lost has now been found,

Or maybe something really sweet;

In a blissful glen two lovers meet.

Perhaps I'd write about a fight,

With bloodshed in the dark of night.

Or, I could write about a fawn,

A little doe out on the lawn.

But that wouldn't work, no indeed,

'Cause I can't find the words I need.

I wish there were a simpler route

To make my brain know what to say.

I'm so indebted to the guy

Who decided, by and by,

To make a button called, 'delete'

So I can have a new blank sheet.

Where are all the words inside

This funny little head of mine?

Where are all the useful rhymes?

They come and go at random times!

I don' know just what to say,

but, I'll keep trying, every day.

Yes, someday, I will write a poem,

Someday, I'll know what to say!

I'll write about a valiant knight

Who saves his damsel dressed in white.

Or a touching sonnet about love

The gentle beauty from above. 

I'm trying to write a poem, 

Though I don't know what to say. 

I'm wracking my brain,

And it is such a pain,

I'm trying to write a ... hey!

I think I wrote a poem anyway. 

The Touch of the Wind

Do you know what the Moon tastes like?  Do you know what a Rose sounds like? Do you know what the Wind feels like?  For that is the question of today, so let us discover, the Touch of the Wind. 


The wind is a mysterious beauty to me, for none have ever seen it, but only what it can do. The wind is ungraspable, however close it seems to fly across the world. I wish that I could see the frivolous sprite as it whispers in the trees.

What would wind look like if it were not so quick and invisible? I think it would be a wild girl who roams across the world, murmuring to the trees, dancing over the water, and tickling the birds' feathers.  Her hair would streak behind her with untamed curls and tangles, and her face would be as sweet as sugar. But when she grows angry, I imagine her face to grow terrible with rage and she would scream and shriek with howls of ferocity.  What angers the wind, I wonder?

I think that the perfume of the wind changes with her mood.  When she's gentle, the warm smell of apple pie baking in an oven, or french baguettes being sold on the street, float softly through the air.  When she's stormy or harsh, the scent of rain, snow, and sleet fill the world with her changing mood.

The wind sounds like a river, sometimes, bubbling and mumbling as she passes by carelessly, and at other times, she tries to talk loudly over the noise of city chaos or country cattle with loud, harsh breathing.  Maybe that is why the wind grows angry, because we take little notice of her until she bites and claws at our ears with icy screaming.  The wind is rather temperamental.

But what does the wind feel like?  When she slips past us, we feel nothing but moving air, but if time could slow, I think that she would feel much like a serpent; slick and scaly, but not at all rough or scratched.  The wind is a serpentine wisp dancing through air, telling secrets from foreign lands, and beckoning us into her invisible embraces.

So, there are my imaginings on the flighty spirit of wind. If she had a face, what would she look like? If she had a voice, what would she say?  If she had a texture, if you could reach out and touch her, what would the wind feel like?

“Come Fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame!”

~ William Butler Yeats

A Midsummer Night's Dream ~ A Book Review

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Book By William Shakespeare

Review by Janelle A. Spiers

“Ay me! for aught that ever I could read,

Could ever hear by tale or history,

The course of true love never did run smooth.”

~ Lysander, Act I, Scene I

“Over hill, over dale,

Thorough bush, thorough briar,

Over park, over pale,

Thorough flood, thorough fire,

I do wander everywhere…”

~ Fairy, Act II, Scene I

WARNING:  Please be aware that if you continue reading this Book Review, you may be subject to reading spoilers and or secrets of the original book.  However, all attempts shall be made to hide the crucial points, in the event that this review encourages you to read this book.  Any information divulged will be deemed by the author of this review necessary to the review, or, not capable of ruining any major surprise. 

            A Midsummer Night’s Dream, written by William Shakespeare, is one of the most famous plays in history.  Written in the late 16^th Century, the legacy of Shakespeare has endured through the ages, presenting to us a tale of desperate lovers, mischievous fairies, and a happy-ever-after ending.  A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a tale stamped into the mold of history and will continue to be a classic work of art through many more centuries to come.

            The story opens four days before the wedding of the Duke of Athens (Theseus) and his lady (Hippolyta).  When four young Athenian lovers get tangled in a wild mess of love and passion they head to the woods where the fairies live.  Unbeknownst to the Athenians, a fairy king and his queen reign in the forest with their envoys and at the time of the play, they are feuding with each other.  Oberon, king of the fairies, orders his fairy, Puck, to work some mischief amongst the lovers and his queen.  With the aid of a magic flower shot by Cupid’s arrow, Puck confuses the Athenian lovers and nearly causes bloodshed, meanwhile causing the Fairy Queen to fall in love with a man with the head of a donkey.  When Oberon was satisfied with his pandemonium, he set everything right as the sun rose.  All woke in a daze, claiming that the confusion of the night must have merely been a Midsummer night’s dream.

            Hermia: a main heroin, in love with Lysander, infamous for extreme passion and jealousy in her love life.

            Lysander: a main hero, in love with Hermia, then Helena, then Hermia again --

            Helena: a main heroin, in love with Demetrius, childhood friends with Hermia

Demetrius: a main hero, in love with Hermia and then Helena, known for his unwavering, though doomed love for Hermia

            Oberon: King of the Fairies, responsible for most of the chaos in the woods

            Titania: Queen of the Fairies, with a very stubborn attitude

            Puck: Servant of Oberon, the mischief-maker in the woods

The writing technique of William Shakespeare is in the play format, and so the story contains exits, entrances, and other basic play formations within the writing.  Also, the verses tend to rhyme at the end of each line, creating a fluid approach to the story. However, 16^th century English is very outdated and can be difficult to interpret or understand because of the archaic language. 

William Shakespeare lived and worked in England.  It is assumed that he was born in a town called Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, and he wrote his plays, performed, and partially owned a theater troupe called the King’s Men. His legacy is a bountiful assortment of histories, tragedies, and comedies, presented as plays, and also mysterious and unraveled sonnets to an unknown lady.

Shakespeare did not write in any other theme than that of love.  He has no moral for his story, and his characters suffer no consequences for any of their actions.  A Midsummer Night’s Dream is rather shallow for morality or a take-away theme to live or learn by. 

The word hell is mentioned once by Hermia, and due to the plot line, a man with a donkey head is referred to as an ass.  The language is mild, but the romance is not.  Though there is no sexual or inappropriate interaction between characters, there is passionate love, jealous love, and fickle love circulated throughout the lines of the play and creates long conversations about their unfailing, undying, never-ending love.  Virginity is mentioned a few times, but no graphic or overly discussed topics appear.  There is also no death and barely any violence.  During a play (within the play), blood is seen, but due to the ridiculousness of the drama, it is impossible to take seriously. 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, continues to be one of the most famous of Shakespeare’s works, one of his comedies full of mischief, adventure, and unexpected surprises.  Without a doubt, A Midsummer Night’s Dream has made an impact on the world of literature and theater.  From the 16^th century to the 21^st century, this play continues to influence and excite the readers and actors of today’s world.

(Based on a rating system entirely made up of pros and cons, I judge by different categories to ensure that the reader of this review can aptly choose if this book is an appropriate for themselves or others.)

Theme ~ Negative! (For no apparent theme)

Plot Line ~ Positive! (For memorable and original ideas)

Characters ~ Positive! (For memorable and now-famous characters)

Writing Quality ~ Negative! (For archaic language and poor comprehensibility)

Mature Content ~ Negative! (For topics that may be unsuitable for a young or sensitive audience.)

Congruency ~ Positive! (For consistency in plot, characters, and quality)

The total score for A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare is 3 out of a possible 6 positive points.

Happy Birthday, To a Childhood Hero!

Tomorrow, December 5, is the birthday of one of the most famous names in the history of cinema.  No, he's not a poet or a novelist or a classic character that one would expect to find on this blog.  He is responsible, however, for creating one of the most iconic characters in all of animation and  creating a world so famous that people everywhere know of it.

Can you guess who it is?

Tis the famous Walter Elias Disney, commonly known as Walt Disney, or just his last name which has been a popular brand of movies, merchandise, and magic.  I chose Disney to celebrate because of the massive legacy he left us through his animated films, which I have enjoyed since my early childhood.  So without further ado, applause for Disney: cheers for his life, celebrating for his brilliance, and thanks for his willingness to share his wonderful ideas.

"A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive."

"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island and at the bottom of the Spanish Main... and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life." 

"It's kind of fun to do the impossible."

"Courage is the main quality of leadership, in my opinion, no matter where it is exercised. Usually it implies some risk — especially in new undertakings. Courage to initiate something and to keep it going, pioneering an adventurous spirit to blaze new ways, often, in our land of opportunity."

"Somehow, I can't believe that there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. The special secret it seems to me is summarized in four C's. They are Curiosity, Courage, Confidence and Constancy. And the greatest of all is Confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably."

"All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you."

Did You Know The Stars Have Voices?

Did You Know The Stars Have Voices?

Janelle Spiers

Did you know the stars have voices?

Did you know that they whisper to each other, 

high above in the heavens?

Did you know that they know the future?

Yes, long have men looked to the firmaments for signs;

They seek to learn their fate and fortune

So that they might be prepared for good or ill. 

Yes, long have men been wrong.

The stars have lived since earth was first created.

They murmur tales of old to their young ones, 

teaching them of how the earth will spin,

teaching them the dance of the celestial.

The men of earth have often looked to the sky,

Waiting for their omens of joy or sorrow

to be hung on silver threads of light

and paraded through the darkness above. 

The astral beings do not announce the fate of one,

but all.  They twirl their trains of colored smoke

and dance the heavenly dance; 

That which ushers in the bright new beginning

of foretold fate and destiny

fate and future,

fate and fortune,

for the entirety of man. 

They announced the birth of a baby

to a loud and flashy tune

They signaled the passing of a man

with a slow and mournful waltz

Did you know the stars have voices?

Did you know they whisper while they waltz?

Did you know the stellar shadows sing the future?

Do you dare to watch them dance?

Do you dare to see them fly?