The document contains several poems and short stories on various themes: - The first poem expresses the speaker's love of nature and feeling its embrace no matter where they are - The second is a short poem about a dancer growing old but their pink shoes remaining - The third is a poem about wanting to fly and swim but not being able to - The fourth is a short story about a student named Mariah Giles who is described as an "undercover diva" - The fifth is a short poem wanting more time to live life - The sixth is a poem about saying goodbye to the girl the speaker used to be - The seventh reflects on how words can be deeply impactful for some

1. Anthology By
Amanda

2. Ode to Nature
I sit beneath the chestnut tree
Feeling nature’s embrace as it holds me
I lay amongst the meadow of flowers
Smelling the fragrance of roses for hours
I float along the clear river so slowly
With fish and rocks and ground below me
I fly up high with the birds in the sky
Feeling the warmth of the sun nearby
And if I leave to go back in my home
With nothing but a room to roam
I will open a window or even a door
To once again feel the breeze from offshore
So no matter where I’ll go or where I’ll be
Natures embrace will always be with me

3. A Dancer (Iambic Tetrameter)
I dance upon the stage I love
With shoes as pink as a rose’s bud
But I grow old, my hair turns grey
But like the stage, my shoes shall stay

4. Oh Why Can ’ t I? ( Iambic tetrameter )
I want to fly far to the moon
And look upon the earth below
No lies, people, no faces or rooms
No one to tell you can ’ t or no
I want to swim beneath the sea
With fish, and sand, beneath my feet
No cares, no hurt, just me you see
With fins so fast I can ’ t be beat
But I can ’ t swim and I can ’ t fly
But why, oh why, oh why can ’ t I?

5. Undercover Diva (Mariah Giles)
She’s an undercover diva
Round, gold hoop earrings
That bounces with each step
She’s an undercover cook
The stove is sizzling in F101
As she makes her favorite,
The eggs Benedict
She’s and undercover teacher
As she puts her name down
For the teachers aid class elective
But who is this undercover diva?
Why she is sophmore Mariah Giles

6. More Time
(Ianmibi Dimeter))
Listen listen
My words are true
This thing called life
Makes me confused
One hundred years
Too small too short
I want more time
To live a life
To call it mine

7. Goodbye
Goodbye to the girl use to be
She dangles on a thinning thread
A thread that use to be thick, full of innocence
But now, like sand she seeps through my hands
For a second she was there to grasp
She had a life of freedom
A shield that surrounded her
Big enough it was
Only to let in thoughts of simplicity
Many colored pencils, a tetherball, her favorite dog,
And maybe even a scrape of the knee or two
But time keeps passing
And that shield keeps getting weaker
And I can feel her slowly slipping away from me
So for now, goodbye to the girl I use to be
But I am not afraid; I will meet up with her again
For I know she is and will always be deep within me

8. Words
What’s a few words right?
Aren't they are just letters, formed to express how we feel
Pressed to our lips without a second thought
But in her eyes they are more
Words engraved deep in the back of her mind
With letters that grow with each glimpse in her mirror
She is slowly losing herself
She’s a jar of insecurities
Her hand trembling as she tries to tighten the cap.
I watch her trying to catch her breath
But she’s drowning
Sinking beneath her deepening ocean she has made for herself
But it’s hard to watch
She’s a horror film with a great beginning
With scenes on mute
Because she’s to busy trying to hold back
Hold back a part of her that they haven’t taken away
I want to take a walk in her shoes and have her take one in mine.
Just so I can lift some, if anything,
The endless throbbing pain that I see in her eyes.
But, aren't they just letters, formed to express how we feel
Pressed to our lips without a second thought
What’s a few words right?