Two steps in front of me I cannot see, nor two steps back of me can I see. With one look into the far distance there is nothing but a blur of grey fog covering my surroundings. The sun trying its hardest to break through the thick moist cloud, but it doesn't. Miles and miles, the road goes on, but to where, you don’t know because all you can see is the grey fog. With every long stride that I take, my heart beats twice as fast. My lungs so tight and empty as I gasp for air. Afraid of what is around me, I just keep moving forward. No matter how much I want to stop and no matter how hard it is to breath with the air this thick, I still keep on pushing myself to make it to the end. I am running out of endurance to keep myself going and my body so cold from the brisk air. My legs begin to give out but I know its not over until you reach the finish line.

Writing Goals

• use Synactic Devices- Style
• use Literary Devices
• Work on sentence variety
• Take time editing and revising
• Vocabulary variety
• Sounding more mature in my papers

The Good Earth "Wang's uncle and the city"

In the novel, The Good Earth, Wang Lung-- on top of working in the fields--has new life, or as Wang Lung says "another mouth to feed", in his family. For these many children that he now has to care for, Wang also celebrates and welcomes them into this unpredictible place we call Earth. To this party, Wang's uncle was invited. The first impression I got of this young farmer's uncle was that he is disrespectful and unkind. All he talked about was how he only has daughters and no sons of his own. It was as though he was there to talk about his problems more or less Wang's new child. Complaining about his unattractive wife, it was as though nothing was going right for him in his life. He had no respect for his wife and only pointed out the flaws about her. Wang--being the thoughtful man he is--thought it was wrong to disrespect such a person. Wang knows he is not the richest man in the world, but what he does know is that he has a decent home that he and his family can live with no fears, unlike his uncle.

When a famine hits Wang Lung's town, he had no other choice but to head for the city in the south hoping to find a better lifestyle for his family. They came to the city not knowing what to expect, but praying for good fortune. When he and his family soon reached this city, Wang seemed a bit lost and confused. The only place he could go was by The Wall. The Wall was a wall that stretched far down the city where many homeless and unwealthy people lived. The only way to survive was to beg for money from pedestrians in the area. From living in the city, Wangs attitude changed. He had to learn how to adapt to the lifestyle of a poor city man. The one thing Wang stuggled with was there not being any signs of nature or earth. Wang loved his land he owned back in the town. Labor and hardwork was what he was used to. Many people today are living a life like Wang now. You need to learn to be without something you love sometimes because life is filled with unexpected changes. Wang had to learn how to be without his land, the land that heals him. By being away from it he was slowly fading away.

Biography on Robert Pinsky

Robert Pinsky--an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator--was born on October 20, 1940 in Long Branch, New Jersey. Currently 68 years old, he has written many poems. His influences are Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Matthew Arnoid, T.S. Elliot, and W.H. Auden. These poet have inspired him in some of the writings he has done. In 1997-2000 he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Robert is also an author of 19 books most of which are collections of his own poetry. He now teached at Boston University and is the peotry editor at State.

Never Ending Mountains

The rough terrain

Beneath my feet

I can feel it

Pressure of the air

Strong and powerful

I climb up the ridged piece of land



Sweat drips from every part of me

Exhaustion and pain

Yet, I still have that drive

The drive to make it to the top



Hours and hours role on by

I am still pushing myself on

Smoldering hot sun beating down on my weak and tired body

Making the agony even worse




No water in sight

Just dry lifeless ground

It feels like Im not getting anywhere



My body so dehydrated

Nothing left in me

I think to myself....

How am I ever going to make it to the top?

To Television

By: Robert Pinsky

Not a "window on the world"
But as we call you,
A box a tube

Terrarium of dreams and wonders.
Coffer of shades, ordained
Cotillion of phosphors
Or liquid crystal

Homey miracle, tube
Of acquiescence, vein of defiance
Your patron in the pantheon would be Hermes

Raster dance,
Quick one, little theif, escort
Of the dying and comfort pr the sick,

In a blue glow my father and little sister sat
Snuggled in one chair watching you
Their wife and mother was sick in the head
I scorned you and them as I scorned so much

Now I like you best in a hotel room,
Mayne minutes
Before I have to face an audience: behind
The doors of the armoire, box
Within a box-- Tom & Jerry, or also brilliant
And reassuring, Oprah Winfrey

Thank you, for I watched, I watched
Sid Caesar speaking French and Japanese not
Through knowledge but imagination,
His quickness, and Thank you, I watched live
Jackie Robinson stealing

Home, the image--O strung shell--enduring
Fleeter than light like these words we
Remember in, they too winged
At the helmet and ankles