PERSONAL LEGEND

As a patch of sunlight slipped into my room and crept into my bed,

I woke up with my mind still trapped in last night’s fantasy,

Savoring every moment of its carefreeness,

Recalling every detail,

Striving to slip back into the utopia.

When I finally dragged myself out of the covers,

I was suddenly stroke by an unrecognizable fear.

“Was it reality?”

I snuggled under the covers again.

“What a fiasco!”

The word pinched my heart the way a tiny stone pinches a foot.

A sharp pain swirled up from my heart as I realized that

I was so feeble that I have to hide under the covers,

Away from reality.

I hated it.

“I hated the re ality!”

Where there were too many expectation, too much stress, and too many uncompleted missions…

I hated myself, my cowardice,

My fear of reality.

Finally,

My mind was so occupied by dark, passive imagery that

It exploded;

All the illusions split into pieces.

And suddenly,

Yesterday’s fantasy faded,

Today’s reality dominated.

The fierce sunlight stroke my barely opened eyes,

As if it were trying to enlighten my heart;

As if it were trying to remind me of my Personal Legend,

My dream to pursue.

I felt ashamed.

“Why would I pine for a life in fantasy?”

“Am I afraid of reality?”

“Or am I truly afraid of bring my dream to reality,

And establish my Personal Legend?”

“Stop!”

I must think no more

As my dream is drifting further away from me

With each tick at the clock.

“Step it up!”

I must not fear,

Abandon that utopia,

And embrace the reality

With courage,

With determination,

With an undefeatable me.

Reality is cruel.

The path of my Personal Legend is arduous.

Yet,

I must follow;

I must conquer.
Until the very end;
Until my dream becomes reality.

VANISHING INNOCENCE

VANISHING INNOCENCE

Found Poem, taken from Lord of the Flies by William Golding,

[CH 4: pg. 61, CH2: pg. 39, CH12: pg. 224-225]

Music performed by Ying Ni, taken from: 

Chopin Ballade in C-minor

Haydn Sonata in C-major

Bach Partita No.2

Together,

They staggered up the last steep of the mountain.

Together,

They chanted.

Together,

They crashed the log on to the great pile.

Together,

They laughed with triumphant pleasure.

One by one, 

The boys stopped going back for more,

And stood.

Breath came even by now,

And sweat dried.  

Strange things happened.

The sea rose up,

Moved apart in planes of blatant impossibility;

The coral reef and the stunted palms float up into the sky,

Quiver,

Be plucked apart,

Run like rain-drops on a wire,

Or be repeated as in an odd succession of mirrors.

Illusions merged into the sky;

There,

The sun gazed down like an angry eye.

Tears began to flow,

For the first time,

He gave up;

Great,

Shuddering spasms of grief

That seemed to wrench his whole body.

His voice rose under the black smoke

Before the burning wreckage of the island;

Infected by that emotion,

The boys wept,

For the end of innocence,

The darkness of man’s heart,

And the fall through the air

Of the true, wise friend.

The sun sank,

Darkness dropped,

And soon

The shelters were full of restlessness,

Under the remote stars.

Group Found Poem

Wonder of Nature

<Lord of the Flies> by William Golding

Once more,
Amid the breeze,
The shouting,
The slanting sunlight on the high mountain,
Was shed that glamour,
That strange invisible light of friendship,
Adventure,
Content.
[Page 39]

Trees,
Forced by the damp heat,
Found too little soil for growth,
Fell early and decayed:
Creepers cradled them,
And new saplings searched a way up.
[Page 39]

There was sudden bright explosion,
And corkscrew trail across the sky;
Then darkness again
And stars.
[Page 95]

By Ying, Philip, Paul, David, and Ricky

Denouement of the Reflections on THE ENGLISH PATIENT

After all, I must say that Michael Ondaatje delivers too many crucial and valuable underlying messages through The English Patient. It is my misfortune that I fail to grasp every single one of them.

            “A novel is a mirror walking down a road”. Just like other successful novels, this novel reflects different paths taken by different individuals, and hence teaches as much as one needs to learn for an entire life. 

Ninth Reflection on THE ENGLISH PATIENT

My last inquiry of my last reflection on The English Patient is purely for myself: if I were Almasy, would I have the courage to live on?

I struggled to persuade myself into believing that I can be as tough as the English patient, accepting and coping with reality. Yet, to be honest, my final answer is a definite no.

Although severely disfigured and disabled, Almasy still does not give up on his life. Overwhelmed by Hana’s care and love, his broken heart gradually begins to seam piece by piece. Hana once again gives him the confident to believe in the existence of good force in the middle of a brutal war. However, there is still nothing he can look forward to; even the end of the war does not mean anything to his distorted soul and damaged body. He has no dream, no hope, and no future…

            If I were Almasy, I would have killed myself after the plane accident. Why would I live with a disfigured face, which myself cannot even recognize? I cannot think of any rationale behind keeping myself alive when everything good about life is gone forever. What is the point of living when one’s memories are torn into pieces, body is destroyed by a plane crash, and soul is abused by the war—what is the point of living? I cannot live a day without hope and dream, which keep me moving forward even when I am exhausted.

            From reading the life of Almasy from multi-perspectives, I finally realized that the only real challenge of life is to learn to be strong and stay strong. The world never ends as long as the sun still rises in the next morning.