*MIND BLOWN*

OHMYGOODNESS, Q!

You're serious. AN ACTUAL Polar bear cub? That's insane-- your mom has, like, the best job ever! There totally is a upside to your move now!

Down here in garden country things are going pretty well. It hasn't rained in a while so I'm back to manual watering. I know you never wanted them, but I bought some rose seeds. Don't worry, not for your garden- for a window box. In my room. 


Yes, Q, I have my OWN MINI GARDEN. *mind blown*.

Bulbs

Small Papery

Sitting Waiting Sleeping

Seed Life Dirt Colour

Growing Shooting Sprouting

Bright Fresh

Flowers

Have fun with your polar bear, 
Tate
Diamante

TATE YOU WILLL NEVER BELIEVE THIS!!!!!!!

TATE!

MY MOM REVIVED A BABY POLAR BEAR!

WE ARE TAKING CARE OF A BABY POLAR BEAR!

You know how I begged for years for a dog? This is so much better!
So, I didn't tell you about why my mom took me to her work- it was so I'd actually do something this summer (hah). So I went back yesterday (I've been going for two weeks now) and suddenly my mom's  co workers came in carrying a starved, half dead polar bear cub! It's mom and siblings had all died and it was the only one left and we have to nurse it to health and IT'S A BABY POLAR BEAR!!!!!!!!

Dead or Alive

Death
Gray Still
Unmoving Fading Unblinking
Morgues Cemeteries Carnivals Fairs
Dancing Laughing Singing
Light Free
Life

Q
Diamante

Aparently Rain Won't Drown

Q,

WOOT! POLAR BEAR!  About your boots, it's just another day for shoe shopping. Assuming there are shoe stores in your hamlet/village/town.
As for your garden, the rain didn't drown it (thanks for the advice on that matter, Q.) and it's actually kinda.... growing?

A Beautiful Sight
Our garden finally growing
To tall proud full height

Bare feet on the ground
Toes twining in the green sprouts
Breathing in the air

I think I might be getting good at this stuff, huh?

Tate
Haiku
Haiku

Polar Bears and Trashed Shoes

Tate,
Making friends is a lot harder than you make it seem. And definitely name one of the fish Hugo. So, yesterday, Mom took me to her lab, and from it you can clearly see the water and ice...... and yes! A POLAR BEAR!!!!!!!!!

                       Water to Ice

                            Water
                      Deathly Cold
            Freezing Cleaning Fishing
           Waves Falls Floes Glaciers
             Floating Drifting Carrying
                       Clear Solid
                             Ice

However nice seeing a REAL POLAR BEAR was, trekking through knee high snow is not my forte. I really, really miss grass.

Another Pair of Good Shoes Ruined

Boots swimming in snow
Turn my stockinged feet to ice
Wool frozen to skin

Your frozen solid friend,
Q

Diamante
Haiku

Another go at it

Q, 

Approach. Now. Go out and say hi or whatever- make friends! 
Aunt Liz left, but not without taking us to the psychic convention.  There's some weird stuff going on there, Q, but it seems that Aunt Liz knows all of them- they even asked about her stupid pig! BUT one good thing....... she gave me fish! Like pet fish! I still have to name them though.


It's been raining for the last few days- I think plants are down with rain.....how much longer until they drown? 


Crumpled Paper sits
Fell victim to another
Poor Haiku attempt


Watching the loud rain 
Grass stands tall like soldiers
As it calmly falls.

That wasn't half bad, huh?

Tate 
Haiku
Haiku 

Adjustments

Tate,

I am outside now
Colder than I've ever been
Yet kids are playing

I think I just have to get used to it.  I feel warmer now anyway, and it's only been a month. And no! Mom said sometimes they come into the village (beginning to think it may be a hamlet, it's that small.) sometimes but not yet. Maybe in actual "winter".

You mean your Aunt Lizzie? The one with the pig? Aw, poor you. But haiku's aren't that hard. Just remember the syllable count and you'll be fine. 

Then again, it may just be warmer than usual. A lot of the local kids are out, the few there is- should I approach?

Q  
Haiku

Once you get started....

Quentin,

Fufilled Life

Exciting,
Thoughtful, 
Filled with books to read.
Bright
Peaceful
Perhaps some gardening?

So yesterday my aunt came to visit (you remember her, right Q? The sketchy one?) and somehow she figured I wrote poetry and she gave me this writing book, one that teaches you how to write all these poems. They start with haiku's and I don't know how you write them!
This is the best I got:

Haikus seem easy
But syllable counting is
Way too hard for me.

Hang on! Living way up there will be fun! Any polar bears yet? 

Tate
Metonomy
Haiku

White

Tate,

The house was on the edge of
A town that was little and empty of
Life and the land was without anything.

It was frightening, looking out at
White, knowing that everything with
Claws and teeth was
White as well.

The house was
Empty, and shrunken
the hallways appeared to be
Shrinking
As I walked down.

The room was crowded,
A little bed and blackout shades and a little dresser
Was my home now.
Not my home now.
Shut the blinds.

Keep all the empty white
On white that was shifting and sneaking- out
Of this little house on the
Edge of an empty town in
A dangerous white void.

Quentin                                                                                                                        
Free Verse

Misadventures at Tulips Are Better Than One.

Dear Quentin,

You remember that gardening store, Tulips Are Better than One? So I had to go there for your  stupid garden and arghhhh!

I walked into the dirt strewn store
With a shopping list in hand.

The people in Tulips Are Better Than One
Were not what I had planned.

My vision, what I had seen
Was a cute little garden store
With a nice old lady manning the desk
And some flower pots on the floor.

Some plastic birds on the ceiling
Sunlight streaming through the door
Not crusty windows with dirt on the sills
And Paris Hilton times four.

They were lurking all over the store,
With nail files and hair ties and bows
Paris One was sitting on the counter
Looking through Facebook Posts

Paris Two was tanning on the porch
With flip flops on her feet
Flipping through Vogue magazine
And drawing on her jeans


Paris Three near the ceramic
Chattering to herself
Paris Four with  bejeweled gnomes
Yes, them as well.

I approached the counter
Tapped gently on the bell
The little clang rang through the room
It startled me as well!

But Paris One just kept on texting
Do her thumbs have the strength of a whale?
I tapped the bell, yet again
Alas, to no avail. 

The one outside (at last!) looked up
Rather  grumpily,
Snaps on her gum, picked up her mag
And stomped over to me.

"Yeah, kid?" she asks,
 Nails tapping the counter,
I stutter (oh-so gracefully)
"I have some plants I need to water"

"No duh, doll, we all do."
Says the one beside the gnomes,
"You'll need some fertilizer, too."
She tossed me a bag, then moans.

"My nails!" she screams, and waves her hand.
"That STUPID dirt got on it!"
The others gather around her
While her gentle tears dry on it.

"IT"S JUST A NAIL!" I scream,
I throw the can to the floor,
"And, ugh! It  is garden store!
Why would you cry about it?"

"It was a perfect manicure! We'd all weep about it!"
I groan and grab my purchased goods,
And march right out the door.
And desert the Hiltonites
In that forsaken garden store!

Love,                                                                                                                   
Tate

PS: You know I don't title my poems- like, 10 years from now, people will just have to read through a pile of poems labeled things like  "Free Verse 13" like Shakespeare makes them do. 
Free Verse

(A Diamante and Haiku) Sleepless in Iqaluit

Tate,

Do NOT kill my garden, Tate-y, or I will set a polar bear on you.
Kidding! Well, kind of.
So, summer is a lot different up here. It's really hard to sleep, because the sun never sets. Yes, it sounds poetic but really, it's just annoying. I'm sleep deprived,best friend deprived and garden deprived. I'm slowly on a path to insanity.


The Life I Used to Have
                                       Here
                               Freezing White
                        Blinding Rising Yawning
                    Bears Fish Flowers Friends
                       Smiling Living Sleeping
                                Green Warm
                                     Home

Forever Blue Sky

Where has the moon gone
Looking up I see the sun
Forever shining

Love,
Q.

PS. Maybe a titlefor your poem next time,Tate?

OUT OF CHARACTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Instead of Tate or Quentin this is the elusive author. Moving on)

This is a basic overview of this blog- just some questions answered.

Q. Why did you choose the title of your blog?
A. I had absolutely no idea what to call the blog, so I flipped through my notebook and looked for a phrase to use. I found "Garden's doomed." so I changed that into 'THE Garden IS Doomed', then came up with the idea of the topic after.

Q.Are you working alone or with a partner?
A. I'm working on my blog alone, because I wanted to follow my own idea instead of trying to work out compromises with others. Also I find this easier; I can do what I want, and avoid a problem I've had before when writing things in turns with friends, which is that the voices of characters are different for every person. This may be different because there are two different people (Tate and Q) but I would still like to shape both characters to my own liking.

Q. Is your blog based on a central theme or idea?
A. Yes , it's the story of Tate and Quentin, two kids about our age (13) who have just got out of school for the summer. Quentin, the boy, is really into gardening and has his own garden in the backyard of his house. Tate, is not so into gardening. Poetry is more her thing.

Quentin's mom is an environmental scientist and has moved his whole family to the Arctic for a year for her research on rising sea levels and it's effect on Arctic wildlife. Tate has been "bequeathed" with his garden and the task of keeping it alive until he returns the next summer.

To keep in touch they are mailing letters to each other about the garden and life (Tate) and the Arctic and life (Q). They will all contain poems.

So I hope you enjoy my blog!

Your elusive author,
PW                                                                                                                                                                                    

June 27th

Dear Quentin,


Having fun, way up there at the North pole? I really hope you're not reading this from a hospital bed  'cause you got mauled by a polar bear. Have you seen any yet?
It's the first day of break and- not fun. Your mom just had to move away in the summer. 


Q, I know you loved your garden and all, but you know that I can't garden at all. 'Bequeathing' it to me, really wasn't good judgement. I keep you updated though.


                 Daisies
             Bright Open
   Smiling Glowing Gathering 
Sunshine Ladybugs Faeries Ghosts
   Sliding Stretching Creeping
          Dark Mysterious
                    Ivy       


I don't know what's gonna happen
The Garden is Doomed, Q. Sorry.




Love
Tate.                                                                                                                                   
Diamante