Courtney's Poems

Dancing Chance Has Ants
By Courtney Robinson

There once was a man named Chance

Who, everyone knew, could dance

When asked how he learned,

He just elvis turned

And said, "There are ants in my pants."



Frightened Ficklebard
By Courtney Robinson

The Sneaters fight bravely; the sneaters fight hard

Except for one Sneater, young Ficklebard.

Ficklebard stands watching, totally in a fright

Until a Snickerbob attacks him, and he wins the fight.



Land of the Canines
By Courtney Robinson

Dogs ride by me on their trikes.

Amazing that they could ride the little bikes.

I look towards the skate park and what do I see?

Even the puppies skateboard better than me.

A group of skating dogs zoom past.

How could they go so very fast?

Cars drive by, and who is driving?

In each car a barking canine.

What's going on?

The dogs even mow the lawn.

The human catcher sees me without a leash.

Here he comes, oh sheash.

As his net comes down upon me, I scream,

But then I wake up; it was only a dream.



Ants
By Courtney Robinson

Tiny creatures scrounge for crumbs.

They see my sub and beg like bums.

Laughing at the specks, I squash them with my thumbs.

Booming drums could be heard all around.

A fleet like pepper attack my ground.

I helplessly struggle to get away,

But these pepper-like soldiers hold me down.

The bugs tediously work, carrying the sub piece by piece.

I laugh and laugh at them,

Until finally they gag me with a stem.

A whistle blew.

And immediately a crew

Of body-building creatures like pepper corns

March in with booming horns.

Together they lift the sub without a struggle.

I giggled inside, thinking of them trying to push

The sub into their hole by the bush.

But to my disappointment I found

That they weren't trying to shove it in the ground.

Instead they gathered all of the colony

To enjoy a picnic of my precious sub with the greatest salami.



The Leaf
By Courtney Robinson

The leaf leaped off the tree,

Determined to be free.

As it glided to the ground,

It observed with a frown,

The grass was covered in dead leaves.



Fearsome Flannel
By Courtney Robinson

It came alive today, it did.

The Fearsome Flannel flew at me.

I ran and hid behind a tree,

But Fearsome Flannel wasn't deceived.

I started to run, but then I saw

That Fearsome Flannel wasn't fearsome at all.



The Bible
By Courtney Robinson

The Bible is a double-edged sword.

It dubs the righteous,

And pierces the wicked.

Life does it bring to those who obey,

Yet death will it give to the disobedient.

All who bear this sword undergo persecution,

But he who perseveres shall never see death.

So snatch up your sword, read it,

And destroy the enemy's work.

Courtney

Old Camping Trips

I remember one year we went camping on a mountain somewhere in Virginia. I'm not sure what the campground is called, but it was a really great camping trip. We went in the fall so it was extremely cold, and we had to sleep in a tent. We got the best campsite; it was right near a rushing stream.

I remember a few teenagers going down the stream in tubes. They must have been freezing in that ice cold water, not to mention we were up on a mountain in the middle of fall. We tried fishing in the stream, but there were really only little fish and about a million bugs.

The only bad thing about where our campsite was, was that the bathroom was all the way up this enormous hill, and at night when you had to go and you just wanted to stay in your nice, warm, cozy sleeping bag, you had to climb this giant hill in the cold to get there.

They had the best playground there. I remember playing on some real seesaws. At one time when we were at the playground, some teens came and were playing on the merry-go-round. We didn't hesitate to hop on, well, maybe I did for a minute because I was shy, but I ended up joining. I was glad too because they spun really fast.

I also remember on another day some other kids came to the playground. They were probably a little older than we were. I remember trying to play on the seesaw with the boy, but he was alot bigger than I was, and so I ended up staying at the top while he sat practically on the ground.

I also remember how, in the morning, it was so freezing outside that I didn't even want to get out of my sleeping bag. I had to get up, of course, so I'd hurry up and get dressed so that I could sit by the fire and warm up again. Mom was awesome in the morning; she'd get us all some hot chocolate to help warm us up.

There were always nuts on the ground from the trees above us, so I'd go collecting 'em, so that later when we lit a fire, I could throw 'em in and watch 'em pop. It was so cool. I'd make a furnace like thing with the logs so that I could toss the nuts in. After a few seconds they'd explode. After a bit, my parents said not to do it anymore, unfortunately, because sometimes it would throw out some sparks. It burned a hole in one of the chairs once.

When we were at the playground playing once, Dad accidentally squirted Mom with the hose when he was trying to rinse off some dishes. She was so angry about it because it was cold outside. After she went and changed, she sat hard on one of the chairs with a plate of food. The chair tipped back, and Dad had just enough time to save her plate of food before Mom fell to the ground.

One time, we went to this one campsite near our house. We got this awesome cabin. I remember when we lit a fire, and it started to rain. At first it was really windy. The wind started blowing the sparks everywhere. It was really wild. Mom thought we were going to burn the place down if we didn't stop it. After dumping water all over the fire, we retreated to the cabin. Just as soon as we got under the roof above the porch, rain started poring down.

At another time, we went camping in North Carolina near where our grandparents live. I can't remember what any of these campsites are called....sorry. We got a cabin there too. It was alot better than the one we got at the other place, but that's probably because we got a bigger one. They had an awesome lake called Lake Gaston.....

I remember one time we went canoing there together. Me (Courtney), Will, and Mom went in one canoe, while Dad and Jaime went in the other. We were all going under a bridge. The canoe I was on was ahead. As we went under the bridge, we were trying to steer right, but we ended up crashing into the bridge's sloping pillar-type-structure. Mom was panicking; she thought we were going to sink. Luckily we were on metal canoes, otherwise we might have sunk.

While we were at this campsite, Will got the idea to create little ships out of some bark off of the trees. We had some suckers, so when we were done eating them, we saved the wrappers for sails for our ships. They weren't bad either. We used our knives to make the fronts more ship-like. When we tested them, they sailed pretty well, at least, most of them did.

One night, we had the best dinner ever, subs. Mom made her own subs, and they were delicious. Mmmm.......I felt sorry for anyone who had to eat more hamburgers and hotdogs. Subs are so much better.

Another time, we went with our grandparents, Mom mom and Pop pop, to this campsite on another mountain in North Carolina, I think. While we were there, we kids found a vine or long branch partly connected to one of the trees. We used it to swing on. It was really fun; we would swing down over this gap, and it would then swing us back to our starting place. After a while it broke though. I had just swung really far, and as soon as I had landed it broke. Luckily it didn't break while I was swinging.

After the 'vine' broke, we had to find other things to do. We met this boy while we were there, Patrick. He was a little younger than Will. I think he was 11 or 12. We went with him to find small crawdads (or crayfish) in the little stream by our campsite. The boys got some cups to catch the crawdads in, and we girls basically alerted the boys when we spotted one. After catching about a million of the little creatures, we eventually let them go, so we could catch them all again later.

After a day or two we climbed up this giant mountain. We went up one side and down the other. Around the rocky parts near the top, there was a bit off water running down the mountain. It was mostly just little trickling slits of water, though. The view was great from the top. I carved my name on one of the trees there as best I could with my knife. When we got near the bottom on the other side, we found this river running through the place. Eventually it would all drop off into a waterfall. As soon as we reached the bottom, we were below the great waterfall and by a stream. We kids jumped around on these giant rocks and crossed to the other side. Dad took us kids up onto a ledge right next to the waterfall. It was really awesome being right next to the waterfall, being right there! Well, that's all I can think of for now......


-Courtney-

My Old School Memories

Memories.......it always seems like the old times were the greatest times in my life......I wonder if everyone feels like that.....hmm...Well anyway, I'd better get on with it.

Well let's start with kindergarten. I got my first 2 marriage proposals in kindergarten lol. A white kid behind me and a black kid in front of me both asked if I would marry them. I, not really wishing to be married at 5, just smiled at them. I remember I used to be so afraid to even ask if I could use the bathroom. For a while in the school year I wouldn't even ask....I'd just wait until I got home. Luckily I conquered my fear before the school year was over. Hmmm....Oh I remember in kindergarden when when it was bring-your-stuffed-animal-to-school day. I brought my big stuffed dog to school wearing my power ranger pjs.....lol....yea, a girl next to me named Sarah just looked at me and smiled. I looked back at her and said, "What!!!" Grrr she made me angry, looking at me like I was some little kid........

1st and 2nd grade were both great. I had Ms. Mead for a teacher both years. I remember a kid who just annoyed me. I forget his name. He just annoyed me just because of the way he was. He really didn't do anything but.....Anyway one time I took his backpack and put it in the girls restroom behind the door. He some how found out it was me. He wasn't mad though. In fact, he just laughed. Oh, I remember this kid, Carlos, his breath always smelled of sour milk....guess he drank too much of it. He used to let his pants fall down way low. I really don't see how anyone thinks that that's cool. I mean, what is it?? Showing off your undies?? Anyway, I remember the time we were all walking in a line to gym class. I was right behind him. Well, as we all entered the gymnasium, his pants fell right down to the floor!! He had to quick grab them before anyone else saw. Show this to anyone who thinks showing off there undies is cool!!!

When I was in first grade, I met this girl named Kim. We became friends after I gave her my jello. I remember the time we were at the computers. She was right beside me. When she stood up to say something to someone, I pulled her chair back, so that when she sat down, she sat down on the floor. I know, it was a mean thing to do, but it was so funny. When she sat back, she ended up sitting on the floor. She didn't think it was funny, but I started cracking up.

I met my best friend Paige in 1st grade, I think. We're still good friends to this day, though we don't talk all that much since I'm now homeschooled and she's public schooled. I've never had a better friend than Paige. We've never even had a fight before, a few disagreements maybe, but nothing serious. Oh yeah, I almost forgot! When I was in 1st or 2nd grade, after my class had lunch and my brother, Will's, class was coming in to eat, me and Will would always give each other high fives. I felt like I was so cool, giving my brother a high five.

Nothing much interesting happened in 3rd grade. I had my teacher Ms. Capers. Oh I remember something! Ms. Capers was friends with another teacher. I don't remember her name, but she was so funny. She'd talk all fast and drew daisies all over the chalk board. There was this kid Elijah in my class. He was the only one who tried and liked my honey mustard pretzels that I would bring sometimes. Any time I brought them he'd come over and ask me for some. I'd always give him a handfull. Mmm I love honey mustard pretzels...

This was also the year I was introduced to evolution. Now, I'm a Christian and my family's always been the type that believed that Christianity was the true religion rather than any other religion, although at one time they weren't truly following Christ. Well, at this time I didn't really understand everything, so when they introduced me to this caveman junk I just kind of took it in even though I believed that God created everything. I really didn't understand. All I was really interested in was making fun of the caveman pictures.

Mom started homeschooling us kids when I got to 4th grade. Now I didn't really have my friends with me, but I sure did learn alot more! From 4th grade and up, Mom's been homeschooling us. Even without all our friends, we still had good times. History was the most fun subject I think. We made a timeline for 2 different years, and every time we learned about someone or something, we would draw a picture of it and put it on our timeline. It really was fun. Once we wrapped up my little sister, Jaime, with toilet paper to make her look like a mummy for history class. Oh yeah, and starting homeschooling also brought us to find the greatest gym class ever.

We started Tae Kwon Do after attending the homeschooler's electives at our old church. In fact only yesterday, me (Courtney), Will, and Jaime tested for new belts. Me and Will tested for our black belts. Jaime tested for her red belt. It took me and Will about 5 years to finally get our black belts but it was sure worth it! But let's not leave out Jaime, she's worked just as hard as we have, maybe not so many years but she's done very well! Well, enough about TKD! That's something for another blog post. Well I suppose I'm done; I hope you all enjoy this.

-Courtney Robinson-

Annie: The Lost Dog

Once upon a time, on a dark, stormy night when my family and I were having hotdogs for dinner, a banging sound was heard coming from the living room. When we came out to see what it was, we saw a muscular pitbull whining and throwing herself (and I do mean throwing herself) against the screen door.

Mom, believing that she was hungry, handed my little sister Jaime a hotdog to give to the dog. As soon as the door was opened, the dog burst into the house at full speed. We kids, being little at the time, ran for the bunk beds. Once we were all on the top bunk, the dog decided she wanted to join us, so she hopped right on up there. This of course led to our hopping down.

After a game of catch the kids, the dog finally settled down. I guess we'd worn her out. Well as she continued to live with us, we all grew quickly attached to her.

At first, I, being fascinated by the Disney movie, Anastasia, wanted to name her Anastasia. The others found this to be ridiculous, so after a bit of thinking, we eventually came up with the name Annie.

Annie was quite content to live with us; after all, she got to sleep on our furniture and get all the attention. My mom was babysitting some babies at the time, and Annie did wonderfully with them. The most harm she could do to them was drowning them with her kisses, lol. Wonderful pup as she was, Mom wasn't sure we should keep her. She was later given to the parents of one of the babies Mom babysat. Annie was tied to a tree and left there, even in the rain and thunderstorms. (Annie is terrified of thunderstorms.) The only shelter the poor pup could get was from under one of the trucks.

Some time later Mom changed her mind about getting rid of Annie, and she asked for her back. The family who had taken Annie in were kind enough to give her back to us, luckily. I can tell you how happy she was when she saw us again. As soon as she was let off that rope that tied her to the tree, she took off at full speed, racing all 'round the yard. From that point on, Annie's been living with us happy as she can be.

You know, there's a strange story to Annie's coming to us... When I was maybe 7 or 8, around that age, I prayed that one day I would get a dog. When Annie came to us, it was God's answer to my prayer. Even though we got Annie some years after I prayed for a dog, I knew that God works in His own time. Another strange thing: when Annie came to us, she seemed to have no owner. Annie seemed to come out of nowhere. I'm not saying God sent her to earth to come to us or anything like that. I'm saying Annie was God's gift to us.

Annie's done some pretty strange and funny things while she's been with us. One time, we had just come home from church and the phone started ringing. We couldn't find the phone and we all started shouting, "Where's the phone! Where's the phone!" Well Annie walked out of my parents bedroom calmly bringing the ringing phone to us!!! This was the strangest thing. If you want to know what the call was about, well, I don't remember. I sure would like to know though. Well this wouldn't be so strange if she'd been trained to do that, but later we had tried it and she never did it again. It was one of the weirdest things that's ever happened to us.

Another time, I had Annie on the leash outside. This was when she was really strong and muscular. (After living with us this long, she's gotten way overweight.) Anyway, I had her on the leash and Dad decided to call her. As soon as she heard her name called, she rushed over there with me flying (literally flying) through the air behind her. It was not a happy day for me I can tell you. It wasn't so much me getting hurt after an unsuccessful flight, it was just so embarrassing! Hmm, well, I can't think of anymore so I'm just going to publish this....


-Courtney Robinson-