Sonnet Analysis

Lighting the Way

Yellow, purple, pink, watch the light cascade
Shining brightly down upon Mother Earth
Turning everything to a lighter shade
Illuminating the sky before birth

The radiance is displaying fresh ground
New days with open doors seem to invite
Hidden crevices ready to be found
Adventures ready to spring at first light

Rising in east with a passionate burn
The glass is half full and not half empty
Like a sunrise good things always return
With rising sun there’s opportunity

Chance for excitement often arises
Step forward to find pleasing surprises


The sun rising every morning is something we can always count on. I compared that to the opportunities we receive throughout life. Opportunities are always coming, but we just have to take time to notice them. We can count on having a fresh start each day like the sun does each morning. Even though it sets in the afternoon it still comes back the next day.
The first line is intended to put a light show on for the reader. “Yellow, purple, pink, watch the light cascade.” These are a few of the array of colors that cover the sky at dawn. The light cascades upon everything when it first rises. This line is supposed describe the general picture of the sun right before it rises and shows itself at the horizon or from behind a mountain.
“Shining brightly down upon Mother Earth.” This line just describes the sun and how it reveals everything on earth when it comes up. The sun reveals things like how opportunities are revealed. We are so used to seeing the sun up every day, we don’t notice its beauty anymore. Just like how we don’t notice opportunities every time they arise.
The next line says, “Turning everything to a lighter shade.” The sun is making everything brighter and more visible. It lights up everything so we can go on with our lives the same way opportunities come up.
“Illuminating the sky before birth.” The sky lights up before the sun actually shows. We can see colors in the sky before we see the actual sun itself. When we get a chance to do something, we usually see hints of it before we actually get the chance. The first four lines were supposed to put a picture of a sunrise in the reader’s mind.
When the sun comes up we aren’t in darkness anymore and can see everything. “The radiance is displaying fresh ground.” The light shows new things and helps make discoveries. Things can be found if you just look.
“New days with open doors seem to invite.” This line is saying that with new days come new choices you can make. You can choose to take the right or good thing, or you can choose the bad or wrong choice. But no matter which way you go, it’s your choice. You could just stay in the same place or keep moving forward.
When the sun rises it reveals things that were covered in darkness during the night. “Hidden crevices ready to be found.” Little things are ready to be discovered while the sun is out.
“Adventures ready to spring at first light.” When the sun finally comes up adventures are ready to be made. The world can anticipate when the sun is going to come up and when we can jump into an activity. We could start earlier, but it would be dark and harder to accomplish, or can wait for the right time to do something. Those four lines were about how the sun reveals things when it is up and hide things when it is down. Like how opportunities are shown at certain times.
“Rising in east with a passionate burn,” describes the sun as it rises ready for a new day. It rises, ready for new things.
“The glass is half full and not half empty.” Seeing opportunities is usually the result of being optimistic and looking for the right signs. This line shows optimism.
“Like a sunrise good things always return.” This line sort of describes itself. At this point the poem shifts from sunrises to opportunities. These chances for something good keep coming back, just like how the sun rises everyday.
With everyday come new ideas and opportunities. “With rising sun there’s opportunity.” These four lines were where the poem changes from talking about sunrises to opportunities.
The last two lines say that we should take chances and risks because that’s the only way you’re going to get anywhere. “Chance for excitement often arises. Step forward to find pleasing surprises.” As the Latin saying goes, “Carpe diem.” Seize the day.

Lighting the Way

Yellow, purple, pink, watch the light cascade
Shining brightly down upon Mother Earth
Turning everything to a lighter shade
Lighting the sky before the time of birth

The rising light is displaying fresh ground
New days with open doors seem to invite
Hidden crevices ready to be found
Adventures ready to spring at first light

Rising in east with a passionate burn
The glass is half full and not half empty
Like a sunrise good things always return
With rising sun there’s opportunity

Chance for excitement often arises
Step forward to find pleasing surprises

"Arf..."

“Ding-dong,” I heard as I pushed the doorbell to Kara’s house. As I listened for the pattering of feet racing towards the doorway, I suddenly heard a loud, high-pitched, intimidating “ARF!” As I saw Kara’s welcoming face in the doorway, I tried not to notice her dog jumping up and down in excitement.
“Hey! Coco! Shh… Calm down,” Kara scolded. “Hi. Come on in so we can get started on our algebra homework.”
“Okay Malina, stay calm, it’s only a dog." I said to myself. "C’mon, she’s miniscule in size compared to you. You’ve been here so many times before. Coco’s fine, she won’t hurt you. Don’t worry about her licks either. Remember that thing you heard that dogs’ mouths are actually cleaner than human mouths.” I tried to console my self as I stepped into the house. I took a deep breath to calm down, but ended up coughing hysterically. There’s nothing like the stench of dog. As I walked up to Kara’s room, Coco followed me and suddenly I felt a wet sensation on my foot. She started licking me. I couldn’t help but to think, “eww…” even though I knew that was rude.
We walked into Kara’s room, sat on the floor, and closed the door in front of Coco. A feeling of relaxation rushed over me as the door sealed itself to create a barrier between that nightmare and me. We started discussing the homework getting distracted with music and phone calls. Then later as I opened the door to go out, Coco was sleeping right outside. The paranoia came right back to me and I closed the door immediately.
“It’s okay,” I told myself. “Just walk right past.” So I opened the door again and sneaked right past Coco without looking at her, thinking that if I didn’t see her, she wouldn’t see me.
Later, as I stepped outside to go back home, I let out a sigh of relief. I don’t think I could’ve survived all the tension running through my body with a dog in the premises. Kara is an exceptional friend, but whenever I saw her dog, it didn’t matter anymore what kind of friend she was. All I could concentrate on was how to stay away from that dog.
It was all because of that one afternoon after preschool. I was tagging along with my cousin while she walked her neighbor's dog. The dog halted and we just stood there waiting for him to keep going. Then all of a sudden he turned around and scratched me. His eyes were so piercing and I was afraid to look straight into them. It stung a little and I was extremely shocked. But he didn't stop there; he went as far as to pee on me!
"AHH!" I screamed as I backed off and started to run away. "Lindsay, can we go back now?!" I begged my cousin.
“Yeah, yeah. It’s just a dog, you don’t need to be so scared.” She said with a bit of irritation in her voice. It may have been “just a dog”, but I was a lot smaller than her. The dog may not have been that big, but it was huge to me and I was really frightened. It was that moment of pain and shock I decided I didn’t want a dog, and I didn’t like them.
“Hey Malina! It’s Cailey,” my friend said over the phone.
“Oh hi Cailey! What’s up?” I asked.
“My dog just gave birth to a litter of nine puppies and we need to get rid of them. I know you don’t really like dogs, but I think it would be cool if you took one,” she proposed.
“You know how much I don’t like dogs,” I reminded her, but I could practically see the disappointment on her face. “Maybe I can take care of it for a little while and see how it goes,” I negotiated.
“Okay. That sounds like a great idea. You can come pick him up whenever you want,” agreed Cailey.

While at Cailey’s house picking up the dog, she told me I could name him. So I decided to name him Brownie. This time when I looked at this dog, it looked cuter than all the others and Cailey had just given him a bath so he didn’t give off a musty dog stench. For the first time since my encounter with that dog a long time ago, I looked at this dog with trust. I could just tell that this dog would be good.
“Come Brownie. I’m gonna take you home,” I told him. Surprisingly he pranced right up to me.
“Arf?” he questioned with curiosity in his eyes instead of the pure evil I had seen before. The next morning I woke up to the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Brownie was wagging his tail and sitting on my bed. I stereotyped all dogs from that one encounter more than ten years ago. Because of Cailey I learned that not all dogs are daunting and Brownie proved that. The little while that I negotiated for turned into a year, which then turned into forever.

Sticking With a Family Tradition

“Okay kids! Another batch is almost ready! Come on out!” shouted one of my aunts through the front door. We were all gathered at her house for our traditional mochi pounding event on the last Sunday of the year.
“Hey, someone pause the video game. Come on, last one out is a rotten egg!” One of us kids shouted as we raced out the door.
“Now don’t forget to shape it like this,” my grandma would say while showing us the exact motion and technique to shaping the mochi.
“Oooh that looks very good,” she would say to my cousin Lindsay and me. Then there was the occasional, “That doesn’t look so good. Fix it,” that she would say to some of my other cousins. Then once in a great while, usually when a male tries to shape the mochi, she will say with a sigh, “Umm… Mali or Lindsay, can you fix that for them please?”
“Hey Mom?” I asked once while we were all making mochi.
“Yes? What is it?” my mom replied.
“I was wondering, why do we always have mochi pounding? I mean, not that I don’t like it or anything, but isn’t it an old tradition from when great grandpa moved here to Hawaii?”
“Well, yes, it is an old tradition, but we are continuing it. We started off having mochi pounding at my grandpa’s house. He would have it on December 30th no matter if people worked or not. Everyone would go over and the men would pound the mochi and the women would shape them after the rice was pounded. Kind of how we do it now,” she explained.
So I sat down and watched as the men started pounding the steamed rice inside of the usu, or stone bowl that is used to pound the mochi in. As all the ladies watched, I wondered, why can’t I pound mochi too? Is it just because I’m a girl? I think I’m just as strong as some of them. In fact, I think a lot of us are just as strong as some of those guys. Is it another one of those status things where it’s a powerful task so the men get to do it? It looks like a lot of fun and it looks important too. Is all this gender stuff just tradition that we follow for the sake of tradition? My mom says that the men are supposed to be “stronger”, but I think the men don’t want us to pound because we would make them look bad. Why can’t we change other things too? Why don’t we color the mochi or use a machine to make the mochi? I figured that mochi just wouldn’t be the same if it was a different color and it just wouldn’t be as fun to use a machine. I started to wonder about tradition and why we have to carry it on.
“I have another question, why do we continue the tradition? What does all this stuff symbolize?” I questioned.
“Well, for many reasons, but… hey! Don’t throw the katakuriko around! You might get it in peoples’ faces!” my mom scolded as some of us started fooling around with the powdery potato starch, or katakuriko, that is used to make the mochi less sticky so it doesn’t stick to our hands. “Anyway, where was I again? Oh yeah, symbolism of the mochi. They say it symbolizes ‘sticking together’.”
“Okay, well I guess that kind of shines a new light on mochi pounding now. We’re going to do this forever, right?” I asked.
“I hope so. As long as we can find someone to step up to the plate and take over from your generation,” my mom answered.
Wondering who would be the next in our generation to carry on the tradition, I started watching the men pound the mochi again. One or two of them at a time would grab a mallet and pound the sticky rice. Each hit like a beat that keeps the rhythm of our family’s heart together. Along with the beat, my uncle turns the rice so that every part gets pounded and smoothed out.
Every hit sounds powerful, smack, smack, smack. Toward the end of each batch, my uncle would say, “Hold up! Ten more strong hits should do it.” and as each hit turns from smack to SMACK, everyone counts down, “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!” Finally my uncle will carefully pull the smooth, sticky mochi out of the usu and bring it over to the table where the ladies will shape it.
When our family gets together for mochi pounding it’s now more relaxed compared to before, but it is still really similar. Now, while we are waiting in between batches to finish steaming, the kids go inside and play board games or video games or just talk story while enjoying the comforts of air conditioning. Meanwhile the adults stay outside and joke around teasing one another and laughing. Before it was more traditional and there were no video games or air conditioners for comfort, but the family was still all there and bonding, just like how the mochi symbolizes sticking together. With all our busy lives, we make it a point to meet at the end of the year to be together. My family gets together for this event every year so that we will never fall apart. The same way mochi sticks together and doesn’t fall apart, even if it is stretched.