Love Poem

A couple of days ago, in a moment of affection, K-bao was inspired to pen a spontaneous verse for sister C-bao.

She uses quite sweeping language in her description of her 4-year old sister: wise, generous, kind.


Of course, a few minutes later, all the inspiration was quickly forgotten and the sisters went back to their normal, um, less loving routine. 

Poetry

K-bao's skills as a young writer have expanded of late, due in no short part to voracious reading. A few snapshots of random notes K-Pop found scribbled on pieces of paper are shown above and below.

K-Pop noticed quite a few nature motifs - sun, spring, firefly, star - as well as some keen awareness of what she is observing and feeling ("hear yourself breathing and you are calm"), as well as what is going on in the background (the observation about K-Mum is a gem). Emily Dickinson, here we come!

Published Author

During her first year in elementary school K-bao made significant progress with her writing, to the point where she officially "published" several short works. Near the end of the school year, the K-folks spent a morning at K-bao's school learning a bit more about her journey as an author. She has come a long way from the when she self-published her first book in late 2014.

The works pictured above include a narrative of her first soccer game, a spooky story about an evil witch, a poetry anthology, and most recently a non-fiction work about her favorite animal, the horse (in a 3-way tie for first place, along with ponies and unicorns).

For the book about horses, K-bao had to spend some time researching her subject. In the process, she learned about the physiology of the horse (205 bones!) as well as distinctions among breeds. (By the way, the reader with a long memory might recall this early post in 2009, when K-bao was first exposed to horses. Clearly her interest has grown quite a bit since then.)

Naturally, the fact that K-bao loves to read has been quite helpful in her overall progression. Over the past year she has devoured countless short chapter books about detectives, rainbows and fairies, ponies and other related topics. It is also certainly true that K-bao's school and first grade teacher have actively fostered in K-bao's class a sense of authorship and a pride in writing.

Performer

It has become abundantly clear that little K-bao is a natural born performer. Whether it be singing, dancing, piano recitals, athletic events, or literary performances, K-bao enjoys being on stage and in the limelight.

Below she writes a few versus and gets on stage - her IKEA children's table - to share her musical creation. Sister C-bao joins her with an inspired accompanying performance on the ukulele.

The Trees

K-bao got up early on a Sunday morning and was feeling lyrical. She got out the markers, and with an assist by Uncle Calvin on the spelling of a word or two, penned the following verse:

The Trees

The trees are very green,

The lake is very blue, 

Roses are very red,

Grapes on trees are very purple,

Flowers are very pink,

What is orange?

Clearly a colorful one, is little K-bao.

Snowy Evening

Here is Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," a patented K-bao interpretation with a little bit of 'tude (notice the Hang Loose jingle at "My little horse must think it queer" at 0:27).

K-bao tends to add dramatic flair to her recitations, and includes some subtle overtones here: "But I have promises to keep" is appropriately apologetic, and "And miles to go before I sleep" is full of dark mystery.

Song of the Witches

K-bao has broadened her literary repertoire with some Shakespeare recently. Here she puts on her best scary voice and recites a spooky poem in honor of approaching Halloween. Sister C-bao listens to the Macbethian witches' chant with a look of discomfort.

唐詩六首

K-bao has been in the midst of a literary kick recently, thanks in part to Auntie Katie.

Here she gives a dramatic performance of six recently learned Tang Shi (poems from the Tang Dynasty), starting with Li Bai's famous "Contemplating Moonlight."