Moving to Wordpress

I have moved to wordpress. The look is more me, I think.

https://nashesays.wordpress.com/

Life Gives lessons

Its been a while...But a lot of things have happened since I've last written and all have been the source of my inspiration of this new poem. Maybe in a later post I will explain what exactly happened but for now pause and listen.

Road of Life (Listen)

[Road 

Begins]

Life give Lessons

If we pause and listen.

Soul yearns to ascertain

Yet Mind renders it 

Heedless

The trees breathe out wisdom

If we pause and listen.

Soul seeks to understand

To learn its movements

Yet Mind shuts out all

Substance.

The Waters enlighten humility.

If we pause and listen

Soul desires to emulate

Yet Mind lusts

Eminence.

[Road diverges

When Lust is befriended]

If we pause and listen

The winds howl in trepidation.

Soul strives to perpend the omen

Yet Mind only mocks it

His blinded eyes take no 

Caution

If we pause and listen

The fires roar in indignation

Soul fears for its life

Yet Mind only seeks its earthly pursuits 

Slowly, steadily

[Approaching

Death] 

If we pause and listen

Death gives lessons

My dear Soul, do not fear Guidance

Lead Mind out of Indulgence

Death shan't give lessons

For then

Road

Ends.

Quick Tips for the SAT

Here are a few notes that I've written over the past month while I was studying SAT. Hope it helps!

Critical Reading tips 

• to answer questions, look for explicit evidence in the passages
• Don’t overanalyze questions, be concrete not abstract
• choose general answers not specific ones
• When reading questions, look at the word choices. Pay attention to words like except, how much, intent, would, should, disagree, agree. (all subtle)
• ALWAYS read the quotes mentioned in the question. Refer back to them even if you had a solid grasp of the content. 
• If a question/answer choice confuses you, switch the words around and see if it makes more sense
• Consider all answer choices before selecting. (remember this is the quest for the best)
• Make sure you understand the context that you derived your answer from.
• Always, when reading a passage, understand the structure of it (ask yourself is it an essay, anecdote, opinion, analysis, persuasive paper, argumentative paper, research paper…etc.)
• don’t get lost while you read, instead mark as you go and make sure you understand what the author is trying to say.
• If an answer choice is true (that is, backed up by solid evidence) then most probably it is correct
• In the passages circle words/phrases that pertain to the theme of the passage
• Pay attention to tenses in the questions (eg. was vs. is,). They may provide clues…
• Pay attention to WHO wrote the passages, ESPECIALLY the double passages 
• understand what words are neutral, positive, or negative especially when attempting to answer a question.

Writing Section

For Sentence improvement

• read all the choices carefully 
• who vs. whom (who is for the subject, whom is for the object)
• understand what exactly the clause is modifying
• Check for the use of correct verb tense.
• pay attention to pronoun cases, pronoun number agreement, or misuses of pronoun, or anything pronoun.
• don’t confuse the uses of who and which.
• adjectives vs adverbs, (may seem obvious, but can be very easy to miss)
• remember hardly nothing is not correct (double negatives are never okay, except if you are a silver-tongued British—but even then you would have to be of the Victorian age to make it sound remotely sophisticated)
• check for redundancy. The reason is…because is an example of redundancy
• Diction questions do come up. This is another one of those that are very easy to miss. Here are several examples:
• accept/except
• adapt/adopt/adept
• affect/effect
• allude/elude
• ambivalent/ambiguous
• due to/result of
• eminent/imminent
• imply/infer
• precede/proceed/proceeds
• discrete/discreet
• elicit/illicit.
• Understand the difference between countable and uncountable nouns. fewer, number, or many should be used only in reference to countable things (eg. cats,  bottles, pens). Less, amount, or much should be use only in reference to uncountable things (eg. money, space, water)
• Be careful with illogical comparisons. For an example, His works are much better than Charlotte’s. What are we comparing here? In the sentence it sounds like we are comparing someone’s work to a person when really we want to compare his work to Charlotte’s work. We fix it by writing, His works are much better than those of Charlotte’s.

Clair de Lune

I wrote the piece, "Clair de Lune" a year and a half ago for an English assignment. It was inspired by a piano piece that I was playing during that time called Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy. Sometimes when I play a piece, especially one that I have a deep attachment to, I tend to paint a scene in my mind and refer to that when I play so that my song is consistent and not swayed by moods. This is the scene that I crafted and remains by far the best I ever imagined.

    It was when I touched the first note, I felt an intoxicating peace run through my veins, nothing like I felt before. The blue lighting uplifted me into another world, a world too good to be true. All that was there, was the piano, the notes, and me. 

     The notes started to paint a scene. The images of the moonlight shining across the river, and reflecting its gleam on the still, quiet waters were breathtakingly vivid. A young girl was sending a small flower from the silent shores to the river. It was as if all her hope was stored in that flower, with a longing that only one can fulfill. My only fear was that my notes would disturb the flowing waters, so out of a strange obligation for the girl in my mind, I carefully created every single note with heart so that it would uphold the girl’s flower. The flower floating on the waters, was accompanied by the light that the moon gifted to her, and the river that supported her. Together they became one, fighting for one purpose, to fulfill the longing that the girl put into the flower. I watched in awe as I witnessed this nonexistent beauty, something that I longed to bring back to my world. 

     As the flower vanished into nothingness, I found myself slipping out of this dimension that I was brought too, “No,” I cried. “I cannot leave this place.” Yet, this was not in my hands at all, it was all in the hands of music and where it decides to take me to. My trance was over and there it was again; the piano, the notes, and me.

Noise

I am so excited to share with you that I just penned my second song of the year! Probably the most honest song that I have ever written :)

Noise 
It seems like everybody’s got a story that they want to share
But when I try speak up nobody seems to care
It seems like our voices evanesce into air
Cause right now, I am trying to figure out if I am even there

So, Take this noise right out of my ear
Yeah I am done trying to hear
Listen close, my heartbeat’s clear
No I’ve got nothing to fear

I will brave the dark, figure out the night
Got a pen but I won’t let you write
This is my story, this is my light
I’ve got nothing to hide.

Love hate peace in one phrase, Its they way people express these days
Earth, fire, money for the gain, it the only way, they say, to find our place
It seems like our voices our trying to leave a trace.
Right now, I am trying to figure out if we are even sane

So, Take this noise right out of my ear
Yeah I am done trying to hear
Listen close, my heartbeat’s clear
No I’ve got nothing to fear

I will brave the dark, figure out the night
Got a pen but I won’t let you write
This is my story, this is my light
I’ve got nothing to hide.

But it doesn’t work that way
When you are trying to hear what they gotta say

No it doesn’t work that way
When you learn to fear what they wanna say

So, Take this noise right out of my ear
Yeah I am done trying to hear
Listen close, my heartbeat’s clear
No I’ve got nothing to fear

I will brave the dark, figure out the night
Got a pen but I won’t let you write
This is my story, this is my light
I’ve got nothing to hide.



 Tell me what you think in the comments below (and maybe someday I will post the audio online!)

Who am I?

This is my second insight poem. Again still rough, but it was written in the wilderness :)

Who am I?
You Know sometimes
You just think you know yourself
I just think I know myself.
Like, I got this all figured out.
This billion-pieced puzzle called,
Life.
Only to be hit, right smack in the face.
I get up, only to get knocked down,
Again.
Funny, isn’t it?
People ask me questions:
What do you wanna be?
Who did you used to be?
I answer: I mean
I sort of guess the right answers.
I pretend to look
confident, secure, sure.
While I really am just
broken. A broken billion-pieced
puzzle. Each piece tastefully
Snickering at me.
A puzzle that really,
No one can put together
Not even me.

But, an impeccably manufactured mask
hides this
Peculiar Puzzle.


My mother then says,
Don’t you try to masquerade it,
Masks can only hide the replicated
So what, am I replicated?
Mum please tell me.
No, my darling you are not a
Replica.
So I tell you to
Remove the mask
Show everyone
All the damaged pieces.
Maybe that puzzle can’t be fixed by
You.
But don’t you let it define
You.
Don’t live your life a lie.
Baby please,
Remove the mask.

So I. I painfully. Painfully I. I remove. Remove the. The mask.

Everything feels raw
Red, hot, raw

And
I embrace this funny thing
called Life. I get knocked down seven times,
Get up eight times. I laugh with the pieces.
With the pain,
the sadness,
the humiliation.
I burn the mundane mask,
Expose my imperfections.
Red, hot, raw.

So ask me those questions
Again. Except this time,
Don’t you dare ask me
Who I used to be
Who I want to be.
But rather ask me,

Who
I
am.

Now.

At this
very Moment.

Cause frankly
I am not afraid of it
No more.

Return from the Wilderness

I just had the best experience of my life! To keep it short, a group of us juniors trekked the tallest mountain in the Kanto region, by foot, for four days and three nights. We literally climbed our way to the top as beginners and descended to the bottom as tree huggers (well not really). So after 4 days and 3 nights out of civilization, I am back and boy, do I feel good:)

I learned many, many valuable lessons on this exciting journey and I wish I could just write it all at once, but I guess that would be boring and uninspiring...

However one not so boring thing that I learned was that when I am not so distracted from the pervading wi-fi and technology, I gain insight into things that I never really took much time to delve into before. I wrote a few poems that I probably never would have, were it not for this journey.
It is still rough, but I would like to share one of my "insight" poems.

My Goal in Life?
So people ask me,
What’s your goal in life?
I give them my very
Habitual answers
And pray that satisfies.
Lawyer, CEO, Doctor,
Rich, Powerful, Familiar
undergraduate at Stanford,
Doctorate at Harvard.
I mean, those answers that make
Mum's face shine bright
Dad nod with approving pride.

I never say what I really think, 
though.
No, can’t risk spitting
the embarrassing Truth.
But,

Maybe
My goal in life is to just
Survive
As long as I can before
Death.

Or maybe it is as simple as
living to make others smile,
or to live to destroy the vile.

Maybe it is living to
inspire and motivate others
Or to teach
and educate one another.

Maybe it is living
to feed the hungry
and roof the shelterless
Or it is to
Breathe colors for the lifeless
Paint harmonies for the hopeless

So what, if my goal does not accumulate
much monetary wealth.
I might not wish to live to overwhelm
my material shelves.

Maybe my goal in life is to be
Rich of things that Fire can’t 
Burn.
To feel secure by treasures
That dirty hands will never yearn

Maybe my goal in life
Does not make the perfect package
But, honestly I am okay With that.
Cause quite simply my
Goal in life is to
Savor, every last lick
This gift of life.
Make sure that I share
Every single bite
tasty or not
with some other.

Don’t you dare tell me that is not
A worthy enough goal.

Don’t,
You,
Dare.