I am sure you have seen it–the refrigerator door that proudly displays the work of a child or grandchild. I remember having my refrigerator’s door covered in demonstrations of my children’s ability at art or schoolwork, although it has been a few years since then. As they have gotten older, there has been less and less to display and less and less enthusiasm to have it displayed. It’s part of growing up, I suppose, but every now and again, I miss that cluttered door. So, today, this post is a refrigerator door post.
Below is an epic poem written by my son for his English class. He has not yet received his marks on this poem, so I am not posting it because I am proud of his grade. I am posting it because I am proud of the young man he is becoming. I remember when writing anything creative was torturous. I spent many hours sitting next to him working on sentence structure and helping him see where more detail could be added to make his writing more interesting. Now, as evidenced by this poem, he produces fine work without my assistance.
The Battle of Valcoast
From deep within the mountain in the dark and doleful dungeon
Awakens the attendant of awesome volcano spoils
In the village of Valcoast the vale of mountain quakes
For the mighty dragon of Wildebarrow met the warrior of disaster
With a great roar the guardian takes flight on giant wings of gales
And spreads fire to the forest around the fenlands near Valcoast
The Valcoast guardwatch sounds the alarm to alert all
Of the accelerated approach of danger that is the agile dragon
Men at arms blunder out of barracks to behold an awesome sight
For the dragon of death was descending on their village
Flames spew forth from the maw of the dragon
To ravage the robust rosewood ramparts of the stout village perimeter
Above the noise of the igneous inferno could be heard an intimidating sound
For many warrior warrigals from Wildebarrow’s void had been woken
By the dragon to wage war against the warrior of disaster
Atop of the keep tower the disaster-hero took his position
To do battle with the dreadful dragon of death
With mighty sword and mighty shield the magnificent disaster-warrior fought
And though the warrior was the strongest of men the dragon was stronger still
For with one colossal claw the dragon cleaved his shield in two
Though the hero had lost his shield he fought back hard-as-nails
And cut off the colossal claw on the mighty dragon’s paw
All the while the hero fought many fighters were fighting still
For below in the village a huge battle broke out between many warriors and warrigals
The battle was bleak and there was much bloodshed that day
But the garrison of Valcoast won the battle and there were many bellows of victory
The cries were cut short as from far above they heard the clash of a sword
The hero was still on top of the tower trying to slay the beastly basilisk
Hours went by but there was no sign of stopping as the dragon and hero were well balanced
Finally with one mighty swing of his sword the hero struck the dragon’s scruff
And with one final tremendous roar the dastardly harbinger of death was defeated
Many songs were sung that day of the successful battle
And of the warrior’s fight against the dragon and warrigals of Wildebarrow.