English ibooks redo

CHARGE LARGE

Nainoa Spencer Monday, May 11, 2015 at 11:44:22 AM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 70:56:81:a6:72:89

Table of Contents• Lāʻieikawai• True Diary of a Part Time Indian• Prison Writing• Gilgamesh• Book of Stones• Potiki• Introduction to Concrete Poem• Concrete Poem• Introduction to Original Poem• Original Poem• Outro


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Entry Essay

Entry Essay Spencer to Hamasaki P6

My 2014 summer was both fun and bad, the thing that was really fun about my summer is going to the beach with my friends. The only thing that I didn’t like about my summer is when I had to go to summer school. For summer school, I took World History. It’s good that I got the requirement class out of the way but I didn’t like world history because the teacher I had.

The things I enjoyed most about my summer is when I got to go to the beach. My friends and I went beach every week of the summer. Sometimes I would go to the beach right after summer school since we finished school earlier than regu-lar school. My friends would sleep over my house every week so we all could go to the beach together. Sometimes my friend Akamu would sleep over my house on weekdays and stay at my house until I got back from summer school. When I got home from school, we both went to the beach if he wanted to go. When we wanted to go to the beach, my mom or my brother would drop us off and pick us up. On some days we would go to the beach around 3 o’clock. Sometimes it was bet-

ter for us to go to the beach late because there are less people and the waves start to pick up. Sometimes it wasn’t good to go late because sometimes it got choppy. My friends and I would stay at the beach until it got dark. It usually got dark around 7:20. When my mom picks us up from the beach, she usually has dinner prepared at home for us. Whenever I stayed at home, I would play Xbox with my friends and cousins. It was pretty fun even thought I just stayed home and played games. I got to level up a lot on GTA V.

What I didn’t like about my summer this year is when I had to go to summer school. It was good to take world history in summer school so I could get that class out of the way for sophomore year. The only thing that I didn’t like about the world history class during the summer was the teacher that I had. The teacher I had gave us a lot of work and was going to fast for some of us. The other world history teachers were tak-ing their time and was going slower for the students. I think the teacher that we had shouldn’t have been a summer school teacher because she is a substitute teacher and she told us that she was learning along with us. The class was also boring be-cause the teacher wouldn’t let us talk or she just didn’t know what we should do next. She told us that we would watch a lot of movies in class but we only watched two movies the whole time. The other classes would watch movies at least two times a week. Another thing I didn’t like about summer was clean-ing up everyday after summer school. My brother and I had to help my mom clean up our garage almost everyday.

2Nainoa Spencer Monday, May 11, 2015 at 11:44:22 AM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 70:56:81:a6:72:89

Overall, I think that my summer was actually a pretty good summer. I was able to go to the beach a lot. I think that summer school was kind of junk and boring and it kind of ruined my summer, but since I got to go to the beach a lot it made my summer turn out to be pretty good.


CHAPTER 1

Lāʻieikawai

Lāʻieikawai is a Hawaiian story by S.N. Haleʻole in 1836. Translated by Martha Warren Beckwith. This is the first book printed for the people of Hawaiʻi. This is a book about twin girls that were born without their own father knowing. The twins were sent to live with their grand-parents. These girls were very beautiful and they had so much mana in them.


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Lāʻieikawai Essay

In this book, there are many different aliʻi and they are all unique in many ways. The main character in this book is a female aliʻi (aliʻi ka wahine), Lāʻieikawai, who is a very strong aliʻi. She has so much mana that comes from her grandmother Waka. Waka is also Lāʻieikawai’s guardian who watches out for Lāʻieikawai and makes sure she stays out of trouble. Lāʻiei-kawai runs into a lot of other aliʻi who want her as their wife to sleep with. One of the aliʻi who tries to sleep with Lāʻieika-wai is ʻAiwohikupua. ʻAiwohikupua later on makes a bet with another aliʻi saying that he too wouldn’t be able to make Lāʻiei-kawai his wife. Another person in this story named Halaaniani sees Lāʻieikawai and asks his sister to help him make her his wife, and she does. Halaaniani causes a big problem in this story and messes things up between Lāʻieikawai and Waka. Lāʻieikawai later on finds a husband named Kaʻōnohiokalā. This is the most powerful aliʻi known; he comes into the story and he starts to take over.

ʻAiwohikupua is a demi-god who is in love with Lāʻieika-wai. ʻAiwohikupua made a promise not to marry a girl from the islands and instead vows to marry a woman from Tahiti. When he sees Lāʻieikawai, he tries to make Lāʻieikawai his wife. When he goes to her house, he is shamed because her

house is made of feathers from birds. He comes up with a plan thinking that his sisters could help him win her. ʻAiwohikupua asks his sisters to help him to get Lāʻieikawai to sleep with him, but his sister’s fail. ʻAiwohikupua shows how heartless he is because of what he did to his sisters. After they failed, he de-cides to leave them in the forest to live on their own. This is very haole-like, because Hawaiians shouldn’t be leaving be-hind their own family; they should be taking care of them and helping them. After ʻAiwohikupua returns home after failing, he makes a bet with another aliʻi named Hauaʻiliki, that he, too, would not be able to win over Lāʻieikawai. He accepts the challenge and believes that he would be able to win Lāʻieika-wai. He has so much pride in himself, and this pride is re-vealed when he goes to the beach where Lāʻieikawai is and he shows off to her his surfing skills. Lāʻieikawai notices him and thinks that he is attractive but doesn’t talk to him. Rejected, Hauaʻiliki returns home to Kauaʻi after he cannot get Lāʻieika-wai as a wife and tells ʻAiwohikupua that his sisters are now Lāʻieikawai’s guardians. ʻAiwohikupua tries to test his luck again, thinking that this time he will make Lāʻieikawai his wife because his sisters are now her guardians. ʻAiwohikupua fails and returns home to Kauaʻi knowing that he canʻt get Lāʻieika-wai to be his wife.

Another important person in this story is Halaaniani. Ha-laaniani is a really bad person and he messes things up be-tween Lāʻieikawai and Waka. When Halaaniani sees Lāʻieika-wai, he instantly falls in love with her and then goes to his sis-ter for help to get Lāʻieikawai to be his wife. His sister is


Maliʻo and she helps him and she comes up with a plan to get Lāʻieikawai to be with her brother. Waka decides that Lāʻiei-kawai will marry another chief by the name of Kekalu-kaluokēwā, son of the high-ranking chief of Kauai, Kauakahi-aliʻi, but her plan is ruined because of Maliʻo and Halaaniani. Halaaniani tricks Lāʻieikawai and takes her as his wife and Waka is furious and disowns Lāʻieikawai. I think that Waka didn’t have to disown Lāʻieikawai because she could have given her a chance to change her husband or she could have accepted Halaaniani as her husband. Also, Halaaniani re-minds me of some of the white settlers in Hawaii because white people came into Hawaii and did things that the Hawai-ian people didn’t like. Halaaniani got in the way of Waka’s plan for Lāʻieikawai to marry Kekalukaluokēwā.

The most important person to come into the story is the first-born son of Moanalihaikawaokele and Laukieleʻula, Kaʻōnohiokalā (The-eyeball-of-the-sun). Kaʻōnohiokalā is a powerful god from Kahiki. Kahalaomāpuana, ʻAiwohikupua’s youngest sister, goes to Kahiki to find Kaʻōnohiokalā, her eld-est brother, and asks him to marry Lāʻieikawai. The plan to get Kaʻōnohiokalā to marry Lāʻieikawai is to have revenge on Waka for disowning Lāʻieikawai and trying to shame her. When Kaʻōnohiokalā arrives in the island, people are scared of him because of all the mana that he has. Everybody bows to him except for Lāʻieikawai because he tells her that they are of equal status. Kaʻōnohiokalā punishes everyone who has been bad to Lāʻieikawai. He also takes Lāʻieikawai to go back to Tahiti to live with him alone and gives mana to her

guardians and lets them rule certain areas. Kaʻōnohiokalā also has his own kind of government set up and he tries to change things around. Kaʻōnohiokalā also reminds me of the white people and how they came to Hawaii thinking that they could change things to their own benefit. Some Hawaiians ironically praised the white people because of all the advanced things that they had, kind of like how everyone praised Kaʻōnohio-kalā. Kaʻōnohiokalā also changes the political situations in the Hawaiian Islands, like he makes his own government. This re-minds me of how the haole people came and overthrew the Ha-waiian Kingdom.

This story reveals many aliʻi who are all different and unique in many ways. In this book there are many aliʻi of dif-ferent rank and they all have their own unique way of acting and behaving. While Waka only wants a certain chief to marry Lāʻieikawai, many others try their luck to get with Lāʻieikawai and make her their wife. Many of the aliʻi have failed to take Lāʻieikawai as their wife, except for Halaaniani, and the help of his sister Maliʻo. When Lāʻieikawai becomes the wife of Kaʻōnohiokalā, he arrives in the islands and makes major changes. He also takes Lāʻieikawai away to live with him alone and far away from all her family and friends. While Lāʻieika-wai is away from everyone, Kaʻōnohiokalā is supposed to go down to see everyone four times a year. In this book, there are many aliʻi and they are all different in certain ways because of how much power they have and the things that they do.


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Lāʻieikawai Annotations


True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

This is a book that was written by Sher-man Alexie and published in 2007. This book has won many awards. The main character in this book is Arnold “Junior” Spirit Jr. on the Indian reservation, he is known as Junior. In this book, there is many obstacles that the main character needs to overcome. This book teaches many lessons that we can apply into our


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True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Essay

Sherman Alexie’s Lessons

In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the main character’s name is Arnold “Junior” Spirit Jr. This book teaches many lessons that we can learn in our lives. Junior has many bad things that happen in his life but he deals with them. One of the biggest problems that Jun-ior faces is racism. Another problem that Junior faces is switching schools from Wellpinit to Reardan. Junior’s last problem is dealing with poverty. Sherman Alexie does a great job teaching us many lessons and how to deal with problems like Junior’s.

The biggest problem that Junior deals with is racism. Junior would get teased and bullied a lot from all the kids on the res-ervation because of his physical handicaps, not his race. When Junior decides to switch schools to go to Reardan, however, the other students at Reardan start to be really racist towards Junior. The big jocks at Reardan called Junior names like “Chief, Sitting Bull, Tonto, Red-skin and Squaw boy.” The big jocks at Reardan didn’t punch or get violent with Junior be-cause he was a reservation Indian and ironically thought that

he was a potential killer. When the biggest kid in the school named Roger says a racist joke to Junior, Junior decides to punch him in the nose. Roger laid on the ground and had a bloody nose. Roger was shocked that Junior had punched him in the face. By doing this, Junior actually earns Roger’s re-spect. I think the lesson that Sherman Alexie was trying to tell us is not to judge a book by its cover. The kids at Reardan saw Junior and thought that he was just a little nerdy Indian boy. Little did they know, Junior was not afraid and he hit Roger with a punch. Sherman Alexie’s lesson for this is to not under-estimate anybody based on their looks.

Another problem that Junior faces occurs when he changes schools and goes to a white school called Reardan. Junior has a hard time settling in at Reardan when he first arrives. Every-one stares and laughs at him for being the only Indian in the school. Everybody in Junior’s homeroom laughed at him be-cause of his name, because they all think that “Junior” is a weird name, but on the reservation, the name “Junior” is a common name for Indians. Some of the students at Reardan donʻt like Junior because he is the only Indian kid at Reardan. Junior thought about dropping out of Reardan a couple of times and going back to Wellpinit back on the reservation. Later on in the story, Junior starts to become popular and the kids at Reardan start to like him. Junior starts to like Reardan and is happy that he decided to switch from Wellpinit to Reardan.Junior becomes popular after he starts to talk to the most beautiful girl in the school. Her name is Penelope and she is a freshman in Junior’s homeroom. A lesson that Sher-


man Alexie could be trying to show us is to never give up. Jun-ior experienced bad times at Reardan and felt like he should just give up but he didn’t. At the ending, Junior loves Reardan and is happy that he went to Reardan. Sherman Alexie wants us to learn how to not give up and to keep going. He wants us to dream big like Junior accomplish anything that we want to do.

Junior’s last problem that he faces is his family living in pov-erty. This isn’t just a problem that only Junior faces, but it is also a problem that all the other Indians face on the reserva-tion. Being in poverty is a really hard thing for Junior. When Junior’s pet dog Oscar was very sick, Junior’s father had to shoot him to end his misery. Junior didn’t want Oscar to die, he wanted to take him to the doctor but his parents couldn’t because they had no money to pay for Oscar. Another thing that Junior has a problem with is he isnʻt always able to get a ride to Reardan because his parents don’t always have money for gas. Junior has to hitch hike or catch a ride with anybody he knows driving on their way to Reardan. If Junior can’t get a ride to school, he walks very far by himself. When Junior goes to Reardan, he doesn’t want anybody to know that he is poor, so he just acts like he has money. He has Penelope finds out that Junior is poor when they go to the restaurant after the dance and Junior doesn’t have money to pay for the food. Jun-ior knows that his parents are trying their best to feed him and give him money and Junior loves his parents for trying their best even though they’re impoverished. Junior just makes use of the things that he has and doesn’t complain. I

think Sherman Alexie’s lesson is to always love our parents no matter what. Another lesson I think that he’s trying to show us is to make use of the things that we have and to be grateful.

Sherman Alexie does a great job on teaching us many lessons and how to deal with problems like Junior’s. Sherman Alexie focuses on the main character Junior and gives him many problems to deal with throughout his life. Junior has many ob-stacles that he overcomes and turns the negative things into positive things. This book can connect to some people’s lives because people still get bullied and may have similar prob-lems to Junior. This book can help readers learn lessons that Sherman Alexie tries to show in this book. I, too, can learn some lessons that Sherman Alexie tries to show us in this book. I can’t relate to every problem that Junior has, but I can take out some of Sherman Alexie’s lessons and use them in my life. I think that other people can also read this book and use these lessons that Sherman Alexie shares in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.


CHAPTER 3

Prison Writing

This book was written by Leonard Peltier and Edited by Harvey Arden. This is a book about Leonard Peltier and how he was accused for the killing of two FBI agents. He has been locked up behind bars for something that he didn’t do. Many believe that Leonard Peltier has been setup by the government and they got him locked up in prison for standing up and speaking for his own Native American people.


LEONARD PELTIER

Prison Writing Letter

Dear Leonard Peltier,

Mr. Peltier, I’ve been reading your book, Prison Writing. I really enjoyed reading this book. I respect everything that you have done for your native people and I wish you the best. I hope everything is well and I hope you will be free someday. I’m sorry that you were put into jail for a crime that you didn’t even commit. I like everything that you have for your people and I also wish the best for them too. I can relate to some-thing’s that your people were faced with. I am a native Hawai-ian and we can relate to something’s that happened in our his-tory. My native people were robbed of their lands from the American people. They also tried to destroy our language and our culture. When I read your book I feel a connection be-tween our two cultures. I feel that I can relate to you and your story in many ways. Not only me, but also any other indige-nous group of people can also relate to this book. Your book is such an inspiring book that I think everyone should read. This should be a book that high school students have to read.

This book teaches a lot about racism that is currently hap-pening. Some people think that racism is just something that

happened long ago, however racism still exists to this day. I think that some white people are the most racist of everybody. Even to this day, they still say racist words towards people who are not like them. I hope that the people who like to be racists towards other people will one day know what it’s like to be teased. I also think that they should be punished in some kind of way. Everyone is the same and nobody should be teased because of their race. Just because of someone’s race and looks, they should not be teased about it. You can’t choose what you want to look like and what race you want to be. Eve-rybody is equal and everyone should be respected no matter what they look like and what race they are.

White people are the biggest criminals. They come to peo-ple’s land and take away the land from the Native people. This is a bad crime and they shouldn’t do this because it’s not their native land. Land is a very important thing to Native Ameri-can and Native Hawaiian people. We both live off the land and take care of it very well. We both believe in many similar things. The main thing that we both believe in is to care for our land. Both Native Americans and Native Hawaiians lived off of the land for many years before the white men came and took it away. These American people destroyed our beautiful land and the worst thing about it is they will not return it to the Native people. The Native people have been on the land for many years before the white men came and decided to take it away by force. The thing that irritates me the most about this is hearing the white people complain about other people coming in their area to live and it’s starting to get crowded. In Hawai’i, for example, there is a place on O’ahu called Kailua. There are many white people who live there and they like to complain that the place is getting crowded. They say that they don’t want other races of people moving into Kailua. I don’t get why they say that. This was never their land; it belonged to the Native Hawaiian people that lived


there before them. The white people come and take away our land and they think that they can own it. Like you reveal in your book, native people believed that you couldn’t own the land. Native Hawaiians also believed we need to take care of the land so in return the land will provide us with food, shelter and the things we need from it. Native Hawaiians and Native Americans are both similar in their beliefs and their cultures.

This book also teaches us about how bad our government is to its own people. I think that everyone should be aware of what is going on and how the government is broken. The court system is bad and doesn’t always follow the law. The gov-ernment just didn’t want to disappoint the FBI by not locking you up in jail. This just shows how broken the court system is. They can be controlled by the government and will do what the government tells them to do, even though it’s not the right thing to do. The FBI are supposed to be protecting people not trying to get them locked away in prison for a crime that they didn’t commit. This is not showing justice, this is showing in-justice. The government is corrupt and things have to change. The people of America are basically under control of these bad people that run the government. The government is supposed to help people not lock them up

I believe what you have done for your people is such a great thing. You can teach others how to speak up for what they believe in and how to never give up. Even though you’re in jail and locked behind bars, I like how you are still making an effort to speak up for your people. You are the voice of all Native Americans. You can teach everyone how to become a voice for his or her own people and to stand up for what they believe is right. The biggest lesson that I can take out of this is to speak up and don’t be afraid. Speak up for if everyone could come together as one and speak up for what they all believe in, then I think they will be able to accomplish anything and

get what they want. I respect all that you have done for your people. Not only have you helped your own people, but you also helped out others that are not Native American. You helped out people that are not Native American by teaching them lessons. You can teach many people how to speak up for themselves and they can make an impact on other peoples lives. You are a very strong man, I don’t think that I would be able to do all the things that you do and did. I respect every-thing that you have done. I pray for you and hope that you will soon be free from prison and be able to rejoin your family. I pray for your family and everyone that is important to you.

Sincerely,

Nainoa Spencer


CHAPTER 4

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh is one of the oldest and most universal stories known in literature. This book is a retelling by Herbert Ma-son. This is an epic of King Gilgamesh and his journeys and struggles to bring his best friend back to life. There are the themes of love and death.


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Gilgamesh This is a book about a mighty king that was on a big quest to bring back a friend from the dead. This story takes place in ancient Babylonia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Gilgamesh, the king of Babylonia was on a quest to bring his dead friend Enkidu to life. Gilgamesh was a demi-god and he was also a tyrant ruler to his people. Gilgamesh was the son of Ninsun, a minor goddess that was known for wisdom. Lonely Gilgamesh meets a new friend in this book that is of equal power to him. His new friend is named En-kidu; Enkidu was half man and half animal. Enkidu was brought to Gilgamesh one day when a hunter’s son spotted him. A prostitute was sent out to Enkidu and she took Enkidu to Gilgamesh. This is where the story of these two begins.

When Gilgamesh and Enkidu first met, they did not like each other. They started a fight but then they both realized that they were both equally strong and nobody was going to win the fight. They both realized something about each other. They both saw each other in the other person. They later be-came good friends and they both vowed to stay together al-ways no matter what the obstacle. From this day, Gilgamesh and Enkidu came as close as they could be. Gilgamesh and En-kidu were close like brothers.

Gilgamesh had a big thought in mind that would end up in getting his best friend killed. Gilgamesh thought that him-

self and Enkidu would go to the Cedar forest and kill Hum-baba, also known as the Evil One. Humbaba is a powerful guardian whom Enlil commanded to protect the sacred trees by terror. Enkidu was scared to challenge Humbaba and he tries to change the mind of Gilgamesh. Humbaba was very powerful; he could spring out fire from his mouth and scorch the earth in a moment with nothing left to live. Humbaba is the face of death. He hears each insect crawling toward the edge of the forest; he twitches and it dies. Knowing all of this, Gilgamesh wasn’t scared of Humbaba. Gilgamesh did not fear Humbaba like how Enkidu did. Gilgamesh carries on with his plan and he gets the armorers to build their weapons. Gil-gamesh and Enkidu travel on to go visit his mother, Ninsun to get some advice. Ninsun talks to Enkidu and tells him that he needs to protect her son from danger. Ninsun knows that En-kidu is not her son, but she adopts him and calls upon the same protection that she has called upon for Gilgamesh.

The two friends now continue on with their journey and march on to the Cedar forest where they will meet their en-emy, Humbaba. Their journey would last for three days before they reached the Cedar Forest. Upon reaching the Cedar for-est, it was now Gilgamesh who was afraid. Humbaba’s watch-men sounded a warning to Humbaba. The two friends then continued on into the Cedar Forest. Enkidu touched the gate and he felt his hand go numb and he could not move his fin-gers or his wrist. Enkidu’s face also turned pale like someone was witnessing a death.


After defeating Humbaba in the cedar forest, the goddess Ishtar goes to see Gilgamesh and Enkidu and delivers Gil-gameshʻs royal robes and crown. Ishtar warns them about what the gods and goddesses have been talking about. Ishtar says that the gods have grieved Humbabaʻs loss. Ishtar hinted to Gilgamesh that someone must die for the lost of Humbaba. Either Gilgamesh or Enkidu will need to die in order to please the gods. Ishtar tells Gilgamesh that the only way they will be able to live is if Gilgamesh marries her. If Gilgamesh decides to marry Ishtar, she will persuade her father Anu to relent. Gil-gamesh questions Ishtar and asks “what would I gain by tak-ing you as wife?” Ishtar replies by saying love and peace. Gil-gamesh however didn’t like this idea and he insults her. Gil-gamesh shouts at Ishtar and says, “Your love brings only war! You are an old fat whore.” Gilgamesh makes Ishtar very mad by saying all this to her.

Enraged Ishtar flies to the protection of her father and asks for him to send down the Bull of Heaven to destroy Gil-gamesh. Ishtar plans to have the Bull of Heaven to go down to the earth and destroy many people. Ishtar says, “There will be more dead than living on this earth.” Ishtar’s father Anu ac-ceded her wish and the Bull of Heaven descended down to each and kills at once three hundred men, and then attacks King Gilgamesh. Enkidu, Gilgameshʻs loyal friend sees the Bull of Heaven and finds enough strength and lunges from side to side waiting for a chance to seize the horns. Enkidu, seizing the bull’s tail, twists it around until the bull is standing still, out of breath, Enkidu plunges his sword behind its horns

into the bull’s neck and it falls dead. The goddess Ishtar stands on the wall of Uruk and cries aloud “Grief to those who have insulted me and killed the Bull of Heaven!” Enkidu then hears the cursing that is coming from Ishtar. He tares the right thigh from the bull’s flesh and hurled it in her face and shouts; “I would tear your just like this if I could catch you!” This is where Enkidu shows his loyalty and friendship to Gil-gamesh. He jumps in and saves Gilgameshʻs life when he was in trouble and about to get killed by the Bull of Heaven. This is a lesson that we can learn on loyalty and friendship.

In closing, this book was very good because it is dramatic and interesting. No matter how old you are, anybody can learn lessons that are taught in this book. This book teaches many lessons that we all can learn and apply into our lives, such as friendship and loyalty. Gilgamesh met a friend named Enkidu that was very important to him. They were both very loyal to each other and always had each other’s backs. I would recommend this book to other students no matter what grade.


CHAPTER 5

Book of Stones

This is a collection of many short stories that take place in Hawaii and was written by an english teacher at Kamehameha schools. These stories were all written by Dr. Michael Puleloa. His book has not yet been published, but we had a chance to read his stories before being published.


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Book of Stones: Waves

18

Illustration of the story Waves

Annotations


CHAPTER 6

Potiki

Potiki, written by Particia Grace and was published in 1986. Potiki is the winner of the 1987 New Zealand Fiction Award. Patricia Grace is an amazing indigenous writer and has received the international attention that not many have received.Patricia Grace is the first Maori woman to publish a collection of short stories.


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Potiki Annotations


CHAPTER 7

My Favorite Place My poem was written about my favor-ite place to be. That is in the barrel of a wave. To me being in the barrel is an amazing thing. I like seeing the wave curl over my head while I’m on the wave. When I’m the barrel, its feels like time just slows down. Everything feels like its in slow motion. Getting into a barrel can be a hard thing to do sometimes but its really fun.


My Favorite PlaceInside a barrel is the best place in the world.

Arriving at the beach looking out into the ocean.

You see kids playing in the shore and people out in the water.

Sitting on the sand, studying the waves and how they break.

You finally jump into the water and duck dive under the waves.

Making it to the outside where everybody is.

Sitting on your board waiting for the sets to come in.

Talking to friends and other people while waiting for the waves.

Paddling around trying to read where the next waves will ar-rive

You finally see the sets coming in

And you hear someone yell, “back set!”

The waves roll in closer and closer, growing bigger and bigger.

You start to paddle for the wave that you’ve been waiting for.

It feels like everybody in the water and on the beach is watch-ing you.

You make the big drop and notice you made it in the barrel

It seems like the time slows down while you’re in the barrel.

Making it out of the barrel and earning an in and out.

You see the lip forming at the end and speed up to hit an ARS.

Hitting the lip and catching air to do an ARS

After landing your ARS back into the water

You paddle back out on your board to the outside

Looking out into the beautiful horizon.

Sitting on your board waiting for the next set of waves.



Introduction to Concrete Poem

I created my concrete poem about being a Hawaiian by heart but being an American by force. This means that I am an American but I will always be a Hawaiian inside. We were forced into being Americans when Hawaii was overthrown. For my concrete poem, I put the American flag in the back-ground and on top of the American flag, I put the Kanaka Maoli flag but shaped it into a heart. There is also the Hawai-ian islands on the Kanaka Maoli flag because the Hawaiian is-lands belong to the Native Hawaian people, not the Ameri-cans. By heart, we are Hawaiians, but by force we are Ameri-cans.


Concrete PoemNainoa Spencer Monday, May 11, 2015 at 11:44:22 AM Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time 70:56:81:a6:72:89



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Bibliography Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-‐Time Indian. Little, Brown

Books for Young Readers, 2007. Print.

Gilgamesh. Trans. Herbert Mason. Boston: Houghton MifElin Company, 1970. Print.

Grace, Patricia. Potiki. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1986. Print.

Haleole, S.N. Lāʻieikawai. Honolulu: Kalamakū Press, 2006. Print.

Peltier, Leonard. Prison Writings, My Life Is My Sundance. New York: St. Martin’s GrifEin, 2000. Print.

Puleloa, Michael. “Book of Stones.” N.p. 2015.

Spencer, Nainoa. “My Cover Art.” N.p. 2015.

______________________. “Story of Lāʻieikawai” N.p. 2015.

______________________. “Sherman Alexie’s Indian Lessons.” N.p. 2015.

______________________. “Letter to Leonard Peltier.” N.p. 2015.

______________________. “Gilgamesh’s Friendship.” N.p. 2015.

______________________. “Michael Puleloa’s “Book of Stones.” N.p. 2015.

______________________. “My Potiki Annotations.” N.p. 2015.

______________________. “Killer Filler 1” N.p. 2015.

______________________. “My Original Poem. “N.p. 2015.

______________________. “My Concrete Poem.” N.p. 2015.

______________________. “My Annotation Collage.” N.p. 2015.

________________. “Killer Filler 2.” N.p. 2015.


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