​At the moment, we are in Shelter Bay Marina, Panama, waiting for our Panama Canal transit date.  The marina is nice, with a pool and a restaurant, but probably one of my favorite things about it is Lucky!  He’s a sweet mixed breed dog, about three or four years old who appeared at the marina about a week and a half ago.  Someone put a red bandanna around his neck, and he is so cute!  Some of the people who are on their boats here decided to call a vet for him, and the vet came and neutered him and treated a cut paw.  Lucky seemed a lot better afterwards!  Nowadays he trots all around the marina, stopping to say hi to most people he sees, although he doesn’t seem to like men.  He sleeps on an old towel and blanket in the barbeque hut, or, as the sign hanging from the ceiling says, the Cruisers Palapa.  It’s a huge concrete rectangle with a roof and a fireplace, and picnic tables where people gather for potlucks and barbeques.  He often sleeps beneath the picnic tables.  (There are about six.  So, plenty of variety!)  Lucky was dubbed Lucky by all the smaller blond kids (there are at least four other kidboats here and all of them younger than us and blond).  At the moment, he’s waiting for a friend of the vet to adopt him.  They are picking him up in a couple of days.  I’ll miss seeing Lucky around the marina, but I’m glad he getting a home. 

Rain,on the ocean

​chorus:
Rain,
rain,
rain on the ocean
rain,
rain,
rain on the ocean

Is so beautiful
falling
falling silently
silently
teardrops
from the sky
that utter not a sound

 (chorus)

Where the droplets hit
rings 
spreading outwards
forever steady on their paths

(chorus)

Me,myself and I
just sitting there
gazing
upon this profound perfection
deep,cryptic blue
mottled
with smooth identical orbs
spreading,always spreading

(chorus)

What swims to and fro
beneath that surface
can they tell
can they tell
do they know about the 
teardrops from the sky,
dappling their domain

(chorus)

Teardrops from the sky.

Written by Marin Brook McGlynn

Every morning before school, we do a poetry jam.  A poetry jam is when we write random words on little slips of paper and put them in a bowl.  Each person has one large piece of writing paper and a pencil.  We then draw 5-12 slips of paper out of the bowl.  We write a poem using each word at least once.  These are favorite ones that I wrote.  The underlined words are the ones I drew from the bowl:

​The amazing good luck 
of the jeweled golden arrow
relentlessly
sped through the
pelagic twilight
on the order
of the silver bugle's call
Sometimes you lose something in the act of saving it.
But not this time
I'm good luck
and that't not happening
not on my watch.
It sped faster.

The superior sapphire
was vastly
craved
by many a band
of original outlaws
whose leading law 
was
honor among thieves.
Sadly,
it soon became entangled
and choked
in vines and ivy
til
nothing
remained.

The jeweled palm tree
whispered
to the weary dogs:
the cry of the monstrous beast
beware its vastness.

The cats stood
gazing sadly and compassionately
at the milky way
as if searching
for inspiration
to avoid such a relentless fate
as they had foreseen
in the wise constellation.

The legend says,
the rainbow of compassion
regenerates from the  very
feather of the cycle
of wonder and amazement.