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Writing Workshop

4.23.03

I recently participated in a Yosemite Association workshop hosted by Beth Pratt, author and Vice President of YA. Christian Barton of Carlsbad, CA winner of this year’s WildLink student writing contest was also there to explore writing activities in beautiful Yosemite Valley. Below the writings we came up with for some of the activities.

Three Easy Steps to Writing:
1. Get an Idea
2. Add conflict to that idea
3. Write!



Activity: What’s in a Name?
Instructions: use at least two of the words listed below in your description of Half Dome.

Chicken, Artichoke, Null, Knot, Garrulous, Monkey-bars, Tropical, Allergic, Sleaze-ball, Dill pickle
Bayonet, Waxy

The waves rolled fiercely in the tropical storm, tossing the boat as if it were a rubber duckie in a bath. The crests of the waves soared over a mile above the troughs, disaster was imminent – the seafarers were doomed. Looking upward at the ominous sky, one shipmate spotted a break in the clouds. The men watch this area of golden sky expand, and saw a thin layer of a waxy substance fall from it. Fearful now of this unknown, they watched the wax solidify the waves around them instantaneously into stone. Their boat was about to be engulfed by a curling wave when the golden sheath came upon the wave before them and froze it into an enormous rock. The men rejoiced at the base of the glorious granite, unsure of what they had just witnessed, but happy to be alive. This is the legend of how Half Dome and the other domes in Yosemite were formed. - Jocelyn

Activity: Be A Private Investigator of Life!
Instructions: Find a visitor and tell the [imaginary] story of why they came to the park.
Example: “Hi my name is Melanie and I recently moved to the noisy city of Los Angeles. I am from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I was feeling a bit smothered with life and jumped into my car and went to Yosemite. I was alone, don’t hike all that much and decided I wanted a challenge.”

Trapped! That’s exactly how she felt. Walking down the man-made canyon. Towering monoliths of hard concrete, cold steel, and harshly reflecting glass caged her in. All around her, the sing-song ring of countless phones were brought in by a cellular breeze, ‘till finally, one flittered down upon her, and it was time for her phone to ring its high tech melody. Enough! It is time for this prisoner to make a jailbreak. Hurriedly, past the searchlights pointing into the sky, she flees into the night. Fleeing for safety, for sanity. Driving thru the night, trying to reach the comforting wilderness, where no one can find her. Not those calling relentlessly on the phone, not anyone. She is stopped in the middle of the night at a fruit inspection checkpoint, civilization’s last Gestapo-esque checkpoint. She is through it, finally wilderness ahead. She drives the entire night, reaching her destination just as dawn crests over the nearby mountains. Having fled all night she has finally arrived, and begins to cry. Towering all around her are the great monuments of Yosemite. Fluttering about are countless Stellar’s Jays and other magnificent birds, creating a truly glorious cacophony. Wiping the tears from her eyes, a strange content smile forms upon her face, as a single word escapes her mouth: similarities.

I was inspired to write this little snippet, by briefly observing a woman mention, seemingly to nobody in particular, had amazing it was for her to not hear her cell phone ringing all day. Immediately after her statement, I clearly heard a bird start up in song. I couldn’t help but be fascinated, by the irony of man, perhaps inadvertently, trying to reproduce the wonders of nature, and of this valley. Could there be a place in Los Angeles or New York, almost like this sublime narrow yet steep-walled canyon? Where different bird-song rings out? And can the human soul love it as much and in the same way? Ultimately I, personally think we each need to decide these questions for ourselves, but I hope this piece serves to ask the question… -Christian


Activity: Creative Science Writing
Instructions: tell the audience a “story” of the formation of Yosemite Valley

You stand on a sea floor 400 million years old
magma covered and crumpled this basement layer, the story’s now told.
Eroding forces of wind and rain from above,
exposed the granite domes we now love.
Rivers meandered, shaping and scraping the land,
decades of rock uplifting, slowly as with help of gentle hand.
Glaciers plow, pushing boulders with ease,
carving valleys and vistas so grand, who could they not please?
The domes and cliffs you see now was once land flat,
imagine what a few more million years could do to that. -Jocelyn

Memories are among our most precious resources. Able to bring a smile to a face or a tear to the eye, they have the power to transcend. Humans however, are not the sole possessors of memories. Every tree, remembers every drought. Every meadow, remembers the gait of countless visitors footsteps. However, nothing has memories like a rock, which remembers time immortal. Half Dome for instance, was not always such. Almost 500 million years ago, it was a molten mass dwelling beneath a now extinct sea floor, a hot basolith, among other such future rocks. 200 million years ago, the entire region was quickly heaved upward [quickly, by geologic standards]. The now exposed sea floor, which covered the cooling basolith, slowly began to experience the new forces of erosion. Over millions of years, single grain by single grain, the top lying sediments were removed to expose the now cool granite underneath. However Half Dome was hardly distinguishable from the myriad of small granite-based hillocks. More uplift would set the stage for the most dramatic work to be done, by a river later to be named Merced. Carving much like the mighty Colorado River cut the Grand Canyon, the Merced built the Yosemite Valley, exposing most of the Valley monuments was know today. The blocks of granite had finally been delivered to the master artist, who would determine the final appearance of the smooth structures dominant today. The artistry of glacial ice, chiseled away the many edges of the granite monoliths, making such works of art, impossible to create except by the hand of nature. Among them is Half Dome, or perhaps more accurately ¾’s dome, for the glacial artist only sheered a small portion of this gentle giant, much of which can be found in the valley floor today. As the glaciers slowly retreated, a large lake formed in the valley. This Ancient Lake Yosemite reflected the brilliance of the now complete Half Dome, and for a brief period of time one could have witnessed a twin Half Dome. Finally, even the water subsided, leaving behind the flat valley floor, which so many of us thrill to explore today. -Christian

Activity: Poetry in Motion
Instructions: Write a haiku. Haiku is, today, a 17-syllable verse form consisting of three metrical units of 5, 7, and 5 syllables.

White river falling
Snowmelt forever calling
Sounds of seasons change.
-Christian

sun shines, snow melts
one drop at a time. simple.
gravity’s showcase.
-Jocelyn

Springtime’s sleeping snore
Nature’s thin gossamer veil
The falls do I adore.
-Christian