Anya Sees the Gulf of Mexico

Finally I have finished (I think) my poem about this picture of Anya. I've been working on it for several weeks. I think this might be the last draft I make, at least for a while. I hope you enjoy it.

Anya Sees the Gulf of Mexico

Corpus Christi wind whips
her red hair.
Grainy sand rubs
against her feet and hands.

Brown, pink, blue, and green
striped bum
doesn't quite touch
the sand
as she crouches low,
for she doesn't want to get dirty.
Mother says
she must wear pants,
so they compromise
and she wears
her favorite shorts
over them.

Cerulean shovel
matches the sky,
matches the water
that laps up on her feet.

She digs to China,
will sail to the distant country
on the USS Lexington
that sits at bay
across the water
a couple hundred feet.
She'll cuddle
with the pandas,
talk to them,
roll around with them,
gnaw on bamboo with them,
sleep with them.
And when she wakes
she'll venture
back to Corpus Christi
and her family.

Anya sees the Gulf of Mexico.
She soaks in the sun,
imagines,
digs.

after the magic

This is my latest poem. The assignment was to write a non-sentimental poem about Christmas. I tried to stay true to our family's Christmas morning, though I may have exaggerated the negative for the purposes of the assignment. I just want that to be clear so you don't think all I remember is the bad. I basically took a spin on some of my best holiday memories.

After the Magic

Branches hang limp and tired after being cut

from their roots two days after Thanksgiving.

Hundreds of needles blanket the floor,

and the green Sprite bottle that Dad rigged

to water the trunk

sits on the rust-colored carpet.

Sweet smells of pine, frosted cookies, German pancakes, syrup,

and smoke from an old, dirty wood-burning fireplace

are gross smells to tired noses.

Presents have been opened and sit idly on the floor

amid green, red, and gold bows and paper--
Christmas vomit--

that only hours before had been beautifully wrapped

around big and little rectangle boxes and stuffed beneath the tree.

Cabbage Patch dolls, bright pink Barbie cars,

jeweled trolls with blue and orange and green hair,

Legos, Connects, Micro Machines,

makeup, CD players, and New Kids on the Block posters

now lie scattered around the room.

Chocolate oranges cracked against the hard piano bench,

lifesaver books torn apart by sticky fingers,

and seven pairs of bleary eyes look around the room,

one big holiday mess,

and no one can eat breakfast

until the paper has been burned in the fireplace

and the bows have been gathered in garbage bags,

imitations of Santa's bundle,

and saved for next year.

"Don't touch my cars!"

"Give me back my Barbie!"

"We're going to be late to Grammy's house!"

"Come help me set the table!"

"Don't burn those bows!"

"It's my turn to take a shower!"

"You're not helping clean up!"

The holiday magic has been replaced by the whines of children and parents who awoke

three hours before the sun came up.

sd cards & other novelties

Blessed BYU-Idaho gave us a whole week off for Thanksgiving. I definitely needed it. Every time I tried to do homework I fell asleep. (You would too if you had to read Herman Melville!) Needless to say I did not get anything done. That's okay, though. I had a productive day today, and I'll be working my butt off the rest of the week. It will feel good, though, to have actually accomplished something after a week-long absence from accomplishing anything.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. I took two naps! Any day with two naps is incredible. We ate with Heather, Becca, Brandon, Calvin, Larry, Vicki, Barry, Lara, and Mason. Nicole was also there, but I don't consider her a guest anymore. She's there as often as I am. :) We had a wonderful dinner, and went to bed too late for our 2:00 wake-up calls. Okay, I'll be honest. I didn't get up until 2:30. We were out the door by 3:00 Friday morning for our 8-hour shopping trip. I was able to get presents for my nieces and nephews, which was a great accomplishment for me.

On Saturday we decorated for Christmas. And when I say we, I mean Mom and Stephanie. I attempted to do my homework, but I got lost somewhere between Facebook (the devil's most cruel time-waster), the BYU/Utah State football game, and YouTube videos. I did help Stephanie put lights on the downstairs tree while watching the football game--BYU won, if you were wondering--and the two of us put all the ornaments on it on Sunday. The pictures I took for this post are of the upstairs tree, mom's village, and the downstairs tree, respectively.

This brings me to my nifty SD card. My phone has a little chip that you put in an SD card, which goes right in the SD slot on my computer, and I moved all the pictures and videos from my phone to my computer. It's ingenious, really.

Nicole and I drove back to Idaho yesterday. I'm not ready to be back in the loosest sense, but I'm trying to look forward to my nice, long break after the last three weeks of the semester. I can make it! ...Right? I guess we'll see if I can pass my classes and submit my dear Carmen for publishing.

goodbye, farewell, and amen

I finally finished all eleven seasons of M*A*S*H last night. I had already seen many of the episodes on TV, but I bought the entire show on DVD over a year ago and have been watching it little by little. I watched all the episodes in order. Now I'm going to work on the bonus material. I also have the movie, but it's rated R, so I'm opting out of that one. It really is my favorite show.

cloud cover

Here is a poem I wrote awhile ago, but I thought I'd share it since I don't think I've ever shared it before. It's pretty cheesy, but maybe looking at this poem I wrote at the beginning of my college career and comparing it with more recent stuff will show that maybe I have made a little progress in my writing.

Cloud Cover

Oh, how blissful

kisses on the cheeks from clouds.

Are they heaven's tears?

Heavens no!

Kisses that bring life to the green

carpet that covers the earth.

The clouds roll in, stormy they seem.

but they are only bearing the gift of life

to God's creations.

Pooling together, streaming down the streets,

splashing and running.

When will it stop? When will the sun break?

Oh, the beauty of endless clouds.

They will not be defeated so easily.

Here to block the heat of day

from farmers' necks and little girls' cheeks.

Yellow slickers and orange rain pants,

blue umbrellas and red galoshes.

A playground of such brightness

that no sun can create.

Screams of delight as little once prance.

Mothers and teachers welcome the moment

when the outdoor smells are drawn in,

when it's soup and cocoa and homemade bread.

Not heaven's tears.

No, they're kisses instead.

save me

Here is my latest poem. I actually have one that I wrote before this called, "Anya Sees the Gulf of Mexico," but that poem is still under construction. I'll post it once I've finished it.

The assignment was to write about a phobia or anxiety using understatement. Of course you all know that my list of phobias and anxieties is never-ending, so I picked the first phobia I remember having. The picture I selected for this poem made me sick to look at. I hope you enjoy.

Save Me

Button eyes, fuzzy down,

bright green wings,
a small red head,

and a peach face.

A beautiful creature

made by the hand of God.

Once an egg

and now a live thing.

Her tiny talons

aren't really that sharp,

and her smooth beak is blunted

a little bit.

She searches the house,

scavenging for food.

It's what she was born to do;

to feed her babies.

A small child plays

with paper dolls

that have been chewed on the edges

by the clever little beak.

The bird calls

when she has found

her little piece of prey

in the living room.

Screams, but not very loud,

and a mother runs to find

the source

and to comfort the child.

The ear doesn't bleed much,

and Chewy is put back in her cage

to think about her naughty

deed that she is sure to try again tomorrow.

carmen

Most of you know that I've been working on a novel for seven years. I am not used to calling it that. It's always just been "my project," but I am learning that I need to call it what it is. For one of my creative writing classes this semester, my final project is to submit a work for publishing, and I decided that I'm ready to be done with Carmen. I've been tweaking her for so long that I wouldn't just finish it, and the time has come for me to move on.

The idea for Carmen came to me in high school. I first started writing her one Sunday in a sacrament meeting when I was having a difficult time concentrating. Rather than writing the story chronologically, I wrote different sections at different times, and eventually I had all these little pieces of a story that I then put together. Now that I have the whole story down in sequential order, I'm in the editing process.

I would tell more about my baby, but I'm not quite ready to share more than this. I hope that soon I will be able to show it rather than just talk about it.