Book 1

Book 1

Chapter 1

Morning

“Good Morning Citizen 1012.” Tessa stirred in her bed. “Ten minutes to the leaders message,” a female electronic voice announced. Tessa stretched her arms above her head. “It is now time to hear from our beloved leader.”
As Tessa sat down in front of the TV monitor, she picked up her blue hairbrush. “Good Morning Citizens, let us remember today as we go about our business, that God the Father has blessed our nation because we are a nation of righteous people.” The leader smiled his thin-lipped smile. Tessa brushed her hair rhythmically, feeling the bristles on her scalp. Hair brushing was an effective tool, as she could stare at the TV monitor, while the white lights of the retinal scan softly swept over her eyes. There was a click and a hum as the air conditioning came on. She took the blue pills with a glass of water as she ate her usual breakfast of powdered eggs and oatmeal. Afterwards, she neatly folded her work uniform and placed it in her day bag. This was a typical morning.

The Bus

The air was heavy with moisture. Tessa felt the beginnings of under arm perspiration forming on her brown cotton dress. The city bus a long and lumbering vehicle made hissing noises as it pulled up to the curb. A line formed and people entered the bus, scanning their bracelets as they passed a box by the driver. As she held her bracelet up to the scanner, the white haired bus driver, smiled broadly at her. His blue rheumy eyes quickly locked onto hers. She shivered inwardly. “Well, hi there,” he announced loudly. “Hello,” she said, and quickly made for a seat at the back of the bus. At one of the stops there was a few minutes wait and the bus driver as usual took the opportunity to get up out of his seat. Tessa heard his cowboy boots clicked on the plastic anti-slip floor mats. He whistled and hummed to himself as he strolled along the isle pretending to check the bus.
“Well, how are you?” he boomed at her.
She said, “Oh, I’m fine.”
“Well, it sure is nice to see you.”
She noticed that the soft crater on his nose was getting larger.
“Have I shown you pictures of my house?”
“Yes, about a month ago, you showed me some pictures of your house, it’s very nice.”
“Well, it is nice but it’s awfully lonely,” he said, as he smiled at her.
“Hey, I have an idea, if you’re not busy Friday night, you could come over to my place for a steak dinner.” “Boy, those steaks, sure do taste good,” he whistled and then smiled.
“No thank you, my sister and I are going out for the evening,” Tessa mumbled.
“Well, maybe some other time then,” he said, as he tapped his ring on a metal pole.
She didn’t have to answer back, as a soft chime, caught his attention. He strolled back to the front of the bus and let a tall male passenger on. She hear the hydraulics of his seat his as he sat down heavily, she knew the old hedgehog would look at her before he turned his ignition on and shifted into gear. Hers was the next stop and as she exited the bus, he boomed at her, “Remember that God the Father loves you.” She said, “thank you” while not looking in his direction and hurried off the bus.

Found Poetry

HumanKind

HumanKind:
Please Travel at a Safe Speed,
Yield to Pedestrians,
Yield to Oncoming Traffic,
Eat fresh sautéed or grilled Noodles
Drink Coffee- Starbuck’s
Public Restrooms this Way


Déjà Vu

Déjà Vu:
Open
Close
No Checks
Cash or Credit Cards Only

Autumn (Revised)

The granddaughter awakens
It is early morning, in the garden, pumpkins glow orange
As the wind makes dry rattling wind chimes of leaves
That it pushes around a tree
In which five ravens sit facing west
One she raven caws softly to the others as she tells a story.

The granddaughter sits at her desk, she is writing a story
She begins: The goddess Morrigan awakens
She rises and calls in the spirits of the west
It is early morning- the harvest moon glows orange
She puts on her necklace the one with a pendant shaped like a tree
Bare of its leaves

Morrigan stretches forth her hand, in which she holds green leaves.
The grandmother enters the bedroom where the granddaughter is busy writing her story
The ravens watch the grandmother and granddaughter from their perch on the tree.
The orange cat lying at the foot of the bed awakens
The rising sun casts an orange light into the room; the granddaughter writes facing west

The goddess twirls the leaves while facing west
The leaves
Slowly change from green to orange
The grandmother peeps curiously at the granddaughter’s story
Morrigan awakens
Fall as she looks out to watch the leaves change color on the tree.

The grandmother smiles as the ravens stir on the limbs of the tree
They stretch their wings to the west
Cold air rattles the window of the granddaughter’s room and awakens
The orange cat who is dreaming of chasing dried leaves
The granddaughter pauses her story
As the grandmother drapes a shawl across her shoulders against the chill; it is orange

The pumpkins in the vegetable patch glow orange
The ravens have flown back to the tree
As the granddaughter thinks about her story
The west
wind blows sending more leaves
Sailing into the air- The grandmother who has been napping awakens

The granddaughter’s imagination awakens as the room blazes with the color orange
The leaves of the tree
Stirred by the west wind wait for her to finish her story

Dear Readers,
Last week I published my sestina poem “Autumn” and this week I have worked and revised it a bit. I feel that I need to talk about my original idea before I explain the changes that I made. The idea to write “Autumn” came to me in bits and pieces. First I was inspired by the beautiful autumn that we are having this year. As I was out on my walks, I would see images in my mind of a woman sitting at a spinning wheel, changing green summer grasses into the brown grasses of fall. I thought about creating a goddess character named Autumn and her daughter Fall. I decided not to use the spinning wheel because it seemed to cliche and so the goddess changes the leaves by twirling them. Then I was inspired by a sestina poem called, “Sestina” by Elizabeth Bishop, in her poem Bishop’s two characters are a grandmother and granddaughter. I decided to create my own grandmother and granddaughter characters. I also threw in the ravens an allusion to Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “The Raven.” In my revision, I decided to add certain mythic elements such as the goddess Morrigan and the direction of the west. I did some research and decided to use the mythology from the goddess religion, since it was a goddess character that I was working with. I found that according to the goddess religion Morrigan is the goddess of autumn and west is the direction associated with autumn. In line 10, I also added a harvest moon, which is also associated with fall. I made many other changes to some of the lines, shortening some and lengthening others. Hope you enjoy.

Autumn

The granddaughter awakens
It is early morning, a pumpkin glows orange
As the wind pushes dry leaves
Around a tree
In which five ravens sit quietly
One she raven caws softly to the others as she tells a story.

The granddaughter sits at her desk, she is writing a story
She begins: The goddess awakens
She rises from her bed-quietly
It is early morning- the moon glows orange
She puts on her necklace the one with a pendant shaped like a tree
Bare of its leaves

The goddess stretches forth her hand, in which she holds green leaves.
The grandmother enters the bedroom where the granddaughter is busy writing her story
The ravens watch the grandmother and granddaughter from their perch on the tree.
The orange cat lying at the foot of the bed awakens
The rising sun casts an orange light into the room where the granddaughter writes quietly

The goddess twirls the leaves quietly
The leaves
Slowly change from green to orange
The grandmother peeps curiously at the granddaughter’s story
The goddess awakens
Fall as the leaves change color on the tree.

The ravens stir on the limbs of the tree
They stretch their wings quietly
Cold air pushes against the ravens wings and awakens
The orange cat who is dreaming of chasing dried leaves
The granddaughter pauses her story
As the grandmother drapes a shawl across the granddaughter’s shoulders it is orange

The pumpkin in the vegetable patch glows orange
The ravens have flown back to the tree
As the granddaughter considers her story
The cat jumps out of the tree quietly
The wind blows sending more leaves
Sailing into the air- The grandmother has been napping when she awakens

The granddaughter’s imagination awakens as the room blazes with the color orange
The leaves of the tree
Quietly wait for her to finish her story

Dear Readers,
Both "Autumn" and "Saturday" have been written in a poetry form called the sestina.
If you go to Wikipedia.com, they have a pretty good explaination of what a sestina is (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sestina).
The sestina is a patterned poem. It has a total of seven stanzas. Six of the stanzas have six lines and the last stanza is three lines (called a tercet). It is the ending words that have a strict word order. If you look at my first stanza and label the last words as A, B, C, D, E, F, and then look at my next line, you'll get the idea that I use the last words over and over throughout the six stanzas in patterned ways. As I stated earlier the ending word order pattern is strict.
I wrote "Saturday," recently, for a poetry class that I am taking. I enjoyed creating "Saturday" so much that I wrote a poem for Fall called "Autumn." I hope that you enjoy these.

Saturday

Shutters open to Saturday morning sunlight, I am home.
Sitting quietly in my rocker, I consider,
My steaming cup of comfort.
Lily is stretching in a patch of warm light.
She eats fishy tidbits that I pour into her bowl,
I return to my rocker and private thoughts.

Dozing to my,trailing thoughts
I awaken to, Dorthy saying, "There's No Place Like Home."
I eat oatmeal and apples out of a blue bowl
I consider
how patterns of light,
Play on my feet and I feel such comfort.

Lily's warm body curled in my lap, brings me such comfort.
My solace is interrupted by thoughts:
Early morning light,
Should be spent away from home
I consider
Going to the farmer's market, as I rinse out my bowl.

Skylar's walking halter resembles a cut-out bowl.
As we walk, light encases our bodies, this is true comfort.
At the farmer's market people stroll around smiling, I consider
A boutique of sunflowers mixed with white daises, a thought
Oh home,
A corner that catches afternoon light

Refracted rainbows dance in the light
Flowers are placed in an earth colored vase, round like a bowl
They gaze out at my home.
Lily softly meows, comfort
Afternoon thoughts
Colors shift in the sky as I consider.

Parts of a day not yet over, I consider
How pink and orange swirls of light
Bring thoughts
Of how darkness will hold the stars in an evening bowl
Lighted candles that bring comfort
And guide the wayward home.

These Saturday thoughts are placed on a shelf in the memory bowl
A sputtering candle flickers light
Against the darkness, comfort in my home.