Out of the Past

I was talking to my best friend E the other day and he brought up something from the past that made me smile.

E and I have known each other for quite some time and went to the same junior high and high school. Though we weren't particularly close back then, usually our last names put him sitting right behind me during homeroom or other classes with alphabetical seating arrangements.

Anyway, E told me that something he's always remembered was that I once showed him this language I had made up and it really impressed him that I had even gone to the trouble of conjugating the verbs. I had totally forgotten about that! Gosh, what a little nerd I was (and still am)!

I'm going to raid my high school files to see if my petit language is still around. If not, I'm sure it will be fun to read all the stories and poems and other random scribblings. I was so in my own little world back then.

Until I report back, here's something that I do remember (it actually got an honorable mention in an LAUSD poetry contest...the theme was "Discovery"):

An Accident and a Discovery

An accident and a discovery
He saw it no other way
A new talent was found
For no-talent Jim Gray

The slip of the hand
The loss of a life
The fresh scent of blood
On his broken-in knife

Morbid thoughts unleashed
From his no-talent mind
A killer he is
What a wonderful find

Meticulously slashing
His newest ambition yet
The unassuming corpse
Someone he never met

No talent should be wasted
Says no-talent Jim Gray
Especially when you're so bored
And haven't any pay.

I wrote this as a sophomore, and I was pretty dark in my thoughts back then. Most of the winning poems had to do with discovering yourself, beauty, knowledge, etc. and there I was with a poem about discovering serial killer tendencies. I'm actually surprised my English teacher didn't send me to counseling.

My Holiday Card

This year, I wrote a little holiday poem and designed a card around it:

Click here for the larger version.

Here's the text of the poem:

Hope it's warm where you are
That your loves aren't too far
That you get gift cards galore
And tons of swag you adore
And that you have a more than memorable night.

Hope you have yummy treats aplenty
That you order peppermint mochas in venti
Hope you have sugar with your spice
And remember that being naughty can be nice
And let yourself live with all your might.

Hope the new year brings out the best

That you don't have to face another test
That you can to sleep in peace
That all your worries will cease
And that world again will feel right.

Hope we can see each other more
Hope we can rock it to the core
Hope I can give you what you need
Hope you can give me the same, indeed
And I hope that above all your heart stays light.

Poetic Love

For Valentine's Day, one of my favorite love poems (not to mention the source of my name):

Annabel Lee
by Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

The fifth stanza always gets me: "...neither the angels in heaven above, nor the demons down under the sea, can ever dissever my soul from the soul..." There's nothing better than romanticizing tragic love (and nothing worse than actually experiencing it.)

In any event, hope everyone is having a lovely (non-tragic) day!