So you really wanna know?

This is my OPINION! I want to lay that out on the line. This is not a factual statement (of course, most of this blog isn't.) You can take this or leave it, but I feel that I must clear up my belief on this for all of you.

So, the difference between a Yankee and a Northerner.

If you have read yesterday's post, you probably took note of the fact that I compared this latest developing boom in Florida to The War Between the States, and called it an "invasion."

This, in my opinion, is the fundamental difference between a Yankee and a Northerner.

A Yankee is someone who invades a land with the express purpose of taking advantage of it for their own personal gain (I am NOT referring to Iraq here, by the way.)
A Yankee is someone who comes to a land and tries to change things, to mold them into how things were where they came from, with complete disregard for the inhabitants of that land.

A Northerner is somebody who had the misfortune of not being born in the South. They are a person who respects others, who works hard, and who does not take advantage of others. Basically, they're Crackers without the good food, the....no, scratch that....they're not even close to Crackers...but they're pretty dang good!!

Abraham Lincoln was a Yankee.
Ted Kennedy is a Yankee.
Bruce Maguire (former St. Johns County commissioner) is a Yankee.
Unfortunately, it's the Yankees who control most of the power in this nation. People like developers...

Paintsmh, you are a Northerner.
My sister-in-law is a Northerner.
Ya'll are not Yankees.
I can sense in both of you a respect for others and a hardworking spirit.
And that is a BIG complement.

That, in MY OPINION, is the difference between a Yankee and a Northerner. Take it or leave it :-D

Thank you all for reading,
And I love you for taking the time to read my ramblings...
No matter how wrong or screwed up they may be :-D

Why I am an Environmentalist

My friends often call me a "tree hugger" and ask me if I want to "save the whales." Well, yes, I love to be in the woods, and I do not want to see them gone. And, yes, if a Right Whale where to wash up on St. Augustine Beach, I would be there to help get it back in the water. However, I do not participate in the blind environmentalism that many people in this country do (*cough**cough*Al Gore*cough*)

Seeing the destruction of natural areas in Florida is horrible, yes, but this is only a visible symptom of a deeper problem: the destruction of a people...a people with unique lives, values, and feelings. I am one of those people...one of the last of my people.

I visited a subdivision last Saturday that is being built on a potato farm that a member of my family used to own. Seeing the cookie-cutter houses on a piece of land that my family has owned for centuries did not sit well with me.

It was a farm. It wasn't a forest with Gophers and woodpeckers, and it wasn't a swamp with Bartram's Ixia and gators. It was a dang potato farm...bad for the environment.

So, what's the problem?

You can set aside nice little preserves to protect plants and animals. You cannot confine a people to a "Florida Cracker Preserve" or a "Minorcan Island." You get to a boiling point, and once it is reached, a culture will disappear forever...It will become blended with the invading culture, or it will be spread out to the point that it dies out within a few generations. This is what happened to the Native American peoples who were able to survive the illnesses that European invaders brought with them. They are fortunate, though, in that they DO have reservations just for them...Lucky souls.

The saddest thing to ever occur in my homeland since the destruction of the Timucuans or the displacement of the Seminoles, is the ongoing extinction of the Florida Cracker and Minorcan cultures...Much more sad than the ongoing extinction of the Gopher Tortoise.

These people moving into these cookie-cutter subdivisions, these people moving from whatever cultureless landscape from which they came, will never understand the pain of watching their culture get destroyed by foreigners. It's the modern War Between the States...It's an invasion.

This, my friends, is the reason I oppose development. I love the swamp, I love the woods, I love the mighty St. Johns, I love animals, I love plants, I love gators, I love ancient cypress trees, I love all this...But I love my people more.

If only they felt the pain...

Here Lies Our Family History

We went down to Mill Creek on Sunday to look at a house that my brother and sister-in-law are renting in one of those new developments (more on THAT tomorrow.) My family used to own most of the land in that area (my GGGG grandfather had 640 acres.) My great-great-great grandfather, Domingo Pacetti, received 50 acres from his father, on which he raised his 300 head of cattle (I told you we were crackers!) That area is now...ugh...But I digress...

While we were in the area, we decided to stop by Mill Creek Cemetery, where we knew much of our family was buried. In fact, I knew that Domingo was buried here soon after our trip to The Mission a couple months ago (I don't know why my parents thought so surely that he was buried there.) Anyway, we found a few things there that I thought I would share with you.

Great grandparents...Great people. My mom loved her Grandma Dora. She was only about 5 feet tall with silver, curly hair. We have short videos made in Mill Creek back in the '60s, when all of the family would be together, and many, MANY chickens would be seen grilling over a fire in the front yard. When Hurricane Dora came through in '64, there was a lot of ribbing going on :-D. My mom loved her Grandpa Harry and Grandma Dora. The house in which they lived still stands, I believe, on a piece of our original 640 acres. It's an oasis right now.

Peter Pacetti (also known as Pedro Pacetti) is my great-great-great uncle. He fought alongside his brother (GGG Grandpa Domingo) in the 2nd Florida Cavalry Regiment under Captain J.J. Dickison (famous in Florida as "Swamp Fox of the Confederacy.")

This intrigued me because I had multiple ancestors who fought in 3rd Florida Company B. They fought in numerous battles, most notably at Chickamauga. I am learning much more about this right now, and I will be able to post much more in depth about their movements in future posts. But for all I know, this guy could be a distant cousin, too.

This right here was a very pleasant and relieving surprise. Do you know what it is? FC, you are not allowed to answer this one :-D

We Found Him!

More on this tomorrow!!

If you haven't read the post about this, you can find it here.

And now for something completely different...

So in my 7 months of rambling on this blog, you have probably learned many things about me:

1. I am very opinionated
2. I LOVE Florida...It is my home, and it will always be
3. I'm a cracker boy and proud of it
4. I LOVE nature
5. I love to kayak and hike
6. I love the South

So take those little facts and compare them to what I am about to tell you...

Prepare yourself...

...

I am a rabid hockey fan.
Yeah, that's right, you read me.
I love hockey.
Weird, eh?
You don't meet too many Southern Florida Cracker boys who have a liking of a sport played on ice. Why, do you ask?

Well..

1. Hockey is the toughest, most physical professional sport played in this nation(don't you football people give me any crap...you have lots of pads, lots of nice play stoppages, and no crazy Russians.)
2. It is by far the most culturally and nationally diverse sport in this nation.
3. The players are comparatively humble for the most part, and they do not make the HUGE sums of money that a lot of football, basketball, and baseball players make.
4. And, last but not least...THERE'S NOTHING MORE EXCITING TO SEE A BUNCH OF EUROPEANS, RUSSIANS, CANADIANS, AND AMERICANS SMACK EACH OTHER AROUND!!

So now you know something else about me that I KNOW none of you would have guessed. I can often be found early in the morning or after dark on my roller skates, with gloves and stick in hand, attempting to refine my street hockey skills that I lost a few years ago after I quit playing for a while. I would love to play ice hockey, but I have never seen ice outside of the freezer...and I have never even seen an ice rink before. I guess that's one of the few downsides to living in Florida :-D.

My two favorite players and my favorite coach. (From Left: Sidney Crosby, Michel Therrein, and Evgeni Malkin.)

Square Bagels

This is another one of my friend, Jimmy's, latest observations. He has a very, very interesting thought process, to say the least.


Ok. So I'm at Sergio's house today along with Phillip and Stan. We had just finished band practice, and went downstairs to get something to feast upon. So Sergio reaches into his pantry and pulls out a bag of seemingly deformed bread. After inquiring about the strange yet tasty bread, Sergio informed me that they were square bagels. Yes, square bagels. I told Sergio that the notion was simply preposterous because bagels are round, but upon closer inspection, the plastic bag did indeed say, "Square bagels". This causes me and Sergio to get into an very heated debate over the existence of square bagels, and if the objects that we held in our hands were actual square bagels, or if they were just really retarded pieces of bread. The way I see it, there are problems with this logic. First off, a bagel is defined, according to dictionary.com, as such:

"A glazed, ring-shaped roll with a tough, chewy texture, made from plain yeast dough that is dropped briefly into nearly boiling water and then baked."

Please take careful note of the bold word. "Ring-shaped". Ring-shaped implies that it is in the shape of a ring, which is shaped, oddly enough, like this:

The above image is an actual picture of a REAL bagel. Bagels cannot be square, because a square is shaped like this:

Now, can someone please tell me how the above shape is in any way related to a ring shape? I'll tell you right now; IT'S NOT.

Therefore, the phrase "square bagel" is a paradox, and a logical impossibility.

Now, despite this clear paradox, Sergio decided to ignore basic logic, and insisted that, despite the given proof, square bagels do in fact exist because the label on the plastic bag said "Square bagels". If I took a box of strawberries and labeled it "cherries", would that make it a box of cherries? Of course it wouldn't. It would just make the person who labeled the box a moron.

So, we can now deduce from this logic that the so called "square bagels" are actually just radiation-deformed pieces of bread, and that the manufacturers who made them and labeled the packages are complete morons.

We can also deduce from this logic that Sergio is completely and utterly retarded, and refuses to acknowledge the most basic of logic.

Case closed.

Silver River

I had a very interesting trip the first time I kayaked the Silver River in Ocala, Florida. The trip was made in my old inflatable kayak, which made for a less than enjoyable ride on the river's swift current.

The last time I made this trip, however, was in September in my nice Pelican Apex II kayak. The combination of the extraordiarily beautiful scenery and the swift current made for one of the easiest and most enjoyable kayak trips I have ever taken.

My parents and I woke up early in the morning to embark on the two-hour drive to Silver River State Park outside of the city of Ocala. This is one of my favorite drives to take because it goes straight through the rolling farm country in the center part of the state. It is always nice to remind myself that most of Florida is still rural, a fact that even a Floridaphile like me forgets sometimes.

As usual, we were the first ones to arrive at the park that morning, and, as usual, my dad needed to stop at the bathroom. While my father...um...took care of his business, I wandered over to the little "cracker village" that they have set up in the woods behind the bathroom building.

And they say Florida doesn't have culture!!

The village they had set up was nice, and it consisted of little houses, a blacksmith shop, and I believe even a schoolhouse. But it just struck me as weird, though...whenever I think of Florida Crackers, I do not think of villages. Maybe I'm mistaken......but back to the story.

We parked at the head of the "River Trail," a dirt path that leads through the woods down to the river. We carried our kayak a half-mile to the river, walked back a half-mile, retrieved our gear and said goodbye to my mom, and walked back down to the river with our arms loaded down with assorted kayak accessories. So before we even set foot in a kayak, we had walked one-and-a-half miles, already more exercise than most people get in a full day.

The weather was absolutely perfect for paddling, temperatures in the mid 60s and clear blue skies. We could not have asked for a better day in a Florida September.

Because this is a spring run (a HUGE one at that), the water is crystal clear and very swift (for a Florida river, at least.) We shoved the kayak into the water, and as I climbed in I got the strange feeling that I was floating in mid-air. The water is so clear (and with no reflections because we were in the shade,) that you actually get the sensation you are floating in the air when you first set off. This is a very strange feeling that can last for a while after shoving off. Welcome to Silver River and Silver Springs, Florida.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This boy (girl?) is a Cormorant. You'll find these guys dive into the water chasing after fish, and then pop up a few moments later to breathe. They're fun to watch. There were 4 others on the branch that this guy was resting on, and one of them promptly tried to shoot excrement at us while we snapped pictures. We took the warning and headed on downstream.

Beautiful clear-blue water. The riverbottom in the shallow areas sparkled as if little pieces of silver were scattered about...I would assume that this is what the river is named for.

The reptile action on the river was pretty good. We saw a few turtles resting on logs like this and could see many swimming underwater. We also heard a gator splash into the water at one point on the river. I love the way turtles rest on their bellies and hold their feet straight out like this.

I want to say this is a kind of Water Hyacinth flower, but I am not sure. I am terrible at classifying plants. But the flower is not the main attraction here, it's the rather intersting-looking spider on the stem. I did not notice it until I uploaded the photos on the computer.

This is my favorite picture from the entire trip. The water all the way out to about 50 feet from the bank was perfectly clear and only inches deep. There's just a lot of beauty in this picture. I will leave you to comprehend it.

Toilet Paper

My friend, Jimmy, writes some very interesting observations on things he sees in the world. Some of these are absoulutely hilarious, and some of them are so gross and inappropriate that hearing of such things will scar one's soul permanently. This is one he wrote a week or two ago, and I was inclined to share it with you because it's just so darn true. I will post his observation of square bagels on friday, too. Enjoy.

"I'm not sure how many of you do this, but when I get a new box of cereal, pop-tarts, shampoo, or something that comes in a box, I like to read the nutrition facts and such on the outside. Why? Because it's fun.

So the other day, as I was putting a new roll of toilet paper on the toilet paper roll, I realized that I've never actually read the toilet paper wrapping before. Out of sheer curiosity, I took a gander.

There wasn't much of ANYTHING on it, but the one thing that intrigued me was the little section at the bottom that said, "Questions or comments? Call us at -----."

It made me wonder, do people actually call toilet paper companies to comment on the toilet paper? It wasn't anything particularly special; it was a normal roll of toilet paper. But it also brings more questions to mind...

Do people actually call the toilet paper companies with questions?

"Can you explain to me how I'm supposed to work this dammed thing?"

"Do you use organic substances in your toilet paper?"

What's more, are there people who are paid to sit by the phones at these companies all day and answer these supposed questions and listen to these supposed comments? It concerns me that there are people out there who have real jobs, doing something to help the economy and do important stuff, but then you have people who are paid to listen to comments and answer questions about TOILET PAPER...

I now know my future job."

Humbling

It's a humbling thing standing next to something that was living when Jesus Christ walked this Earth. It is overwhelming to see something so huge, so sprawling, yet so unknown. No, I'm not talking about my former history teacher, Mr. Sarcasm, I am talking about this cypress tree on Durbin Creek. This huge tree stands as a silent sentinel of old Florida, of a time before European man (yes, this includes my ancestors) came and wreaked havoc upon this land. It stands above all around it, even though its height has been nearly cut in half by a lightning strike. It has weathered hurricanes, been spared from logging operations, seen floods and droughts, and towered over the "development" threatening its very existence. How humbling and what an honor it is to have seen something few people here even know exists. But after all it's been through, a quick push of a developer's bulldozer or a few minute's cut with a chainsaw could completely eliminate it. Existing so long, and gone so quickly. This is an unfortunately common theme in my homeland.

Note: That is not me in the picture. That is my former history teacher Mr. Sarcasm.

Letter to a Yankee (NO comments on the title allowed :-D)

To whom it may concern,

Blood runs through your hands
as money runs to you.
The stain of a million beings,
of a land once living,
enshrouds you soul.

You come for what's here
and change what you see,
and don't care 'bout a poor
cracker boy like me.

You tell us what to do,
you tell us what to say,
and we let you;
that's just our way.

We respect who you are,
we accept what you want,
and you thank us by
ripping out our Heart.

We don't mind you coming
here,
we love to share the joy,
just leave us to our ways,
and listen to a boy.

Sincerely,
A Pissed-off Floridian

Green Thumb Update

I consider myself the only teenager within a 20-mile radius that actually grows his own fruits and vegetables...and enjoys it. As you know, I was robbed of my satsumas by an unknown critter and I have had trouble making my Datils produce peppers. When I mentioned this problem to Mr. Stuart Pacetti, he took me out to his garage and filled a bag full of super-phosphorus fertilizer for me. He said that my plants were likely getting too much nitrogen and too little phosphorus, and he told me to go put a handful of that fertilizer on every month or so. Ever since then, my plants have started to pop out lots of little tiny peppers (and a few big ones.) The helping hand and generous heart of a good Minorcan Cracker goes a long way.













These beauties came off of my tangerine tree. We had a bumper crop this year, and I have taken about 150-200 tangerines off of it. But this isn't the main attraction!












This is "Bubba" the Datil Pepper Plant. I planted this guy from seed off my grandma's plants in last March. He's by far my biggest and most robust Datil plant (thus his name, "Bubba") He has a few peppers growing on him now.












This here is "Stumpy" the Datil Pepper plant. My grandma bought this plant as a seedling from a feed store in St. Augustine in February 2006. And, naturally, he was not nearly as healthy as the plants I planted from my grandma's seed. He did not branch out the way he was supposed to, so I had to cut him down to a stump (thus his name) and he is now slowly branching out from the bottom.












I would like ya'll to meet "Shorty" the Datil Pepper Plant. This is another one I grew from seed back in March 2006. He is clearly the shortest of all my plants, but I do believe he is nearly as robust as Bubba. He's got some blooms with their petals falling, so I may have some good peppers growing from him within the next couple weeks.












This guy is named "Skimpy" He's another one I grew from seed. I am a little worried about him because he is pretty skimpy when it comes to branching and foliage. But he DID produce my first full-grown pepper! We'll have to see how he grows out, but I may have to cut him down eventually.

My first Datil Pepper! This thing may look innocent enough, but it is HOT AS FIRE!! My cousin Bradley once ate one of these when he was young, and his face swelled up and burned for hours. You need only one of these to spice up a pilau or a big pot of Minorcan Clam Chowder. Just think, less than a year ago the plant that produced this seed was just a seed inside a pepper just like this.

Post Finished

I have added the rest of the photos to my post on Julington-Durbin Preserve. Enjoy!

My First Puzzler

I went out about a week ago on a cool night and took a look at my Datil plants before I went off to bed. I took some photos with my awesome (chuckle) digital camera, and uploaded them onto my computer. To my surprise, I saw some things I had not noticed when I was actually outside. I admit that this is not the harded puzzler to ever be posted on blogger, but what the heck, I thought I would just throw it out there...You may also notice that little yellow-green orb near the top of the picture. That's my first good datil pepper off of this plant :-D. But that's another story!

So, how many lizards can you spot?

Julington-Durbin Preserve

Julington-Durbin Preserve is a brand new, 2000-acre protected point of land between Julington Creek and Durbin Creek in north Florida. This very diverse piece of land consists of natural longleaf pine forests, sandhill, and swamp. All three times I have been out there, I have seen bear and deer tracks in the road and some monster armadillos feeding in the bushes. The land was originally slated to be a golf course and gated community by the sickos developing the Bartram Park development in southern Duval County (on land from which gopher tortoises mysteriously disappeared.) Fortunately, a deal was worked out with the state of Florida and the St. Johns River Water Management District, and the land was bought for a public park.

My friend, Phil, and I went out to the preserve two weeks ago to walk a portion of the nine miles of trails blazed through the park. The following is a photo essay of our experience. As you read, try to picture this beautiful piece of land as a golf course and a gated community full of manicured lawns and rich people.

Most of the trails lead through the quickly disappearing Longleaf Pine ecosystem that is unique to north Florida and south Georgia. This naturally beautiful ecosystem is home to many endangered animals such as gopher tortoises, indigo snakes, and red cockaded woodpeckers. In some areas, you may be lucky enough to spot hooded pitcher plants with their long, carniverous flowers or the bright fruit of the beautyberry bush. It is not unusual to hear armadillos, raccoons, and deer rummaging around in the palmettos and wiregrass off the trail.

This intriguing wild animal followed me all along the trail. He seemed curious...

This is part of the red-blazed trail. In my opinion, it is the most scenic one in the park. It leads back through the swamp along an old logging road down to Durbin Creek.

This is Durbin Creek about a half-mile downstream from the power lines and the huge gator. Almost the entire stretch of this creek is completely pristine. But look across the creek in this picture. Enjoy the undisturbed swamp while it lasts, because in a few years there will be big docks lining that bank, all thanks to my favorite people in the world, the developers of Bartram Park.


A timber company used to own part of the land the preserve sits on, and there was a cultivated forest of Slash Pines on here. The park managers have taken out the un-natural Slash Pines and have planted Longleaf Pines in their place. In 50 years this forest will be an oasis of natural beauty in a land filled with cookie-cutter houses, rich people, and transplants..."Progress"

Oops...

I just realized that the links I put on last night's post are a little confusing. What you need to do is, after you click on the link, scroll down below the post, and you will see the posts I was linking to!

Hmm, so this year...

After having "Looking Back on 2006" themes stuffed in our face for the past week or two...It seems appropriate for me to add to it :-D. This year has certainly had its ups and downs, but, heck, life's good. You may not be interested in reading about my life, but...well...I need to post something for the new year. Keep in mind I did not start my blog till June.

My dad and I kicked off 2006 with our first big trip on our Pelican kayak, an 8-mile trip on Durbin Creek and Julington Creek on New Years Day.

I made my annual camping trip (7th year there, I believe) at the Battle of Olustee Reenactment in February. My dad and I drove into Lake City on Saturday night to eat at the Cracker Barrell restaurant. I intentionally wore my period dress, because I knew that Cracker Barrells in north Florida are always filled with culturally clueless tourists passing through to Disney World. Seeing the place filled with men dressed in uniforms, they must have thought They really DO think The War's still being fought! (and it is...just not with weapons.)

June brought a new chapter in my life, as I got into the whole blogger craze with the creation of The Minorcan Factor. I have discovered that there really are other people outside of my family who care about true Florida...however, I have yet to find another person my age who cares...but there's got to be one out there somewhere. It really has been, and still is, a great experience to (sort of) come into the lives of a few bloggers.

June also brought castnet knitting into my life. Though I have yet to post on this yet (darnit, no pictures), I have been slowly learning the traditional technique to create these tools that were so vitally important to my ancestors. One of my favorite old fools, Mr. Stuart Pacetti, has welcomed me into his life and home (well he is a distant cousin, I guess), to learn this valuable skill. I have been told by many that he is the master castnet knitter in Florida (he ties EVERY knot himself, unlike others who just knit together pieces of machine-made mesh.) It is an honor learning from the best. Not to mention the fact that his is one of the best story tellers I have ever met. A true Cracker, indeed.

July brought Camp Hope, which is always a great experience.

June, July, August, September, October, and November brought an unusually inactive hurricane season. Bummer. Unfortunately, it has not quieted down all this global warming *&%& like I had hoped it would.

August brought my birthday and a very memorable trip on Juniper Creek.

December brought my brother Andy back down from Chicago. When I turned the country music station on the night he got home, he asked me to turn it off...Too much of a culture shock. I fear he has been Yankeeized. (And now he'll quit griping about how I have not mentioned him on here yet.)

Well, I have rambled enough for tonight...only about 2 and a half hours till 2007. I will miss 2006, but I know 2007 has a lot to offer me too (such as my sister-in-law coming down from Chicago.) :-D

Have a good night, everyone...I don't really have a sly way to end off this post as I usually do, so I will have to resort to my Bag of Randomness (see below.)Hopefully the new year will bring back my dry humor...and take away this dry weather.

My Editorial

This is the editorial I wrote that was printed by the Florida Times-Union last Thursday, for those of you who do not subscribe to that paper. I know almost all of you who read my blog will be saying "amen" to pretty much everything in here. You're true Floridians :-D.

As a ninth-generation native Floridian, I have an indescribable love for the state in which we live. In my opinion, it is one of the most beautiful parts of this nation in many different ways. But what I look around my homeland, I see my beloved native soil being torn apart before my very eyes. The greedy pillaging of our land, commonly known as "progress" or "development," has wreaked permanent destruction upon Florida's land and culture. It is vital that, as responsible representatives, the leaders of our community take a step back and look at what is being lost as we develop our land. Pick up a kayak paddle, lace on a pair of hiking boots, attend the Florida Folk Festival, and go see what true Florida is about. I am sure you will all be horrified by the destruction, too, after you seee what is out there being destroyed. If we do not implement tighter controls on development now, the Floridian heritage will be relegated to history books by the time my children attend school. I am sure you do not want to be remembered as the generation that destroyed Florida.

Just an update

I suppose I have been lazy lately...well, lazy when it comes to blogging at least! I really have a hard time sitting myself down in front of the computer long enough to write a post, and sometimes when I do, Blogger decides to screw things up by not allowing me to post pictures, closing unexpectedly, not publishing my work even though I clicked "publish," etc., etc. However, in other senses I have been far from lazy. I have had 2 walks in the swamp (more on those later,) a couple kayak trips, two trips down to St. Augustine for castnet weaving lessons, and the usual working and tending to my citrus (which is DELICIOUS this year) and datil peppers (more on those later, too!)

I had plans to go back out into the swamp and into the swamp with a couple of friends this week, but a cold has just come onto me tonight, and I feel like that sludge that mysteriously forms underneath large items lying on the ground for a long period of time. I have started to feel a little bit better now that I have taken some medicine to tend to it, but it seems that I will be relegated to the house tomorrow...and the weather's supposed to be so beautiful!! Well, at least this hit me after Christ's birthday and not before. I wouldn't want to be sick for that party!!

I really should be getting my rest if I want to fight of this sickness effectively, so I guess I must go try to get some sleep. I would expect updates tomorrow, however, as I will be inside pretty much all day.

News Bulletin...

If you get the Florida Times-Union, read today's editorial section :-D

My Own Poetry...

I have posted a couple Wendell Berry poems on here lately, and there is even more to come in the future. However, I wanted to share one with you that I wrote at around 2 in the morning, during one of those nights when I just couldn't fall asleep due to my continuous thoughts of Florida. My "Uncle" Stuart put it very well when he told Coastal Living, "I've laid in my bed at night and literally cried at the devastation." Those of you with Florida coarsing through your veins know what we are talking about. Anyway, I am usually apprehensive about sharing poetry, especially works like this that sound like what my generation calls "emo." Nonetheless, I want to share this one with you, and I may decide to post more. We'll see :-D.

An Untitled Poem
By: HurricaneTeen

O what this tree
has been through
over the years
of its life.
From age to age
it's had little
to weather.

But the termites
have crept into
its sprawling limbs.
It is torn,
not fallen,
but falling.

And every limb
felled from its
majestic trunk
is a limb
torn from ours,
never to be
replaced.

The destruction
is wrought
before our very eyes,
but we are blind.
The termites work
within the tree,
while we plunge
our heads into the sand.

They feed off
off of the tree,
and they feed off of us;
feed off our ignorance.
We allow them to eat
our bodies and souls.

We look to the Lord
with a heart
aching, seeking
to find what is lost,
in futility,
and our souls
will never again
be complete.