“Long Story” (from 1986)

The wind whirled past my red chapped face. I was on my way home, walking through the forest. My car had broken down about 2 miles back. I wasn’t that far, but it seemed like forever. the wind died down, the trees stopped swaying. All was silent but the leaves crackling beneath my feet.

The noises of the forest seemed to get louder and louder. I began to run, going faster and faster. It sounded like a whole army was following me. I could see my house gleaming in the distance. The porch light was on. I knew if I could just get there I would be safe. It got closer and closer, but I never seemed to be able to reach it.

Then suddenly, it disappeared. I sank to the ground in tears, wondering “where did it go”, over, and over I said in my mind. My eyes became heavy, and soon I was asleep. I woke up by the sound of birds chirping loudly. I got up, and I was nowhere near the forest.

In the distance, I could hear the sounds of a waterfall. I walked in the direction, and soon I found myself standing in front of the most beautiful waterfall on earth. It was made out of all the colors of the rainbow. I walked around to the other side on a nice little bridge. On the other side there was a small, self inflating boat. I looked around to see if someone could be looking for it, but there was no one. I pulled the cord, and the boat blew right up.

I looked around to see how I could get to the bottom. I noticed a staircase leading down, over to the right. I went down to the bottom, got in my raft, and went down the river. I soon landed on a small island. The river ran on to the left and the right. there were many huge trees here. they were full of fruits and candies.

I collected as many as my boat would hold. i pushed off and rode down river. In my amazement, I saw in front of me a huge waterfall. It must be like giant set of steps, leading up and down. I wondered what could be at the bottom.

[this is where the story seems to end...i haven't yet found a continuation of it in the journal, so i assume i completed the assignment and stopped...]

1/17/86 - Mime

Today I performed for the entire student body at the student assembly. I did a mime act. And I don’t think anyone liked it. I mean, they clapped at the end. but when Mr. Attaway announced that I was doing it, everyone booed! I felt like not doing it, but I knew I had to. So I went through it and it went fine. I was naturally nervous, but not too much. many people back stage wished me luck. I was glad to atleast have some ones support.

1/20/86 - Language Notebook

I will talk about the movies I saw later! Well, I accidentally left my language notebook in Mrs. Garriss’s room. I panicked when I couldn’t find it this morning, so when I got off the bus I went strait to Mrs. Garriss’s room. It unfortunately was not there. I felt terrible. I had tons of information stored in that notebook. When I got to language we had a sub. Write when she gave the assignment I asked Cory D. if I could borrow a piece of paper. Right as I started to begin my work, Tyrone Butler found my notebook. I am also writing in it right now, about that little situation that happened today, on Monday, January the 20th of 1986!

I hope these aren’t getting too boring for those of you who read my blog, but they are just too entertaining to pass up. It’s amazing going through my journal from 20 years ago, to see what I was thinking and writing about. And besides, the journals ends in May 1986, so there’s not that much more to go :-).

Last page in this series of poems from 1985.

Snow

snow,
little flakes,
winter signal,
softly dopping,
on hard soil,
snow

Sugar

Sugar,
crystals of taste,
sweeten my day,
little tiny grain,
sugar.

Koala

Koala,
furry,cuddley,
beast without burden,
creature of warmth and love,
Koala.

School

School
is a little brat
running home to tell mom,
that teacher fussed at him,
school.

I’m so glad this is the last of this series.

Another page from 1985.

Lunch

Lunch
tasty, sweet,
hurry through the line,
Lunch

Pizza

Pizza,
pepperoni salad,
topped with cheese sauce,
Pizza,
Yum

Rocks

Rocks,
boulders tumbling
onto my feet if i was,
an insy, tiny and
Rocks

Bird

Bird
plane soaring,
in the nice cool breeze,
It dives at me I hide in my hole
I’m a worm, afraid of the,
Bird

Light

Light
shine in the window,
warm me up inside
feeling of care
Light

It pains me to share these with you all, but alas…this is how I wrote in 1985.

This is one of three pages of poetry from my childhood journal, from 1985 and 1986. Trust me, my writing has improved significantly since 1985 :-).
Nature

Nature is a gift,
that was given to us.
I think we should save it,
or it will drift away.
Please help it stay here,
I don’t want it to go
I love it don’t you,
you all should believe.

World

In the world of wonderful things,
anything could happen.
You might shrink or
you might think about
unicorns, witches, and monsters.

In Mirror Land

In Mirror Land we see things backwards
like dandilions upside down.
We walk on the sky,
Our head bumps the ground
The animals think we’re backwards.

Apples

Red,
golden, sweet,
juicy, yummy, good,
I like them inside, the best,
Apples,
Red.

* All of these poems are of course Copyright, me, now.

2 December 1985 - My journal requirement was apparently to list out all the things that “poetry is”. It was interesting to read through this list to see how I felt about writing over 20 years ago. So here it is in edited form (I corrected spelling errors only):

Poetry is…

exciting, interesting, spectacular, mysterious, crazy, weird, silly, funny, ecstatic, wonderful, full of ideas, super, special, nice, good, excellent, cute, ugly, pretty, handsome, stunning, thrilling, neato, awesome, wow, questioning, thinking, writing, imagining, deciding, wondering, contemplating, having something, not knowing something, being happy, being sad, being cheerful, being glad, being disappointed, being depressed, being sensitive, being caring, being helpful, being descriptive, describing showing life, showing animals, showing nature, showing people, wonderful to behold, something to sink your teeth into, an amazing jumble of words, spectacular ideas coming to life, feeling pain, feeling anger, feeling happiness, feeling emotions, being delirious, having friends, about family, about friends, about pets, about intangibles, about tangibles, about swing sets, about tree houses, about beach.

A journal entry from some time in 1985:

1101 Cee St.
Slap, N.D. 10111

Mr. Wishy Washer
6111 Walk Gum Dr.
611110 Sing, N.J.

Dear Mr. Washer:

I think that it would be nice to be watching a movie, and not have to listen to 10,000 commercials every 5 minutes! I would say that a lot of people will probably agree with me so I am going to put it bluntly! If you are watching a late movie and it leaves you hanging, and there is a whole line of commercials, from cereal to deodorant, you would like to quickly see what happens. If you have to wait for all those commercials to pass, you are going to get bored, waiting to find out what happened to Lucy when her husband walked in the room, and found her with another man. I sure wouldn’t want to wait! I hope that you will keep these in mind when you decide to make a change or not.

Sincerely,

Heath Buckmaster