Daze of Write and Roses

Two

When I was a child of two or three
We went for a drive, my family and me
At Christmas time, in the dark of night
To look at the carriers all alight
We drove down the pier and we looked at the ships
(A journey much shorter than some other trips)
I was learning my numbers and saw one I knew
I pointed my finger and cried in awe, "Two!"
And although it's been many years since then
My mom tells the story again and again
Of that two in the sky that I saw glowing bright
And pointed out proudly that cold winter's night
They don't light them up now, and you can't drive down
The piers by yourself, not in this Navy town
But though I'm twenty-five (nearly) now, this is true:
I shall never forget how much I loved that two.

All right...so I finally caved and decided to do OctPoWriMo 2014. It's technically Day 4, so I've got a few days to catch up on. This is for Day 01: Breaking Out of the Box. The title of this poem is from the poem "The Butterfly Jar" by Jeff Moss.

When You Are Here With Me

When I was a little girl
I had a book of poetry called The Butterfly Jar.
The first poem
was all about how thoughts and dreams are like
butterflies.
I thought about that a lot.
I thought about how
my thoughts wanted to be free
my dreams wanted to take flight
my hopes wanted to be shared.

When I was a little girl
I had a lot of ideas about what to be when I grew up.
I wanted to be
a nurse
or a teacher
or a stay-at-home mom
or an Olympic gymnast
or a lawyer
or a minister
or a pilot
or a ballerina
or a famous musician
or an astronaut
or an actress.
I thought a lot about what I would do.
I thought about what would happen
if I got to do one of these things someday
if I became somebody famous
if someday they wrote books about me.

When I was a little girl
I had people who would ask me what I wanted to be.
I would tell them what I dreamed about
on that particular afternoon.
And they would almost always tell me
that I would never do it
that it would take too many years
that I didn't have what it took
that I wasn't smart enough
or pretty enough
or thin enough
or good enough
I
wasn't
enough
for any of them.

When I was a little girl
I spun my chrysalis
not to nurture my ambitions
but to protect me
to shield me from a world that didn't believe
in the power of my dreams
to block out the sounds of doubts
but what I didn't realize
was that locking out everyone else's doubts
just left me locked in with my own.
I didn't care
because at least I was safe
at least no one would kill my butterflies
before I was ready to let them free.

When I was a young woman
people started asking me again what I wanted to be.
I told them that I wanted to be
a writer.
And my grandparents told me
it was a waste of time
and my father told me
it wouldn't pay
and my mother told me
I'd better have something to fall back on.
And then I met my friends
my sorority sisters
my writing group
and they
told
me
yes
they told me that I could do it
they told me that I would do it
they told me that they wanted to see what I had written
and I showed them
and they asked for more.

When I was a little girl
I spun a chrysalis to protect myself.
And when I was a young woman
I found friends who put me in a safe place
where I could be nurtured and grow.
And now
I
am
free.

To those of you who have just stumbled on this, hello. This is the official blog for Bronwyn Sciance, a.k.a. Olivia Grambo. I am both an author and a poet. This is just sort of to introduce me, so I'll share with you a little about myself.

I "published" my first book at the age of six, a story about a girl named Alexandra and her cat Shadow who got lost in a rather extensive garden, called "Under the Lilacs". I wrote the story for a spelling exercise in first grade, edited it, organized it, typed it up with the help of my mother on a Macintosh computer and "The Amazing Writing Machine" software, did what I laughingly call "artwork", printed it on hot pink paper, bound it in plastic sheet protectors tied with rainbow yarn, and presented it to my teacher/principal. That copy still resides at The McLea Day School, where I attended at the time.

Today, I am a junior in college, where I am majoring in what else but English with a concentration in Creative Writing, and would be perfectly happy to do nothing but write for the rest of my life. I am a geek, an obsessive reader, a New Yorker by birth, a Virginian by the infinite wisdom of the US Navy. I am a slightly overweight person (in the sense that the Pacific Ocean am a slightly damp area) who likes wolves, Broadway musicals, and bizarre mixes of country and oldies music. A former Girl Scout, I do my best to be honest, to be fair, to help where I am needed, to be cheerful, to be friendly and considerate, to be a sister to those around me, to respect authority, to use resources wisely, to protect and improve the world around me, and to show respect for myself and others through my words and actions. (I still say the Girl Scout Law the way it was in 1994, when I joined Daisy Girl Scouts, and refuse to accept any later revisions.) I am a singer, a flautist, a writer, a United Methodist, and a child of God.

I am an active member of the Epsilon Sigma chapter of the Phi Sigma Sigma sorority and enjoy spending time with my sisters, whether we are watching movies, playing card games, going on midnight beach runs, or just sitting around in someone's dorm room surfing the Internet and reading at one another. Aspects of my sisters can be found in my writing, not on purpose (usually) but because certain characters take on certain aspects of people I know. I have a skewed sense of humor, as shown by my personal motto: Laugh, and the world laughs at you; cry, and the world laughs harder. On occasion inside jokes slip into my writing, rarely getting explained because I like watching people's minds struggle with casually thrown-out statements like "That is NOT my banana". I still write on a Macintosh computer, although it is a MacBook Pro liberally adorned with stickers, which is named Siobhan. I also use a Smith-Corona Coronet 12 Automatic Typewriter on occasion, although not as often as I used to since the “Shift-Lock” key got jammed.

Besides writing, my hobbies include numerology, tarot and rune stones, and I have made birth charts for a number of my friends. I also enjoy crocheting and counted cross-stitch. I am a member of the National Forensics League and lettered in Forensics (public speaking, not digging up dead bodies) in high school. A former IB student, I missed getting the diploma by one point because of a 3 in Higher Level Physics, which is two more than I feel I deserved. I am an occasional French teacher at McLea and also play piano for the Christmas program and end-of-year assembly each year. Much of my time outside of this is spent correcting the pronunciation or spelling of my name. I am half-Norwegian on my mother's side and very proud of that fact. My favorite colors are grey, purple, and blue, which makes for an interesting color scheme in my dorm room. I collect quotes, sweatshirts, hymnals, rosewood boxes, and baby dolls. (Taken from my website.)

Most of this blog will be about my writing--upcoming projects, works in progress, that sort of thing. Feel free to comment--I always love hearing from my fans!