Reaching For The Clouds: Poetic Reflections

By Heather Doak Nishimura

This collection of poetry chronicles the author's journey from young adulthood to present, and demonstrates her struggles and her dreams during this journey. The poems in Reaching For The Clouds document her appreciation for the beauty she has always seen in nature, and serve as a true reflection of who she is, what she believes, and how she chooses to view the world around her. In this collection, you will see snapshots of nature, hope, fear, love, and loss.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heather Doak Nishimura
• Release date: Mar 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311208460

Heather Doak Nishimura

I was born and raised in Citrus Heights, California, where I currently reside. My gymnastics career began in kindergarten. I began competitive gymnastics at the age of nine and continued until I was twenty-one. I have competed in eleven national and international level competitions. I earned a college gymnastics scholarship where I graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice. Although not my current career, writing has been a passion and an outlet for me since my graduation from college. In my spare time, I enjoy reading, music, watching movies, and traveling with my husband, Gregg. I also enjoy spending time in nature, either at the ocean along the northern California coastline, or at Lake Davis in northern California, where the inspiration for many of my poems was born.

Book preview

Reaching For The Clouds

Poetic Reflections

By Heather Doak Nishimura

Copyright 2013 Heather Doak Nishimura

Smashwords Edition

License Notes

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This book is dedicated to Mom and Dad, my sister Erin, and the best husband ever, my dearest Gregg.

The Balloon

Up, up

heavenward I float

reaching for the clouds

and then beyond.

Down below

those who love me

reach up their arms

to pull me back.

Tears fall -

desperate to grasp

what was taken so suddenly

out of their loving embrace.

Here forever -

in the next moment

gone for good -

with no warning at all.

I wave goodbye as I go

out of sight.

What those below can't see is

now I am free.

Once I was tethered -

afraid to leave the earth,

but as I head toward the sky

I have no more fear.

Now I understand.

This is where I was always meant to be.

Somewhere

In my home I sit -

in the dark at night,

with my family in their bedrooms,

each lost in their own separate dream worlds.

I sit awake, listening to the sounds of the night -

frogs squawk in throaty conversation,

a quick wind disturbs the leaves of the neighbors' trees,

and somewhere -

off in the distance -

a single siren comes to life.

It winds its way through the darkened streets -

peaceful houses locked in stillness, solitary porch lights giving them a touch of life.

The siren searches through the night for its only destination.

Somewhere -

people's lives are changing.

Hearts are being torn apart, tears are crashing down,

and the world has hit head on with disaster.

Somewhere -

people are held safely in peaceful dreams,

unaware their universe is changing around them.

When they wake, nothing will ever be the same,

a frightening new world has begun.

In my home I sit -

in the dark at night,

and listen to the sounds