One Foot out of the Box

By Vanessa Kristovich

Vanessa says that life is a roller coaster, and she is sitting with her hands in the air going "A-a-a-a-a-a!"

This book is the product of that roller coaster life. It is filled with experiences and emotions that have formed the path that she walks, and she if offering her hand to you with the hope that you will walk alongside her. You will laugh, or cry, or get a warm fuzzy feeling as you find sympathy in these pages. One thing is certain: you will not find another book like this one anywhere in the market today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 18, 2008
• ISBN: 9781440107146

Vanessa Kristovich

Vanessa's fourth grade teacher challenged her to write better poetry and essays. Already an avid reader, she took that challenge and ran with it. Though not previously published, she constantly works to improve her craft, and to provide poetry that is both interesting and real. Vanessa's love of the written word is profound. She claims that poetry saved her life during some very bleak experiences, and it is her greatest outlet for both her passions and her joys. She feels that the greatest joy of all will be the opportunity to share her poetry with the world. Vanessa is a resident of Vineland, New Jersey. While not college educated, she feels that the various jobs that she has held over the years has made her a complex and controversial character. Her friends have labelled her "delightfully excentric." and she hopes that this is a trait that you will enjoy in her writing. Vanessa believes in the old addage "What goes around, comes around," and plans to share the royalties she receives from this and future writing with several charities, and with her church.

Book preview

Contents

Introduction

Love and Passion

Love Grows

In the Palm of Your Hand

A Rose

Unto You

Soft Love

Yours

A Tribute to Fantasy

Release Me

Loving the Trucker

The Letter I Never Sent

The Cruel World

Call Me

What Probably Happened in the Garden of Eden

I Want to Love Again

Love at First Sight

Late Bloomer

The Big O

The Wisdom of Love

Star Crossed

Sadness, Anger, and the Dark Side

Significant

Hopeless Gray

Old Sages

Chains

Don’t Tell Me I’m Going to Hell!

Prisoner

I’m Fat, So What?

Don’t sing to me

My Land

Blank Page

Passions and Dreams

Sharks

Jets

Island of Stone

Leaves

WE

I Believe!

Why Me?

Wondrous Day

Faith and Flight

Twilight Meditation

My Creator

Oh, God

A Prayer for Hope

Savior

You Are

Unsung Hero

The Old Bag Lady

Saint Joe and His Rose

My America

Shattered Glass

9/11

I Love the USA

Thanksgiving

A Season of Tree

It’s All for the Children

In Remembrance of an American Soldier

On A Monday Morning

Golden

People And Remembrances

Friends and Sunrise

For Jason, a Requiem

Diary of a Death

A Visitation

Lisa

Baby Girl

Don’t Do It

Francine

Rise Above

Mementos

Our Secret Place

Turning Point

The End

To my poetic friends, who I admire,

And who understood me when nobody else could.

And to my family.

Introduction

Hi!

My name is Vanessa, and I love poetry.

I know that many books like this would introduce the author as some professor of literature with a doctorate from some prestigious university. It would say that I have published in so many magazines or won so many awards.

But with this book, that’s not the case. I have not finished college. This is my very first book, ever. I love poetry, and I want to share that love with you. That’s all there is to it.

This book developed over the course of several years. I have always been a rather shy person. Afraid that this book (or anything else that I write, for that matter) will not be acceptable, I’ve kept it sort of locked in a virtual box, here in a file on my computer. But I’ve learned a lot in the past few years, and one of the main lessons that I’ve learned is that the things we are passionate about are meant to be shared. So I hope that you will laugh, cry, sing and dance with me as I put my one foot out of the box.

Love and Passion

Love Grows

When I first saw my love,

I thought,

"This man is ugly!

I could never be attracted to him!

His hair is too long, and scraggly.

He’s got that gold tooth.

Doesn’t own a pair of pants without a hole in it.

And, my God, somebody

Should tell him to shave his face,

And his back."

And then, we got to talking,

Tender talk.

Talk about love, and poems,

And sunrises, and about how

Sad I felt when my cat died.

Those big, blue eyes

Were so sympathetic,

I thought to myself,

"He’s not so bad!

A little plain, maybe,

But somehow attractive,

In his own way."

And then, the death of another dear friend.

He held my hand at the funeral,

And my tears

Found a home on his shoulders.

As I wept, I breathed deeply.

Sigh after sigh, I took in his scent,

I was grateful for his presence.

I thought to myself,

"How strong he is, how comforting

To lean on this towering man,

To have his strength to sustain me,

Now, when I need it most.

And, there is something about him…."

He kissed me.

Hesitant, that first kiss,

As though he was afraid

That I would push him away.

But, I took that kiss,

Slow, at first,

Then deeply I drank it in,

Like a bottle of Dom Perignon,

To be savored with full passion.

Our souls were knit together

On some ethereal plane,

A spark ignited,

And the fire started within me.

Not fireworks,

But the fire that grows

From one spark,

Into a raging inferno.

The coals remained hot.

And I thought,

"This is my soul mate.

Thank heaven we were able

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