Sanctuary of Snow

By Adriann “The Pen” Bautista

There is a certain peace found in the sound of silence that freshly fallen snow exudes a silence that wraps itself around you like a sanctuary.

Sanctuary of Snow is a collection of life poetry told vividly and boldly in Quadrants: Discovery, Love, Pain and finally Thoughts. Through the Pen you will experience first hand how she became aware of the need for a Sanctuary and then ultimately through beautifully hued free verse found herself despite the many challenges that life had presented.

S.O.S invites you to discover yourself in between the stanzas and beneath each layer of poetic sanctuary.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 24, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452084282

Adriann “The Pen” Bautista

Adriann is a Playwright, Poet and Inspirational Writer who has been writing since her teenage years but realized her lifelong passion through the Pen in 2008. She has four Christian play productions to her credit; “My name is Struggle/ Victory”; “Sister, You Better Change your Hat!”; “Don’t You know He rose and He lives!”, and the most recent “RESTORED”. Her plays have been warmly received and have been ministered in Chester, Philadelphia and the Morton area of Pennsylvania. Those who have experienced the messages of hope through these stage productions have all agreed that they have been life-altering and inspirational. A newly professed Poet, Adriann has expanded her gift to the art of Poetry and since November 2009 has penned over 150 poems. On why writing is so very personal and necessary she comments, “I write to breathe and I breathe to write.” A native of Philadelphia, PA, Adriann is married with two children and is a Grants Administrator for Thomas Jefferson University and Co-Founder and President of Beso de Azure Poetry, Inc. Along with her passion for the written word Adriann also enjoys spending time with her family, encouraging others, reading, and enjoying fine food.

Book preview

Quadrants

§

1/4 Discovery

Absence

Again

A Bridge Never Before Crossed

Choosing

Breathing Air

Discussion

Entangled

Fantasy

Finding 142

First

Free Falling

Holding

If You Just

In The Before Of The Morning

Just Another Kind Of Day

Just Like Me

Kiss You There

Marrying Poetry

Must Be Love

Next

Perfume

Poetry 101

Remembering

Shouting

Spin

The Undoing

U

The Fill Feel Of You

We Were Poetry

What Shall We Say Of Love?

Whispered Promises

Wind and Breeze

Winter Solstice

Worth The Wait

You Are

Your Love

2/4 Just Love

A Beautiful Heart

A Firefly Distraction

A Letter To You From The New Me

A Welcomed Interruption

Blushing

Bottle It

Chicken Fingers And Onion Soup

Chocolate Fix

Dance With Me

Fragments And Sentences

I Can, I Will

I Want to Be Great

In The Mirror

Mezzanine Level

My Inspiration

Poetry at 14

Raindrops

Rose Petals

Shades Of Bleu

Snappleberry Cerulean

The First Time I Ever Had Double Chocolate Ice-Cream

The Hug

The Masterpiece

The Return Of The Snow

The Skill Of Indigo

Two Cities

US

What Excites Me

Whole Now

Would You dare?

Your Eyes

Like Warm Chocolate

Vacancy Available

3/4 Pain

All

Bleu Monday

Blue And Still

Blue Funk

Blues

Bruised Passion

Drowning

Empty

I Cry

Lost

Melancholy Monday

Not Heard

Not Today

Ponderings

The Noise of Silence

Sister Touch

Tears

The Day’s Blues

The How To Of Embracing

The Place Of Weeping

The Silence

The Truth

Talk To Me

Waiting for When

Want

What Gets Left in Between

What Happens

When Goodbye Goes By

When It’s Over

Where do we go from here?

Worn Vinyl

4/4 Thoughts

3 Lines

A Play On E

Aware On My Way To Work

Assigned

Chewing On Poetry

Do I Really Care?

Do Your Pants Hang Low?

Stolen Dreams

Eavesdropping On Poetry

Move Over

My Chicken Florentine Sandwich

Note To A Sister

Observing The Littlest Punk Rocker

Old Man Dirty

On The El, Again

One Poet’s Transit Experience

Passing Time

Response

Return Of Joy

Sneezing Poetry

Stalking

The Hero Within

The Intersection Where The Exits Meet

The Kit Kat

The Power Of Words

The Project

The Snow and Us

The Waiting Room (04.08.10)

Touching Poetry

Turning It Around

When Things Collide

Resting On Flow-etry

Acquisitions

Happy Today

I Walk Today In Different Shoes

Poem 142

The Man On The Street

U- N - I - Verse

On Rising

The Broken Coffee Cup (For Pilar)

I Am the Pen

§

1/4 Discovery

I peeled back each layer, one by one and carefully peaked underneath and discovered myself

-The Pen

Absence

I write as I wait for you

I use my pen to distract my thoughts from your absence

To erase the length of the time between the last time and now

I’ll write until you come back

Or I’ll write you back into my now

Whichever comes first

Again

You keep walking through the corridors of my mind

Dancing around the hallways of my heart

And stumbling over words left out in the middle of the floor

Are you going to pick them up or what

You keep tripping over my feelings left carelessly lying around

And you bang on the door and enter before I give permission

And then you leave a mess behind

As you run out the door

Again

and

again

and

again

And once more I take you back

A Bridge Never Before Crossed

A moment to contemplate

A second to really think this thing through

Ponder the consequences of her plan,

her thoughts

Her almost deeds

Would she survive it?

Would they?

Who would be hurt?

What casualties would be left behind?

What would be lost?

Unrecoverable,

irreparable

Time to figure out how she got here

How they arrived at this road never traveled before

A bridge never before crossed

What was the journey that led to this place?

How do they go back to their origin?

To the genesis of them

She got her sea legs back

No longer ready to jump ship

She’s decided to ride out the storm

Will he be ready?

Ready to sail to forever

Just like it is supposed to be

Choosing

The strength of your love made me choose to live

Rather than settle for a life of drab denim

Dull grays

Muted browns

And boring beige

Today I choose

Patent leather red

Neon green

Sunshine yellow

Blue not navy either but cobalt

I choose tangerine orange

Royal purple

14 karat gold

Sterling silver

And when the colors run out

I’ll choose you

Breathing Air

I

searched

the

air

for

you

today

as

I

greeted

the

morning

breeze

Stepped out on my porch

Raised my arms

And stretched my long body right towards heaven

I inhaled deeply the a.m. freshness trying to catch you up in my lungs

Filled up

I slowly exhaled not wanting any part of you to escape

missing image file

Discussion

I know I gave you the keys and let you stay

But I meant for you to pay rent

Or clean up after yourself

Always

leaving

a

mess

for free

on me

Entangled

The thought of you makes me think of

purple meadows

green sunshine

yellow horizons

blue grass

and me in your arms

holding on to the reality of us and our connection

the poetic strings that tie us together

binding us to our tomorrows with the promises of today

and I am lost without the thought of us

of you

and all that you inspire in me

I long to taste the sweetness of your breath as it permeates my mind

my body with the vow to never neglect

one place

one space

but to draw me

chide me

to come closer

go deeper

become entangled in you

Fantasy

heat rising and steaming up the mirror of his mind

he pretended she was his

and that she was not just a body borrowed from another’s treasure

with each caress of the skin that he had grown to love

he kept sweeping the very thought out of his mind

that although he owned the moment with her now

maybe even her heart in this here and now

he could never boast of possessing the whole of her

because she had been promised to another

her hills and valleys although he experienced them often

could only invite him to graze their expanse temporarily

so with this reality he slowed his stroke

prolonged his kiss

and tightened his embrace

forcing time to stand still

Finding 142

because i could not find you and could not trace your shadow

i lay back among the thistle to draw upon the memory of your smell

the strong sweet fragrance that you elicit as you look at me

and i gaze back at you

had to imagine the outline of us laying before a roaring fire

intricately intertwined together

the light and the dark of us

the merging of the shades of you and i

as we allow the lines of demarcation to become blurred

and obscure

we begin to become one with our dreams

one with the plans for a together

beyond today

and reaching far past tomorrow

i could not find you tonight

so i had to conjure up the stroke of your hand against my skin

wanting and raw and welcoming

i had to discover new ways to see you in the fog of our absence from each other

and when i looked very hard and began to squint

to squeeze the lids of my eyes together

you appear before the eyes of