My Memorial Speech for Grandma Arlene...WE LOVE YOU GMA

Let me begin by saying Thank You for all of you being here at my Grandmother's Service Today. It means a lot to me and my family especially my Grandfather. I had a chance to spend some of my best years of my life with my Grandparents. For the first 3 years of my life I spent my days being pampered by my Grandma. She always would make me the Special Roman Meal toast with butter, a slice of cheese and maybe some fruit while I watch my morning shows like the Brady Bunch and Reading Rainbow. Those were the days. So many lil snacks and meals I owe all to my Grandma. From her famous Wheatena & Cream of Wheat to the All meat Spaghetti sauce and to die for Hamburgers. I can't help but remember her as an excellent chef. She would tell me, "Tee, Do you want some Ovaltine almost as if plucked from the commercial. We would have done the commercial better of course. She always made our Favorite Cape Verdean meals like Machupa, Kanche and Gufong. What I miss about her the most is her uncanny giving and servant heart. You couldn't leave her house without getting something. She would say You Guys take some fruit, Have a banana, you know Tee likes his bananas. Here's some soup for Camille and the kids. Then there was Christmas. From the pecans and various nuts, to the tangerines and Deodorant stuffed inside our stockings. To the countless pairs of socks and Boxers. Grandma always had something up her sleeve. She even waited 2 years to give us a doll she bought for Baby Meara after finding out Eli was a boy. So thoughtful and caring mixed with a soft, kindhearted soul she always displayed. We sat and discussed the other day about how none of us have any bad memories of her. Almost solidifying her presence with us after life. I can remember all of her old country Portuguese sayings such as I creda and confiad quoytad and Meeum. My sons Tre and Eli always raided the cracker bins and always asked for her Peanut Butter & Jelly with marshmallow creme sandwiches. She always had time to watch cartoons with the boys in the back room. She loved solving jigsaw puzzles and buying her newest puzzle with great landscapes on them. Grandma loved the simple things in life Like sending people letters with news clippings of articles she thought interesting. I remember her brewing Iced Tea or making hand squeezed lemonade on Hot summer days. Did I mention she made the best Banana Bread. Back to Grandma. When grandpa got sick she immediately took over not letting life get her down. She was a feisty lady that made up her mind and stuck to it. She told me about the olden days on the cranberry bogs and how she was smitten with grandpa while they were dating. The funniest thing I remember about them dating was that my grandpa would always bring her chocolates and maybe some flowers when they would go out. He'd always bring her almond joy, but she never told him until after they got married that she didn't like almonds. No other person in this world could love like Grandma. She was the sweetest lil lady to set foot on this earth. I've cried tears of sadness and tears of joy for this woman and wouldn't take anyone back. She will be kept in our hearts 'til we meet again and will always be loved forever by her family. I love you grandma. We love you grandma, Arlene Baptiste and we will celebrate your life until we too shall pass. In her last days she told me this, and I hope we all can remember this. She said " Tee always try and do the right thing, keep doing right". Arlene Baptiste awoke April 13th, 1934 and went to rest with her father on my brother's birthday September 21, 2009. Rest in Paradise "Mommy"

Writing Exercise-Love Confusion Poem

written by S.T. Simms

intro: no date so it was just me lettin the pencil create. ENJOY!!

A life without love isn't worth living/ I'm grinning to pursue you but never knew you / But my hope lies in the future / My eyes see you in a different light despite all the faults and misconceptions of others/ My weapon is love / Devotion to your being / Being Beautiful inside and exterior / Hearing your heartbeats in rhythm / A simple beat set to repeat, looped on a discreet pattern / Something I could never fathom on my own but understand / solely complicated by true feelings / my manly instincts take over making me a slave to sub-conscious wants / I'm chained to your footsteps / I feel unworthy to follow your journey but I'm yearning for our deepest connection / Misdirection of the flesh / Missed perception of my emotions keeps me within breaths length from your soul / I need to grow upward and onward / sinking my trust into the best of you / The rest of you is Taboo / Too new for a boyish mind like mine / Like minds think together solving the equation of love / Revolving around the light from above / Evolution of our touch into a hug / Godspeed be with us / Is this a balancing game? / I have too much to hold on my plate yet it is not enough / Retreat and capture is inevitable / The world is a devouring machine / Satisfaction in destruction / Destroying the paths of star-crossed lovers Like a moth hovering toward flame / the light is healing but treacherous / Our lives at stake / Not the life as in living but the life as in giving up your destiny to become one / A sanctuary of two believers / Believing that our thoughts are not our own but each others / You becoming a mother Me becoming a provider of infinite prosperity / Growth in the right direction / And so it seems I'm just a fool at times, trying to fulfill my insanity by attempting the same things twice / Expectation in new possibilities / For my poetry is a spider's web waiting for you to come near but your wings are too big to catch so I must transform to have you near.

One Of My Poems

A New Flavor / written by Steffon Simms Jr.

I am the boy wonder and I wander around the town / Clownin around the circumference of my shadow light wish / My satellite dish picks up your frequency / Frequently instinctively stinging me stung / Startling my emotions rippling waves of emotional oceanal zones / I discovered a new taste / A taste of haste misplaced to this place / But brought to me by these two tulips/ these tulips/ these two lips are not daisies not roses / But two lips of fire and desire / A choir of sweet aroma coming to my senses / So whats the census for these pretenses / Mind boggling joggling thoughts / My wants and taunts are just behavioral tendencies / My tendon sees no light when its worked with in my body / Transformed into energy with a memory / That I walked this road before / But before I know whats in store / I explore / And instead of finding more / I relevate to realize my elevation / Clouds become my breath / And my mind has been blessed with a revelation / How can I understand / And with a simple plan / This becomes a dream that I never had / Never experienced and never met you / Lose your brilliance and quit the step this beat / Is it I /Is it I that must retreat / Spread the wings of sanity / Borrowing vain to entice my profanity / But tragically this magically equipped journey has no end / Circling like a gerbil ring running with the plot to turn the light off / But in spite of the right rub / My lamp loses my touch / Not to much but its quite enough / Like flying dove / returning home to recite this poem / Countless times spent / When nothingness becomes rhyme rent / So lets be friends like lesbians and pass the Bacardi / Not hardly noticing my money is dwindling / Like charging for moonshine sent largely .