Spice of Life: Meet heinzs

[nekot]

I enjoy variety and truly believe it is the spice of life. People come in the most varieties of all; no two are exactly the same. I believe each person has a significant gift to share and a unique journey to live.

The Pages are not lacking in these givers and journeyers who share their insights, joys, traumas, imaginations, hopes, despairs, fantasies, fictions, beliefs, and doubts via the written word in prose, poetry, stories, and quips.

I have laughed many a time and cried many a time, as I have sat with mouse in hand reading these Pages and sharing my own heart. Folks here are an inspiration to my soul and have been a catalyst for significant growth in my own life. I have witnessed a mutual respect among this variety of souls that if duplicated in our world, would make it a better place.

Scroll down for a little spice from heinzs .....



Back to index: Poetry Pages' Poets

[nekot]

Heinzs joined Poetry Pages Dec 18, 2001 .... one day after Berlie.

(I guess I need a history update since the Pages have been going since 1999.
Heinz, could you enlighten me? and probably some of the others of us here? )

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Meet Heinz, Poetry Pages' administrator, heinzs......


What is your age bracket: under 25, 25 - 50, over 50?
59

What is your name? Where do you live? What do you like to do? What is your occupation?
Heinz Scheuenstuhl (I know, a nice Irish name). I live in a small hamlet in the SF Bay area that has big city aspirations (don't they all) called Novato. We're about 30 miles North of SF at the upper end of famous/infamous Marin County. For 35 years I was a research tech at UCSF but since 2005 I've been working at a small biotech company in Novato called Cytograft (http://www.cytograft.com) doing clinical trials on what is considered a medical prosthetic device.

How long have you been writing poetry? Do you recall what led you, if anything, to start writing?
I started back in High School with humorous/nonsense rhymes ala Ogden Nash. Wrote very little until 1982 when I lost a son to drowning in the backyard pool. After the deep depression set in some years later I started writing in my journal as therapy. That and Prozac. Then with God's grace I found this site, and I really took off. The first year online here I wrote 365 poems (one per day) and saved my life. I will never be able to repay Berlie for the opportunity she has provided me here. Thanks Kim! Thanks, too, for believing in me and taking the chance making me an admin.

Have you ever been published? In what books or by whom?
I have only been published in our own books here. I do have a contract for my own book, but have been procrastinating (three years) in getting it out. I have an ISBN number and everything, just not the "heart" to finish the compilation.

What inspires you to write? Is there a certain setting where you like to write? Do you listen to music when you write?
Life. The world around me. For want of a better explanation, "the Muse." For a time my most interesting pieces would come to me in the UCSF cafeteria or at our local Borders Bookstore... lol. I don't listen to anything when writing. Most extraneous noise just seems to disappear during the process, including conversation.

What is one of your favorite poems that you have penned? Would you mind sharing why or the story behind the poem?
I guess my all time fav would still be "Silent Gulls."
This is one of the pieces that I "channeled" in the hospital cafeteria in 2004. I have no idea where it came from, and it did not come to me as words. Instead I "lived" the sensations. The whole thing was like a dream starting with looking out through the window in the cafeteria, then changing to where I was standing in the surf, ankle deep, flying a kite. I could see the "lady" (object of the poem) sunbathing on the blanket behind me. I experienced the swirl and bustle of the dreamlike change from idyllic scene to hospital corridor, and felt the brush of air against my cheek as she died. This is a single draft poem (as are most of the ones I've channeled). Not a word of this piece has ever been edited. My other pieces tend to go through at least one or two revisions before becoming something I'm willing to share... lol. I still vividly evoke the experience every time I read this one.


Silent Gulls

Daylight through glass
mixes with neon’s rays
to brighten the filtered air.
Soft, invisible breeze
moves leaves and fronds
but cannot caress
my sequestered face.
Yearning for simplicity
and past innocence
time’s burden gains weight
bowing shoulders even more.

Gentle waves reach out
to touch my flesh
rinsing away grains of sand
not sticky enough to resist.
The wonder of blue vastness
thunders between gulls’ cries
warm and cool at the same time.
The red speck tethered
to the long end of the string
responds to tugging
with graceful dips and swirls.
On the blanket, skin browns
where brastraps would meet –
temporarily cast aside
for the solar massage.

Reverie breaks –
"Code blue! Code blue!"
The turmoil of bustle
reaffirms its control,
rushing to a bedside
of frenzied activity –
an effort to prolong life
of one resigned to fate.
"D.N.R." I say to the attending,
and the chaos subsides.
Your peaceful smile is the reward,
reflecting that long-ago sun
as your eyes darken
to mimic that sea.
The breath of your passing
cools my moist cheek
and I can almost hear
the crying of the gulls.

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You can view heinzs archive here:
HeinzS

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Thank you Heinz for sharing and for serving as admin; you do an exceptional job. This board seems to attract kindred souls.
Poetrypages has been a godsend for me.

[nekot]

Following are some of my favs of Heinzs. I always learn something from his poems, and have to look up some words at times.

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Spiral Dance

Widdershins revolve -
universe expanding -
deosil contract,
to become a singularity.
The "Big Bang"
meets the "Black Hole".
So, too, our numbered pulsar days
spin from dark to light
and then to dark again.
The continuum of existence
is but a sparkle
in God's eye.

View it here: Spiral Dance

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Benjamin 2008

Time eats stone and flesh
and all becomes dust
spreading on the wind
until it covers the entire planet
with a single thin layer
everywhere.

That is where you reside
as I carry a mote of your spirit
deep within myself
in constant contact
with your liberated atoms
and I yearn
to reconstitute you.

My heart wishes
and my thoughts tell me
we are never apart
and will rejoin our lives
someday
sooner or later
when Time eats my flesh
and I become part of the dust
to which I have always
belonged.


View it here: Benjamin 2008

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untitled

Life is a microcosm
a speck in the universe
are we all there is?
Inconcievable
yet if it is true
then what purpose is there
if there is no God?

Thought is the message
traveling through space
faster than light.
In a nanosecond
I am on Mars looking at
that blue speck in the distance
and then I am at the very edge of the galaxy
gazing inward at the sea of stars.

I have no substance
yet I am trapped on this physical plane
in a vehicle not of my choosing
and I am afraid
of achieving my freedom.
Even the caged bird sings...
why?

View it here: untitled

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Inspire Me
(asyndeton)

Inspire me, O' Muse -
take me on that
magic carpet ride
beyond Neverland -
two million parsecs
through the black hole's maw.

My toes ache for black sand
warmed by Sun's flame
cooled by crystal sea
while rainbow parrots flash
between palms.

Idyllic Eden
inspiration's source
buried somewhere in the mind
without connection to reality
yet more real than life
to the poetic soul.

View it here: Inspire Me

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Benjamin

Twenty five years ago
your brown eyes opened upon this world
and your arms reached towards mine
to clutch a piece of my heart
that I so gladly gave
for you to keep forever.
I know you still hold it
for I can feel its separate beat
next to those of your siblings
and your sweet mother...
pieces of my heart
beating together as one
sustaining my life.
I live through all of you...
I am nothing by myself
but a quivering empty shell
devoid of spirit.
An angel holds you in its arms
making sure I can feel
that piece of my heart
beating
waiting for reunion
when I shall once again be whole
and our arms entwine.

View it here: Benjamin

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Waking Dreams series (in Mature Forum):
~Waking Dreams (1) ~
~Waking Dreams II~
Waking Dreams III
~Waking Dreams IV~
Waking Dreams (V)
Waking Dreams VI

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Heinzs' archive: HeinzS

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Thank you again Heinz.

[heinzs]

Thanks so much for the tribute, Carol. I've had no internet service the last 4 days, so this was just great to come back to.

The current embodiment of PoetryPages is either the second or third incarnation. I was a member of the previous site when Berlie upgraded and switched over to this format back in 2001. I think I joined in 1998... but I could be wrong. Berlie would probably remember.

[nekot]

You are more than welcome....

[gordy]

[David Bradsher]

Great to learn about you, heinzs, especially since you're the reason I'm here.

[heinzs]

Hi gordy.

Thank you, David. I'm truly pleased that you've decided to stay. I remember well the circumstances of your arrival.

[bags123]

[Berlie]

The current embodiment of PoetryPages is either the second or third incarnation. I was a member of the previous site when Berlie upgraded and switched over to this format back in 2001. I think I joined in 1998... but I could be wrong. Berlie would probably remember.

We are on what could be called the third incarnation if you are counting the different forum scripts we have switched to... the original, UBB and PHPBB. I don't think I would count the latest upgrade to PHPBB 3 as not too much changed there.

The original site had a very no frills message board that quickly became abused by spammers and trolls. At the time I was very rarely on the site and had no time to moderate it (and the forums script offered no moderating or admin tools). Instead of just closing up shop and calling it a day a brand new forum script was purchased and installed and heinzs volunteered to be the administrator. The forums script was called UBB and everyone had to re-register and we started off with a clean forum.. no posts from the original were brought over.

Eventually the forums script was switched again to PHPBB as UBB cost money and PHBB is free. That time however I was able to convert all of the existing members and posts over to the new forum.

If you want to take it back even further the Poetry Pages started off as 'Voices of Poetry' around 1996-97 which was hosted on my free webspace provided by my ISP. It didn't contain a message board back then, people would send me their poetry in an email and I would put it up on the site and also would do a 'feature' of one of the poems every month with artwork and even background music. This was when I was still married and living in Oregon. When I divorced and moved away the site was lost in the ether and it was about a year before I started it fresh as the Poetry Pages. originally it was the same idea.. people would send me their poetry and I would post it. As a bonus I threw up a small message board which was the beginning of what we are now.


Whew.. how's that for a history lesson!