Miss Raquel: Saving the "Natives" One Latte at a Time

[AmazonGrace]

Haiku:

I hope my book is

The best book you'll ever read

It's so magical

Spoiler

My book is so deep

It will teach you new feelings

You can find your soul

[AmazonGrace]

My beauty is not

All the gifts and the talents

That I was blessed with

---

Now my lines may rhyme

But only part of the time

It's deeper that way

Spoiler

 

This sounds familiar, it might have been on the blog before.

Spoiler

For some strange reason "the moment of glory flow, in the afterglow"  made me think of an ejaculation.

Edited July 29, 2020 by AmazonGrace

[formergothardite]

What in the world is "the glory flow"? 

[AmazonGrace]

Spoiler

This is from her previous book.

Her previous self died. No word who attended the funeral.  

[formergothardite]

Hopefully her current self has some issues with the name of her second poetry book. I get some slight second hand embarrassment from "Are My Eyes Still Tame". 

Maybe some future versions of Raquel will come to realize she isn't writing poetry, she is copying some stuff she read on Pinterest. 

[AmazonGrace]

Or motivational t-shirts. 

Poetic licence and all that but it's an interesting dissociative concept that the former self who used to make mistakes is now dead. Iirc Raquel wrote that she matured and learned a lot before her third book so is the forgiving I in the poem now also dead?

Haiku:

The old me was dumb

I forgave her for her shit

Before I killed her

 

[AmazonGrace]

There are so many pages with the bit from the poem... some of the t-shirt models give it another meaning.

[clueliss]

And I'm thinking "Dear Younger Me" a song by Mercy Me.  

Edited July 30, 2020 by clueliss

[AmazonGrace]

Her Instagram bio now links to some kind of an essential oils diffuser. (Does she sell them or what?) 

Anyway I can see why she likes them. Their site is just like a pome: unedited and makes no sense. 

[clueliss]

I seem to recall she sells YL, and her mother is rather successful in YL sales.

[AmazonGrace]

The latest excerpt from the new book is a recycled blog post. 

Spoiler

 

[AmazonGrace]

She's realized that petting a dog is more practical than hugging a baby polar bear.

[AmazonGrace]

FINALLY, we get to read the poem about the tame eyes

 

eyes are round objects -

the ability to see

is a choice, she said

Spoiler

itsjustraquel

(accidental photo, while trying to set my selfie timer)
——
this piece is the story behind the title of my second book, ARE MY EYES STILL TAME?
available on my website —> raquelzduarte.com
——
Having the gift of sight is not something of low regard. To not only look, but also to be able to see — now that is a choice.
we pass through our days observing and examining,
through two round objects,
embedded in our faces.
we register whatever we come in contact with,
send messages to our brain,
and store the information there for our enduring lifetime;
this could be anything from a ghastly side of blood,
to a majestic sunset,
to the emotion we behold in our lover’s countenance.
these are all memories captured like polaroids, and hung in our sanctuary of recollections.
I used to wish my life was seen through blue or green lenses, instead of ones so plain.
but no, my eyes are still the color of dark chocolate.
[throughout my book you now hold in your hands], you have read accounts of many of my reminiscences.
they were all observed,
not only by my physical capabilities,
but with my heart.

Now can you tell me —

are they still plain?

are my eyes still tame?

Ghastly sides of blood sound interesting but I'd rather have  a side of salad and loaded fries.

[formergothardite]

I read that with the two objects embedded in my face, but I still don't understand what "are my eyes still tame" means. 

And that was not an accidental photo. 

[AmazonGrace]

I thought she meant that she used to want eyes of different color, because brown is such a common eye color, statistically speaking, and she should be more special. But now she's realized that she is special because her eyes can see both blood and  nice things that her brain can retain memories of. You have been able to share some of that greatness because you read her heartfelt book about  things that she had seen, so don't you agree that her eyes are really amazing and not boring and lame at all?

One great thing  about that poem, I do believe that she wrote it herself for once.  

 

Edited August 6, 2020 by AmazonGrace

[Jasmar]

Her brown is special because it’s The Color of Dark Chocolate. 

How many times has she typed out that phrase?

[Petronella]

Raquel makes me sad. I know that self-publishing has sometimes been a successful and positive experience, but much more often it’s a poor choice. So many successful writers look back at their early rejected work with relief, realizing that it wasn’t ready. Rejection pushed them to improve and fulfill their potential. Skipping rejection and challenge and growth is ultimately not helpful, even if it would be painful to go through at the time.

So much of what Raquel makes public seems more like notes than finished writing.

I watched an old episode of Community yesterday, the one where Jeff takes a pottery class. He feels really daunted by a student who’s really good at it, and decides to not bother trying at all. He has a flashback to his mother telling child-him how superbly special he is, connecting this expectation of greatness to adult-him being unable to try something new if he’s not guaranteed to be brilliant at it. By the end of the episode, he rewrites that flashback to his mother telling him he’s perfectly normal, terrific at some things and lousy at others, and that both are perfectly fine. And he becomes able to experiment and learn and enjoy life a lot more. It’s lovely.

I do think that idealism and ambition and confidently recognizing your natural talents can be wonderful things. But like anything else they can be pushed to an extreme that is damaging. Raquel is so driven to be recognized as special that she’s paralyzed her possible growth.

This would be a great time for Raquel to be a student, a reader, submitting to contests and magazines, sharing her works-in-progress with a small group, *becoming* a writer.

 

[AmazonGrace]

I think she needs an editor who charges her 20 dollars for every word she uses.

Sometimes there is an idea that could become a nice little poem if it didn't get drowned under clumsy,  unnecessary verbiage. Like here, she could make something nice based on the idea that it's not the color that makes eyes exciting, it's what you feel when you're seeing things of majestic beauty and gory sights. But the reader gets distracted from the thought by the words, so to speak. Is not something of low regard? Do you mean it's precious, important, powerful...? There's no need to describe eyes as two round objects embedded in the face, the reader knows what eyes are like and how many there usually are. The reader knows that memories are stored in the brain. It is not necessary to point out that the readers handle her book with their hands. 

If she cut the extra branches it would be easier to see the tree.

[AmazonGrace]

I suppose even Jesus said to turn the other cheek if somebody hurts you. And you shouldn't feel guilty or ashamed for being abused.

But if somebody I fell in love with turned out toxic and tried to destroy me I would certainly have some regrets...

Spoiler

 

[formergothardite]

"Loving passionately is who you are" That seems to include passionately loving toxic people who treated her poorly, that isn't a healthy mindset. Her identity doesn't need to be wrapped up in frantically loving everyone and anyone. She has written entirely too much about how she becomes quickly obsessed with any guy who even glances at her. Isn't there a blog post about how she climbed out a drive-thru window to chase down a guy who barely knew she existed? Raquel still seems to think that the over the top behavior shown in movies and TV shows is actually something she should copy to find true love. But that isn't how life works. 

[AmazonGrace]

there is no limit

to what the horses can do

so I'm a pilot

Spoiler

 

itsjustraquel

I am wild and untamed
I leave hoof prints wherever I tread
Some animals fear me;
The ones who don’t, I outrun
My mane blows in the wind when I lead the pack through the wasteland
through the trees
through the mountain passes
through the desert.
My ancestors has been recorded in history as one of the most ancient animals to benefit mankind
I am regal and majestic
Kings have ridden on my back
Soldiers, too, have ridden into battle
The Natives worshipped me, the Egyptians also
I have plowed fields in preparation for harvest,
And raced for winnings
There is no limit to where you can find me
Or what I can do
I have traveled by ship, traveled by trailer, or merely traveled with a man too tired to walk, so I carried him
I prefer to be ridden with no restrictions but few can handle how headstrong I can be
Some people have never met one like me,
But those who have, know of my beauty and therapeutic presence
And if you have ever met one of my kind, I promise you will always remember
——
this is a piece I wrote last year about my favorite animal.

 

This was on the untamedworshipper insta  before I think. (That one's gone now.)

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

People should have dreams

I want to be a lemon 

Can't I be the sun?

Spoiler

I think people who crave wildfires are called pyromans. 

[Botkinetti]

She is such a babbling twit. When she is 90 years old she will still be churning out this type of crap and wondering why the world refuses to recognize her brilliance.

[formergothardite]

Of course she wants to be so beautiful that people crave her but she also wants to be able to easily hurt them. Grow up Raquel, this is why your relationships are all very unhealthy.