Haiku
Sequence
At the Beach
dogs rarely bark
here,
only when they are at play—
they teach me to watch
the waves always change:
small, large, easy hard, strong—
human perception
I sit alone—
before the immensity
of the waves, I am.
Guanajuato*
the cicads molt
making almost no sound—
shh! do not wake them
among the loudest,
cicadas know little restraint—
"Who killed all the frogs?"**
a gourmet meal,
large eyes, wide apart—
cicada click-song
*Editor's note:
Guanajuato
is a state in the central highlands of Mexico. It is named
after its capital city, Guanajuato,
which comes from the local indigenous language, meaning “Hill
of Frogs**. Las Ranas (“the frogs”) is a nickname for people
from this state as frogs are their state animal.
Guanajuato
is also the name of a river in the area.
Guanajuato is the home state
of former president Vicente Fox, muralist Diego Rivera and
singer-songwriter José Alfredo Jiménez.
About Manuela
Thiess
Manuela Thiess is
from
Guanajuato, Gto., Mexico.
Manuela Thiess is
from
Guanajuato, Gto., Mexico.
Manuela Thiess was born in Germany, lived most of her life in
California and plans to die in Mexico, thus coming to a kind
of full circle of her own personal evolution. She has spent
time as an actress in Los Angeles, a college ESL instructor in
Monterey, Ca., and a correctional educator at CTF Soledad, CA.
She and her husband, Gustavo Garcia Aguilar, moved to
Guanajuato in 2008 and opened an optics business there in 2009
as her husband is an optician.
She has written poetry through her life, and several
productions of her one-act plays in Los Angles where she
received favorable reviews in the
LA Times
as well as the
Santa Monica Herald.
In addition, she is an avid photographer, a sometimes painter,
and she enjoys doing abstract painting on furniture.
Her philosophy on life is to attempt to keep it as simple as
possible.
This is Manuela Thiess'
first appearance in Sketchbook
