Dear Angelina Moshekga


I am following up on my request for my poetry book to be considered for a educational book?

I decided to give a excerpt of the opening of the book. You can decide, if the book is worth considering?

My true story written by Chereze Salome Booysen

"My true story
My place saturated with its former glory
Faded into but a true story
In it isn’t now, but then
The time beyond the stress of teaching
A time of intense pressure
A time people treasure
The work of then brought the great
The highs were so many, and the lows had no mate
But the path was broken and began to break open.
As our journey began … the beginning of my forefathers
The finders and keepers of my roots
The mix of races so scattered that it is not possible to count the numerous blood running through my veins. As I was seeking to understand my history, my heritage and my dignity …
The story of the time of segregation in its quality and its quantity
The obstacles of time dispersed into action
Transferred to change circumstances
To plant a seed of a dream inside a child’s heart
It was a beginning of a new start
As time walks on
It gathers things
It moves through so many corners and moves to sweet
And later bittersweet
And as the journey is complete
Tragedy strikes the scene
Nowhere was there any gleam
As sunshine shies away
No words to explain
The anguish of that pain
No Cure
Everything seems all but lost
Love at what cost?
The wave of life feels like a toss.
Way beyond achieving dreams
Beyond the tragedy
Then falling into marriage, sometimes changes dramatically
As life found its form, through muddy hands sometimes tortured with thorns
However, the first girl was born
Awakening a new phase
Finding a place
Life changed into a new space
A genius born to shock the world
Could read before she could adequately speak
As challenges of life began to strike
Family collisions, no one alike
The search to find a house to make a home
Sorrow as finding a home turns into TB knives
Two people almost losing their lives
Despite the little girl’s size
At grandmother’s place, she’ll reside
A mother away and praying
Burdened by her plight
Away and out of sight
As months moved on to endless despair
A mother returned ready to take care
The little child forgot to whom she belonged
Ran away, breaking her mother’s absent heart
Survival struck, at last TB became something of the past
However, the challenge of fighting to stay alive would outlast
The once hard task …
Five years later, a premature little girl is born
Almost lost her life
Almost gone
Struggled through the night with a little body threatening to die
The mother in pain trying to explain her distraught heart
No one understood her breaking heart
As angels brought her air
In counting a new life to spare
So small, so strong, so alive
Finding her a recent day
So many emotions display
The little bundle of joy lying naked in a glass box fighting her way into the world
Starting Anew
For years, we waited to find a new home big enough for us to grow
Others keep on snatching our chances
Right from under our noses
In times forlorn
Others making sure to make it hard
Getting in our way constantly, holding us at bay.
But finally, we found the home that allowed us to grow.
As the two girls moved through life, they forgot that there were steep roads to climb.
People sometimes walk a more beautiful line
Different styles, different looks to compare
Sometimes watching people with despair
As each had her talent to put on view
Nowhere to prove people wrong, wanting to show where they belong
But people made it hard to grow at our own pace
Living to put us in a miserable place
The two moved away to new schools and bloomed in their own ways
Finally crawling, walking and running at their own pace.
First steps were taken
The dream we all admire
It became a world that started to inspire
The start of a new chapter began at dawn
It was true, my sister was gone
She couldn't be upset or lonely as she was now where she belonged
In winter, she would return and tell what she had learned.
Her eyes lit up with every conversation
I came to the realisation
Her work had become a part of her
Every story was a symbol of hope
That in this world dreams are more than they seem
Every time she left, a part of me went too
Darkness loomed over my life
When suddenly I was revived
A word was spoken
And my life awoke
The words were written became my voice.
This was my life, poetry recited by my father
His voice would carry through the house
It triumphed from that moment, lifting his hands
Walking time’s sands
It would lead to the dance of rains
A poem I heard my whole life
A beacon of hope seeking to survive
From silence, his voice would be revived
To bring our spirits back to life
My mother's smile shines when little ones come around
This love of teaching kept her bound
This love when education was around
I will never forget the sound of my mother's teaching
Her love of it was what she carried everywhere
It allowed people to stare
She taught kids to sing “We are the world."
A task that other grade 1 teachers wouldn't dare
Her triumph was often shared
By other teachers who had not dared
Just taking undeserved bows
This is what the principal allowed. But my mother didn't fight
Her talents were out of sight
Everyone was blind
Yet, some were kind
This was my mother’s legacy – her brilliance so suppressed
No-one ever could’ve guessed
The unreleased best
I was witness to her theories and fairy tale approach
This was what the children loved the most
They revered her perpetual truce This was her favourite amuse
The coins they left on her table
Her kindness of children has no label
They saw her as she indeed was
This was an unseen past
The farewell at the end of the year
Was what the children held dear
They smiled and enjoyed cold drink and dessert that their teacher brought
For them, this was a lot
This was the enjoyment that brought hope to my mother’s heart
This was her most significant present until she retired
These were the memories she admired
This is the acceptance that she always desired
This is where the love led
It moved deeper and vanished without a trace
Darkness had no case Light had a face
Kindness had a place
That period was only a phase
Faith rescued our lives
Helping us from our demise
Time was out of tune
We laboured past afternoon
Dusk didn't scare our fate
Courage never came too late
This was never the end
Our labour started to transcend
Secret faith was lent
Courage was spent
This is what love meant.
This was what love meant."

Sincerely,
Chereze Salome Booysen