Colony graduate finds solace in penning poems

Our neighbor, By CASEY RESSLER-Frontiersman Valley Life editor

Sometimes it takes a dark moment in a person's life to bring out something good. That was the case for Travis Simineo.

Simineo, a 2001 graduate of Colony High School, found he had a love of poetry, but only after he wrote his first poem following his grandfather's death a few years ago.

"When he died, I wrote my first poem, and I just kept writing them after that," Simineo said. "That's how I started."

That poem, titled "Headstone," shows Simineo's close relationship with his grandfather, and how much his grandfather meant to him. The poem is heartfelt, and it launched a new hobby.

Simineo came to the Valley from Colorado, where he lived until 1996. He attended Colony High School, and his love of poetry and writing short stories helped him in school, he said.

"A lot of them are for school assignments I had, but a lot of other ones are just because I like to write them," Simineo said.

Most of his poems are about relationships and love, but he said he is trying to find other topics for his poetry.

"I want to fight forest fires, and so I wrote one called 'Wildfire,'" Simineo said. "Sometimes it is hard to get something started on paper."

That means starting a piece whenever he thinks it up.

"One time I was at my aunt's and I thought of something I thought would be good, so I started writing it down, right there. Other times, it takes a long time and I end up starting them five or six times. It all depends," Simineo said.

Once he does get started, however, he usually finishes it. He has a large red notebook in which he keeps all of his poems, as well as some of his short stories. In it are the rough "sketches" of ideas he has taken from his head and put on paper, as well as finished, typed works.

"I've got into writing short stories lately. Some of them are almost 30 pages, handwritten," Simineo said.

Simineo has not been published, and he said he really doesn't write for that reason.

"A couple of my friends said they thought I should try, but I don't care about getting money or recognition for it," Simineo said. "I just write because I like to."

The following is one of Simineo's poems:

"I Just Wanted You

To Know"

From time to time I think of you.

Again and again you cross my mind.

I try to think of a reason why . . .

Why do I think of you?

Here and there I go, I can't escape you.

No matter where I go you're on my mind.

Day and night I try not to think of you.

I just wanted you to know.

I can't get you off my mind.

Dime to dime I spend not one cent on you.

Gain by gain I tell you what is on my mind.

I try to find a reason

why …

Why do you need to know what is on my mind?

You are on my mind year after year.

No matter what I hear, I hear your voice in my mind.

Tear after tear runs down my face.

I can't place you in my mind.

All this haste we have gone through has a place in my heart.

Though all the good and bad times we have, I still have you on my mind.

'Til I find a place for you in my mind . . .

I just wanted you to know.

I think of you.