New Blog and New Features

Where have I been in the last several months?
I have been toiling away at the design of my new journal adventure. I am happy to announce the launch of CharlesSapp.com ! This has been an enduring task to come away with total control of the way that I want to express myself.

The experience is quite different, I wanted to be able to express the hidden meaning and inspirations in my work. So, this is a companion guide to my previous website, Spoken1Verse.com which hosts all my poetry and music. It is also a companion to my published book "External Noise and Internal Silence," and the many other endeavors that I am pursuing. It is my plan to document a writer's progression within an indefinite time frame. All of us writers know that when we look back at our earlier works, we can see an evolution or transition throughout the moments of our lives. I will do my best to capture these developments via online journals, video documentary and a host of other interactive features.

In the past I have had many requests for obtaining my content, now I have made access to the material that has received so much attention. Thanks to my faithful readers. One can only say so much, I can only say come and visit, while there please sign my guest book, drop a comment or two, and sign up for my RSS Feed. I hope to see you soon!

Blog Recess During a Recession

I found myself apologizing for not keeping up with my blog, website and other future endeavors, but lets face the real facts. A brother has been trying to deal with this recession and life takes precedence. However, I managed to still plug away and write and record music during these times. I guess real soul searching tends to emerge.

I could not motivate myself, therefore, I took a 3 month hiatus to look inward. Upon this three month journey, I noticed that most traffic seemed to derive from Entrecard droppers. I began to realize that most of what was written was a waste, if people only visit your blog to drop a card.
This is not what I intended, I did not want be apart of the random generated blogs.

I was lucky to have a nice group of regular visitors that interacted and engaged with my motives, assisted with my book promotion and constructive criticism; I reciprocated the love back. I think that that is what I missed the most.

Embrace of Change

The homecoming back to the States has been a warm welcoming from family and friends. It has been a little longer than a month since touching down on California soil and since my farewell to China blog entry.

Ever since, my perspective has never been the same despite the economic grim, my optimism for a bright future grows exponentially. The road towards adjustment proves to be difficult from the ever present culture shock to the looming inflation of gas prices, but motivation of starting anew has kept me stable and the love from family has kept me grounded.

My writings have been put to the wayside during this transition period, as I filter through my experiences to project the new found consciousness my life has yet to be explained. This entry is my first step towards releasing the newly acquired forms of ideas, perspectives and outlook of the future when compared to the recent past.

To summarize my time back home, it is nothing more than self evolution in progress and I am happy to introduce a new chapter of me, while exploring limitless dimensions of unchartered regions as they are encountered.

I embrace change.

Farewell to China

Photo: Confucius and I

I write this as a farewell to Beijing, China and finally open up about a place that I have lived, breathed and experienced. This is more of an introduction at the tip of the iceberg; I am sure that as time progresses with my return home, more details about my life in China will surface. I've included various photos of my stay in Beijing on my blog as well to further document this experience. This entry is important because it has been here that I've found inspiration for all of my poems written–

Reflection By Charles Sapp II

My adventure while living abroad has been memorable and allowed me to grow as a conscientious being. The moment I stepped foot on a different culture’s soil, all expectations drained from my mind down to my feet and exited into the ancient land of Beijing China; this is when my soul searching began.

I imagined China as being like the movies, where old men with long beards and mustaches wearing large sleeved robes and sandals walked slowly with their hands behind their back, while music of erhus, zhengs and dizis play mystically in the background with plumes of incense fog pervading the air like spirits wandering the streets. To one’s amazement Beijing was quite modern and up on times, especially for being a communist country and just recently opening its doors to foreigners.

Living abroad as a vampire is not ideal and I do not recommend it. My fiancée and I worked late nights to mimic the American work schedule which demanded a lot of sheer willpower and sacrifice to our social life and natural biorhythms. Becoming familiar with your surroundings and getting your bearings on track, took time. My fiancée and I had to paste addresses of places in Chinese to a notebook to communicate with taxis to be able to get around. This was a painstaking task, and all throughout one must stay leery since it is known that foreigners are targets of scams and are taken advantage of frequently. We had our fair share of long detours and taken out of the way to raise the taxi fare, not to mention the cost of items in markets are astronomically inflated also.

The food is magnificent, but quite different than the common Chinese food found in the US. It proved extremely difficult to know what to order, just because it said chicken didn’t mean that it was skinless or boneless, it could’ve been the feet, head, knuckles of the chicken or strictly bone. You kind of learn to choose from the menu that had pictures and if it was good, stick with it. We found places that served American food and became the dominant source of food during our stay. There is also the obvious such as the smog, it really lets you cherish the moment when you have clear blue skies, which are extremely rare. Coming from California, it is outside of my comfort zone when making sure that restrooms are not squat toilets. I am a large man without the flexibility and having to utilize a squat toilet is out of the question! I could continue on with a long list of dislikes such as public displays of spitting, but I would like to adhere to the positive experiences.

Looking back, the profound experience that I will take with me forever was the soul searching and I found my soul mate to be 100% compatible, since we literally spent 24 hours together 7 days a week; the longest time we spent apart may have been 2 hours while she went shopping. This is a testament to our relationship and allowed us to endure and experience every side our personalities and character. Not many couples can say that they’ve done so on foreign soil, unless they were stranded on a deserted island, so cheers to us and our upcoming vows of marriage in April, 2009.

A Blogger's Paramount Reflection

Living life and taking each day as an opportunity for growth,
I encounter many obstacles and challenges each day that keeps me tested. Will I fold under life’s pressure? Will I have gratitude for the achievements I’ve attained? Will I stay motivated?

I return to the source and am astounded by thought and reaction. How well connected we are to our environment and the gravity we hold with our presence of being. The days I feel defeated are when my mind gets the best out of me, but as soon as I reverse the train of thought to evoke power and strength in all that I pursue. Transformation begins with clarity; perspective is paramount and focus is evident.

Writing has come of ease during the last month, better than most during the last year. I guess it took some time to absorb experiences and insights while living abroad. Also, having the responsibility to maintain a blog has encouraged the release as well. After 2 months of blogging I have to say that I’ve encountered and met many interesting people and have been able to share their perspectives.

The world smiles back in return when we walk and interact conscientiously. We are all products of the same material and what we become we give back to the Earth, our time here is atmospheric and may we touch each life, as if it were the hand of God; or at least what it represents rather you are a believer or not. I believe we all seek the good in life and this post is a reflection from the beginning to the present of my personal progress.

Setting This Blog into Existence

Being that this is my first post, I am glad to have it be on the 14^th of February; reason is because I am about to share my love and passion with the world.

Interesting enough I've been around the net for many years and read very little blogs. I asked myself what is a blog or what I like to call a bloc; meaning Beings Looking for Outside Connections. The web is nothing more than connecting strands of information and since us beings are usually isolated with our experiences, sometimes we need an outlet or inlet into other's experiences and perspectives to validate what is true and real for ourselves. This is my attempt to express what I've kept to myself for quite some time. Throughout these sessions will be layers of self extractions to add skin to this technology.

What is 1verse? One verse is a moniker that I have been using for quite a while, I figured it fit because a poet writes verses and with my astronomy background uni = 1, and all we know as of yet, there is only 1 universe.

I've always had a deep passion for the movement towards heightened spiritual awareness. I hope that throughout these sessions it stirs an embodiment, as all of us are connected rather via a blog or plainly through existence. We bumble through life in search for something more yet we miss with the avoidance of each other's presence and find ourselves in solitude, wishing and wanting human emotion to persuade our future endeavors.