Easter people, atheists and chocolate – NaPoWriMo Day20

Posted on April 21, 2011 by moonbridgebooks
The most important Christian holiday approaches and the chocolate bunnies are ready to hop into baskets. What do chocolates have to do with Easter? I think it’s the shapes more than the type of candy. Easter is the “rebirth” of Jesus, and so we bring on the springtime symbols of new life: eggs and chicks, flowers and bunnies, lambs, butterflies. Do you believe? If so, did you always? If we use our God-given independent minds, we’ve all had to go through a faith journey to get to where we are now, even atheists. (Are agnostics just lazy or just very indecisive?) It may seem private to you, perhaps bound to cause arguments, but then again, your journey could prove to be a very important story to others in your life – especially your kids.

The moon’s reflection
Bright in the neighbor’s window
A second-hand view
Must we see it first hand
Before we can believe?

Linda Austin
“Cherry Blossoms in Twilight”
http://www.moonbridgebooks.com

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Storm Memories – NaPoWriMo Day19

Posted on April 19, 2011 by moonbridgebooks

We’re having some wild weather here lately; tonight some golf-ball sized hail landed in the yard along with those the size of quarters. Before the storm, though, the weather was deliciously expectant with danger – the scent of rain in the warm, humid wind and steel-blue clouds rolling across the sky. Watching the trees sway, I went back to the days of my childhood. Our silver maple tree was built perfectly for climbing, and I could get way up near the top and hide from the world. On windy nights, it was my wild heaven. Do you have pleasant memories of stormy nights?

On windy nights
The branches of the maple
Became wild horses
That only I could ride,
Racing in dark leafy dreams.

Sweet scent of rain
Air filled with expectation
Senses quivering
Aware of what it means
to be fully alive.

For those interested in learning about Japanese tanka:
http://www.tankaonline.com/

Linda Austin
“Cherry Blossoms in Twilight”
http://www.moonbridgebooks.com
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Genealogy leads to Yiddish delights – NaPoWriMo Day18

Posted on April 18, 2011 by moonbridgebooks

Anna Olswanger researched her roots and found a couple funny children’s stories. Per newpaper articles she discovered, her great-grandfather Elias was a near-victim of robbery and her father was a featured musician favoring the blues. Anna took information in those articles and created Schlemiel Crooks, about the 1919 St. Louis robbery with the addition of Pharoah’s ghost to tell the Passover story, and Chicken Bone Man, a 1920’s Memphis story of her father as a piano playing prodigy and his narrator dog. These and her other stories are in delightful Yiddish dialect. You never know where your roots will lead you.

My Japanese grandmother
Loved Japanese pumpkins,
Small and green,
With orange flesh in between.
She ate and she ate,
With sugar and soy
Until her face grew round
And orange color could be seen
And all were afraid
They’d discover Japanese Halloween!

Linda Austin
“Cherry Blossoms in Twilight”
http://www.moonbridgebooks.com

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