The Mag #177 - Haiku

Opportunities,

shine eye bright, unexpected !

Grab them up, young one !

Saturday Snapshot - Eucharisteo !

Today I am thankful for fresh green beans and colorful garden annuals; every day there's a gift from the back yard garden!  What are you thankful for these days ?

This post is shared with others at Melinda's blog, West Metro Mom Reads - pop over by clicking the link! Take a look at what everyone else is putting up on their sites ... it's Saturday Snapshot day!

The Mag 176 - A Lady's Resolve

Image Credit: Super Moon - New York - Julio Cortez

A Lady’s Resolve

She never thought it would be easy -

She stepped into a concept

She settled into a nation’s psyche

She watched nascent dreams grow

She suffered the flaws of fanatics

She shook away the cynic’s acid

She raised the strong arm of resolution

She steeled herself for posterity’s sake

She softened her face for the new

She shook her tablet at the established

She looked up and away

She never said it would be easy -

this welcoming of strangers

this holding high the hallowed lamp

this watching the skies

this picking up rubble

this pushing aside fear

this building anew

this act of forgiveness

this moving on

this raising a new bastion of freedom

this clearing collective vision for the future

Lindquist – 7/11/1/3 

Initially, the second verse was the first verse .... but then ... personifying Lady Liberty seemed a fun way of approaching this prompt. The things that have happened around this monument are stupifying ... if only she could talk to us.

This piece is shared with other writers who visit Tess's weekly writing challenge at Magpie Tales ... this week's challenge can be seen here. Check it out ...

Saturday Snapshot - Remembering Kittens

Almost two years ago, our beautiful little girl cat, Opey had a small litter of kittens. It was such a special time for us, watching her become a mother, seeing her trust us to handle her little kittens, playing with the little rascals, and watching them grow up. I was watching Penn stretch out on the cool hallway tiles this morning and got thinking about how tiny he was when he was first born. Thinking about that brought me to searching up these shots of him and his little brother.

This is Penny ... soon to be known as Penn, as he became a known male at about the three month mark.

This is Ferris, another little male, who has since grown to be a huge boy that resembles a Maine Coon cat. Ferris moved to the city of Boston with my daughter, Sara and makes his home on Beacon Hill.

Kittens, you gotta love 'em!

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Melinda over at West Metro Mommy Reads ... head on over and look at what others are posting today!

City of Dreams - Beverly Swerling

I love it when I discover a new author, one that I know I will enjoy, one that will make me search out all the published titles, and hang on, waiting for new works. Beverly Swerling is my newest find. It's not like she hasn't been around for a while. Her first novel appeared back in 2001 ... and what a place to start!

The settlement of New Amsterdam was a commercial venture right from the start and with commerce came the wealthy looking to become more wealthy, the adventurers who would explore the new ways of life , the moral and the amoral, the poor looking to better themselves, and all stripes in between. Swerling writes a novel that brings the reader to New Amsterdam through the experiences of Lucas Turner and his sister, Sally. Lucas is a barber and surgeon newly arrived from Rotterdam, Sally is his apothecary assistant. Together, the two hope to make their way in the New World, where the need for competent surgeons is constant.

Lucas and Sally reflect the beginnings of a move within medicine - a time when herbs and simples were becoming better understood, when the concepts of blood transfusion, the practice of sterilization of instruments and bandages was becoming known, but still little understood, when anatomy was still a mystery to some physicians, but slowly becoming known to surgeons, when there was a great deal of consternation about new practices that might be considered unnatural, evil, and even smacking of witchcraft. Lucas and Sally fight ignorance and share their skills in order to make a living. The story follows their settlement and subsequent marriages before turning to their progeny and the further development of the city, as it becomes a colony of the British and is re-named New York ... and so it goes. The book is written in sections labelled Book I, II, III, etc. that cut across the years between 1664 and 1798. Each era deals with members of the Turner or Van der Vries (Sally's married name) families, the further development of the medical field through their experiences, and the development of New York City and the colonial expansion of Manhattan and the environs.

Swerling has done an incredible job of researching and developing her story - rather, stories. It's a saga ... and a good one, indeed. At no time does she compromise the good story to become too didactic about the history and vice versa. The history is never compromised to build the story. She has gone on to write three more books in what has become known as her City of Dreams series. They bring the development of the city up through the Gilded Age and are all meticulously researched as well as having meaty fictional story lines set within the framework of the urban history.

I look forward to finding more of Swerling's books and am thinking of reading them in the order that she published, which means that the next book I'll dig around for will be her novel called Shadowbrook.

Poetry Jam - Babies

Grandmother’s Renewal – A Rictameter

Magic

Born of my blood

Suckled nurtured grown gone

Bound in love to another soul

My arms and hands ache with a mother need

I wait and watch and hope until

Two souls create a child

My ache is gone

Magic

This poem is being shared with the other writers who contribute to Poetry Jam. Thanks go this week to Laurie Kolp for providing us with our theme ... babies. And since Laurie is celebrating a special birth, I suspect she will relate to my humble offering.

The Mag 175 - Mother Love

Mother Love

Tired feet cracked and worn

Brown from the dust

Hot from the road

Step aside to the matted grass

She shifts the watergrass bundle

Switching arms and shaking

Loose a tired shoulder

Before picking up her basket

Moving on toward the village

A shimmer on the horizon

Hummocks to anyone passing

Home to her and others

Eyes scan the humid skies and hope

Come evening the rains come

Grasses soak and soften

Pliant in a tub of the cool water

Along with her tired feet

Her legs swirl the long blades

Gently work flexing toes

Stretching ankles easing aches

She weaves baskets and hats

Staring out at the evening sky

Fingers and wrists move in rhythm

While she dreams of market day  

When she will sit in the sun

Waiting for traders to come

Her hat will shield her eyes

Picking the best will be hard

All are made with skill and love

Her hands will hold the coins tight –

Her daughter will go to school

Wear a clean blouse and shoes

Blue paper booklets a shiny pencil

These will do to help her on her way

When she is grown and far away

Perhaps she’ll remember

Baskets carrying more than dreams

Hats shielding a head full of wishes

A small pouch and coins of passage

Unabashedly sentimental, but I cannot help but crawl inside that woman's skin as she walks along the wayside,  loaded with the makings of ... what ? Is it fuel, or bedding, or the raw materials for a basket like the one she carries ? The photo begs a story.

This piece is being shared at Tess's weekly writing group ...  Magpie Tales -The Mag 175. Others have posted before me, go see what they've written.