There was a child went forth every day,
And the first object he look'd upon, that object he
became,
And that object became part of him for that day or a
certain part of the day,
Or for many years or stretching cycles of years.
.
His blue covered schoolbooks
became a part
of him
As greatly as his faded yellow
number two pencil
Became a part of him,
And his quirky, strange, yet interesting friends
became a part of him,
and his heart.
.
And at home,
his place at table,
white painted and wooden-backed,
with its cushion for sitting,
Became a part of him,
And his brown wood bedstead,
simple and quaint,
with its red and black-checked partchwork quilt
cozy and warm,
Waiting for him to come
and slumber peacefully,
Became a part of him.
.
-Another assignment. This time it is inspired by Walt Whitman's poem, "There Was a Child Went Forth", hence the name. The assignment was to write two stanzas of a poem with things the boy could've seen and become. The beginning stanza is not mine, it is Walt Whitman, who by the way, is dead. He lived from 1819-1892. The point was to use the opening stanza to create your own free verse poem on the same topic.
.
I have an assignment that is sadly lost. I was trying to post it a few months ago, but I cannot locate it. Perhaps I'll just try re-writing it. Oh well.
.
.
.
.
.
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."There Was a Child Went Forth" link
Monday, November 26, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Divine Mercy Sunday
Yesterday was the Feast of Divine Mercy.
.
Pop Quiz: Who started the widespread devotion of Divine Mercy?
.
St. Maria Faustina Kowalska. She was a Polish mystic nun during WW II. Poppop bought me her diary translated into English last year when we were on vacation. It is very long. 500 pages, I think. Pope John Paul II, sorry, Blessed JP II, beautified and canonized her on 2 Divine Mercy Sundays (and it wasn't any coincidence that that was the date he was beautified last year). The devotion was most popular in Poland first, before JP II continued Faustina's work.
.
Anyway, Jesus appeared to Faustina many times over her time in convent, and one time commanded her to have an image painted of the vision she saw before her, with the inscription 'Jezu ufam Tobie', Polish for 'Jesus, I trust in You'.
.
Yesterday we went on the JP II hiking club's annual Easter walk at the park. It was 4.4 miles, I think. And it was very long. We were exhausted. But the Easter Walk is on Divine Mercy Sunday because..... you got it! Since John Paul II popularized Divine Mercy, it makes sense that a hiking club names after him would have their Easter hike on the day he made universal (or catholic).
My Holy Week went like this...
I have been very busy. Very busy.
.
For the record, remind me not to serve at all of the Triduum Masses without proper sleep. It was tiring. Yup, I served at Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. Holy Thursday and Good Friday are both about 2 hours each, and the Vigil was 3 hours, not counting the hour of practice in the morning on all 3 days. There were 3 servers who served all 3 Masses: me and 2 sisters. The only switch on the schedule was that my friend served on Holy Thursday and Good Friday, but not the Easter Vigil. Our pastor told us that someone from Long Island, N.Y., approached him after the Good Friday service and told him,"Father, I was here last night and today, and it was very prayerful, but what made it for me were the servers. They were just so attentive to detail and reverent and prayerful." That was the nicest compliment I think I've ever gotten for my serving (and I've gotten quite a few.)
.
For the record, remind me not to serve at all of the Triduum Masses without proper sleep. It was tiring. Yup, I served at Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. Holy Thursday and Good Friday are both about 2 hours each, and the Vigil was 3 hours, not counting the hour of practice in the morning on all 3 days. There were 3 servers who served all 3 Masses: me and 2 sisters. The only switch on the schedule was that my friend served on Holy Thursday and Good Friday, but not the Easter Vigil. Our pastor told us that someone from Long Island, N.Y., approached him after the Good Friday service and told him,"Father, I was here last night and today, and it was very prayerful, but what made it for me were the servers. They were just so attentive to detail and reverent and prayerful." That was the nicest compliment I think I've ever gotten for my serving (and I've gotten quite a few.)
Monday, February 6, 2012
My new books!
I have a new account on storybird.com, which enables you to use inspired artwork to create story books! My username is bookwormRoni, which is how you can find my books, and I'll also keep you posted on when I create a new storybird: it's also a good way to write more for this blog, which I still haven't gotten back into the groove yet.
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Check out Storybird! storybird.com
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Check out Storybird! storybird.com
Thursday, January 26, 2012
The Beginning of a Story that Doesn't have a Title. Yet.
When one day a small girl started on her schoolwork, she wondered aloud," I wonder what we shall do today. Probably something boring. As usual. Sit and work math problems, oral spelling tests, studying for the geography exam, reading Moby Dick, diagramming long, annoying sentences and conjugating complex Latin nouns. Another splendid day." She announced that last part with not a little sarcasm in her tone.
.
"What did you say Sarah?" questioned Sarah's mother, for that was the girl's name.
.
"Nothing Mother", came the reply. The only good part of today was that they had already called on Mrs. Roberts the day before.
.
"Good", Sarah's mother continued, "Remember that we are also calling on Mrs. Roberts today. I haven't seen her in such a long time, and she sent a note requesting me to come and stop by."
.
"But Mother, we visited Mrs. Roberts yesterday."
.
"Well, she forgot to tell me something, and to give me my birthday present."
.
Sarah knew there was nothing she could do to convince her mother to let her stay home. Her mother was very stubborn and when she had her mind set on something, there was no stopping her.
.
Sarah knew that stopping by was supposed to mean saying hello, for an example :You were at the market purchasing groceries and you just happen to be passing by your friend's house, so you request "Mother, may you please stop so that I may say hello to Irene?" Then your mother pulls over, just as you requested, and you exchange the "Hello! How are you?"s and then proceed on your way home to attend to the tedious chore of putting away groceries. Well, when Sarah's mother stopped by somewhere, it wasn't like that. They would leave around 11 in the morning, visit with whomever they were visiting, and then stay for luncheon at the request of their hostes. This whole time Sarah would have to sit as straight as a board, and would almost wish she was at home studying useless boring work instead of having to hear one more story about how Delilah Markinston ruined Mrs. Parlingstore's baby shower, and then having to listen to more, and then stay for supper as well.
.
But Mrs. Roberts was the worst.
.
She had in her parlor those comfy chairs that you simply want to sink into, but Sarah had to sit on a hard wooden stool. And while the women snacked, no gorged is a much better word, on shortbread, tea, and cookies all day long, Sarah had to sit there, farthest away from the fire, on her hard little stool, starving. It wouldn't bother her as much if she got her meals, but at mealtimes she was given a tiny portion, and no second helpings while watching at the table stuffing themselves silly with roast beef, mashed potatoes, rolls, and salad and then cake and ice cream.
.
.
Sarah loathed 'stopping by' at Mrs. Roberts.
.
But this was how Sarah's life went, and this is where our story comes in.
.
-Not relevant, but I just realized how weird the word 'yet' is. Looking at the spelling, it is a weird word, and saying it is an equally weird experience.
.
This was totally random, no thought at all put into it, that is, until the editing. It's amazing what it takes to create a story, even if it was just a prologue. And how much editing goes into it. :)
.
"What did you say Sarah?" questioned Sarah's mother, for that was the girl's name.
.
"Nothing Mother", came the reply. The only good part of today was that they had already called on Mrs. Roberts the day before.
.
"Good", Sarah's mother continued, "Remember that we are also calling on Mrs. Roberts today. I haven't seen her in such a long time, and she sent a note requesting me to come and stop by."
.
"But Mother, we visited Mrs. Roberts yesterday."
.
"Well, she forgot to tell me something, and to give me my birthday present."
.
Sarah knew there was nothing she could do to convince her mother to let her stay home. Her mother was very stubborn and when she had her mind set on something, there was no stopping her.
.
Sarah knew that stopping by was supposed to mean saying hello, for an example :You were at the market purchasing groceries and you just happen to be passing by your friend's house, so you request "Mother, may you please stop so that I may say hello to Irene?" Then your mother pulls over, just as you requested, and you exchange the "Hello! How are you?"s and then proceed on your way home to attend to the tedious chore of putting away groceries. Well, when Sarah's mother stopped by somewhere, it wasn't like that. They would leave around 11 in the morning, visit with whomever they were visiting, and then stay for luncheon at the request of their hostes. This whole time Sarah would have to sit as straight as a board, and would almost wish she was at home studying useless boring work instead of having to hear one more story about how Delilah Markinston ruined Mrs. Parlingstore's baby shower, and then having to listen to more, and then stay for supper as well.
.
But Mrs. Roberts was the worst.
.
She had in her parlor those comfy chairs that you simply want to sink into, but Sarah had to sit on a hard wooden stool. And while the women snacked, no gorged is a much better word, on shortbread, tea, and cookies all day long, Sarah had to sit there, farthest away from the fire, on her hard little stool, starving. It wouldn't bother her as much if she got her meals, but at mealtimes she was given a tiny portion, and no second helpings while watching at the table stuffing themselves silly with roast beef, mashed potatoes, rolls, and salad and then cake and ice cream.
.
.
Sarah loathed 'stopping by' at Mrs. Roberts.
.
But this was how Sarah's life went, and this is where our story comes in.
.
-Not relevant, but I just realized how weird the word 'yet' is. Looking at the spelling, it is a weird word, and saying it is an equally weird experience.
.
This was totally random, no thought at all put into it, that is, until the editing. It's amazing what it takes to create a story, even if it was just a prologue. And how much editing goes into it. :)
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
The Teacup
Ok, so clearly it's been a while. I wrote this the 3rd of January after reading a poem book 'Love that Dog'. It had several poems like this in it, but this is mine. I must apologize for it's arrangement, but whenever I center it it messes up the handle, and it just isn't turning out right, but you get the idea.
The Teacup
white teacup warm steam white teacup warm steam white teacup warm steam n d
warm white warm VERONICA VERONICA VERONICA VERONICA warm white warm a l
white warm white VERONICA VERONICA VERONICA VERONICA white warm white h e
warm warm warm warm warm warm tasty tasty tasty tasty warm warm wa e
candy cane green tea yum sugar yum sweet sweet delicious warm war l
blue blue warm tea cup blue gold coast chamomile delicious mmm h d
sweet delicious yum yum yum blue warm warm warm hot toasty a n
toasty delicious mmmm mint medley sweet warm cozy feeling
sugar cookie sleigh ride warm delicious mmmm toasty
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