• Blessing’s PromiseMarch 20, 2023

       Note to Reader: I’ve been watching the local cardinal couple’s
            courtship as they fly among the branches of our weeping cherry tree,
            and was happy to come upon this poem from 2008 today.  It’s in the Torah
            poems section of this blog. 
  When I am able as I step through every door
  to stop rushing from one forgetting
  into the next,
  
  when I remember to be the prayer
  that every breath in its going in and out
  lifts into the frozen air,
  
  then I can hear the song, and take in the ruddy flash
  of cardinal’s wide-winged flight
  from crabapple’s
  
  tangled weave across snow-covered ground,
  as his heart’s companion, all burnished bronze,
  follows close behind. 
  
  Wasn’t this the promise when blessing
  first sang us
  
  into life?
  
                                                  1/5/2008
  
  

• Shy CloudMarch 11, 2023

  At the story hour, eager Julian volunteers first
  to stand up in front of all the children
  and be a cloud. 
  
  Samantha, Tess and Brandon join him.
  All the seated children are Wind
  pushing breath through juicy puckered lips.
  
  Three Clouds shake the tissue paper I’ve given them
  fluttering up down sideways like fluffy cumuli
  racing cross a clear blue sky.
  
  But Julian presses his tissue paper hard against his chest. 
  “Why isn’t your cloud moving, Julian?”  He clears
  his throat.  “Well….I’m feeling a little shy.” 
  
  All the mothers in the back row chuckle.
  “That’s all right, Julian.”  I want to comfort him
  for bravery.  For standing up first,
  
  then admitting sudden fear.  “Every sky,”
  I inform the group, “has room
  for shy clouds that do not move.”
                                                4/5/2004

All writings created by me, Susan Fantl Spivack, on this Open Source Singing Frog Press website are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).  Anyone may use and share the unaltered written texts at no charge.  Please cite the source as Susan Fantl Spivack, Singing Frog Press (including the link to this website).  The photos found on this website (unless otherwise attributed) are the work of Jay Spivack.  Anyone may use and share the unaltered photos at no charge.  Please cite the source as Jay Spivack/PhotoGraphics, Singing Frog Press (including the link to this website). CC BY-NC-ND 4.0