POETRY: Season's Greetings: A Poem From Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Out of Malibu: America's Fulfillment of Prophecy Prophecy: "Yet out of you shall come forth to Me the one to be ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting."

Malibu celebrates the young son's birthday. Every November the city installs a family of balsa on this bluff in a lean-to, here where they would feel at home -- if they could feel. Sunshine. familiar palms. A sea like Sinai's. Unintended, they become graven images, feet statue-still. Once they were folk, now they're revered, waiting, waiting for a miracle to come. Their design never to be worshipped, they ask this night of nights for compassion. And, lo! A birthday gift in this new age. A white star in LA's skies, usually seen dim through Pacific's fog, now a silver sequin. Their feet quicken from carvings to flesh, their robes soften, the child's skin now luminescent wears still a circlet of strawflowers placed on his head by Our Lady of Malibu's first grade class. The choice to stay or go away now theirs, they leave behind those who thought they loved them but imposed burdens beyond endurance. They travel interstate byroads at night when they will not frighten other sojourners, they -- homeless, shoeless, unfamiliar robes, faces still immobile from decades practicing the art of crèche. Now, in mountain blizzard -- unlike weather they had ever known -- a new kind of pageant, idols unnoticed in the snow. A trek, an adventure, a calling! As Chaucer's pilgrims sought redemption, they trudge East. The babe burrows for warmth beneath its father's robes. Here an arch marks a river, mighty as any they had seen, this monster land, roads like veins, Mapquest's blue design. Unlike worshippers, they follow no light but their own, come upon an open swath, Washington's obelisk, rotunda like Rome's, somehow their kin, erected for the ages. Beneath their feet the Post, sodden, headline bawls War. Fine drizzle diffused by starlight they stand before another, newer wailing wall, a granite gash. This, this! their destination. Rain turns to doilies (as this small tribe turned from human tissue to wood and back again), decorates their cloaks, caps, hoods, slides down the polished façade before them. Wet-white punctuations attach themselves to incised names on this family's own reflected images. The infant reaches out his hand to quench the flow.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of a chapbook of poetry, Tracings, published by Finishing Line Press, available on Amazon,

Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Award-winning author of This Is the Place, Harkening, Tracings, and the HowToDoItFrugally Series of Books for writers. Introducing 2nd in the series,

The Frugal Editor
( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0978515870/ ) after The Frugal Book Promoter. Both are winners USA Book News' Best Book award.

Blogs: http://www.TheNewBookReiew.blogspot.com
http://www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com http://www.TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com
http://www.authorscoalition.blogspot.com
And now blogging on War. Peace. Tolerance and Our Soldiers at: http://warpeacetolerance.blogspot.com .
.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sassy Brit
Sassy's Bio
Alternative-Read.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vsQ3jG1Taw

MyBlogLog.com
http://sassybrit.gather.com/
http://www.shelfari.com/SassyBrit
http://www.myspace.com/sassy_brit
http://www.authorsden.com/sassybrit
http://uk.360.yahoo.com/sazzychattysassy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uk_reviewer/
http://www.facebook.com/p/Sassy_Brit/528982626

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Technorati Categories:
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Book Review, FREE Books, Competition, Blog, Media, Press Release, Author, Podcast, Interview, Book News, Reviews, Reviewers, Sassy Brit, Aris, Lucille Perkins Robinson, Devlin O'Neill, Matt Freese, Angelika Devlyn, Michael, Ask the Spanking Mavens, Yahoo Group, Guest Blog, Publisher, Newsletter, alternative-read.com.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Join in with the fun!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"The Inside Story" as told by Sassy Brit and her Gang!
Lively and Spirited Reviews
"Joining authors and readers together..."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Click to join An_Alternative_Read

Receive TWO free ebooks, upon joining!

Degrees of Sickness by Sharon Maria Bidwell, (not available elsewhere) and The Scythian Stone by Jon F. Baxley
will be yours free to keep upon joining our Yahoo group!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~