Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving became my favorite holiday as a young adult because of the gathering of my little family and the great meal. Like many families, our tradition was turkey and the fixens. My Mom used to slave over it all in a kitchen that would have kept most people from serving frozen dinners. Not sure how she did it, but she always managed to pull it off (with some help from my Auntie Carm who always made the mashed potatoes). I'm grateful that when I had my first real place my Mom came down and I made dinner for her. Of course today, my immediate family (Mom, Dad, Auntie Carm and Auntie El and of course my brother Jackie) are all gone. I'm grateful that my partner's family always welcomes me for the holidays although I have been known recently to spend certain holidays alone. Sometimes it is just quiet and intimate as I conjure the memories and spirits of my lost loved ones. While it may seem melancholy, and certainly comes with tearful reminiscence, most of the time I find myself smiling with thoughts of the past and hope for the future knowing that my family will always be with me.

Welcome to my blog!

I have a blog associated with lulu.com (http://people.lulu.com/blogs/view.php?user_id=512690), where my book is distributed, but not a great deal of traffic finds its way there. And so, I decided to begin a blog here and hope you find some solace, or some chuckles or some symbiosis from my posts. Since I have been focusing a good deal of my energy lately on my first book, FLOWERS IN AUTUMN: endings and beginnings, I though I would begin by sharing one of the poems from that book. You can also feel free to preview the book for free online at http://www.lulu.com/parplaywright.

Enjoy and as always...be well.

A Flower in Autumn

I saw you last night - running, playing, hitting.
You had a glow like a candle inside a pumpkin on
Halloween.
I tried to touch you but you were gone - a haze.

I heard your voice - yelling, screaming, crying.
Your pain echoed like a call inside the catacombs.
I searched for you until I lost consciousness.

I awoke at your grave; snow stung my lips.
The wind blowing as though millions of souls were
breathing at once,
and then, calm.

I began to dig through the snow at your grave
as if to resurrect your spirit from the frozen earth.

And then, all at once, I was paralyzed.
There, in a drift, in front of your stone it stood.
One flower poised as a sentinel fighting the fall.
A flower in autumn.

My tears, frozen to my face; my breath choked inside my
flesh.
I thought to turn and run, and then I heard you whisper -
"Brother I will not forget you."
Through all the years I'd never known and now from
death, life.

Then I stood, fighting my own fall, shouting the show into
circles -
"Nor I you, nor I you."

I wrote this poem in my brother's memory who was born in 1964 with Downs Syndrome and died at the age of 16 (when I was just 14). His life was a deep inspiration to so much of what I have done and his love was the most pure love I have ever known. I am certain that he is my guardian angel and that when I see him again, he will indeed be running and playing and hitting.