Poetry Lost?

My brilliant sister Leslie Garcia has always been a great poet. Here’s a link to her poetry book, “Always the Moon,” which has a perfect 5-Star rating; https://www.amazon.com/Always-Moon-Leslie-P-Garcia-ebook/dp/B0196OK5AK/ref=sr_1_14 .

Because I have now written 51 Christian Cozy Mysteries (number 51 will be released soon), people often ask me if I write poetry. I did write poetry once. While I was still in school I used to carry a folder around with me that contained all my poems. They were typed on a manual “Royal” typewriter that had such stiff keys that typing on it strained my fingers. Over the years I’ve lost the poems—but I retain the memory of sore fingers!

While I was sorting through paperwork preparing for Alan’s memorial service, I found two poems I had written for him in 2010. I probably haven’t written poetry since then. I share them in memory of my late husband, Alan Thomson McKean.

The Grand Prize

I’ve never found a treasure chest at the bottom of the sea,

Never found a pot of gold at the rainbow’s end—

Yet with your love, I’m richer in the end.

I’ve never won a contest or claimed the grand prize,

Never been the best at anything I’ve tried.

I’ve never won a million dollars or a fancy new car—

Yet with your love, I’m richer by far.

Give someone else the millions, the car, the grand prize—

All I want in life is the love reflected in your eyes.

Let someone else follow the rainbows, find gold and stake a claim—

Your love is more precious than riches or fame.

What I See in You

What do I see in you?

I see all the wonder of the world in the framework of the person God created in you.

You are apple blossoms going from spring promise to autumn fulfillment.

You are the crystal rushing waters of a mountain spring feeding a thirsty river. You are a gold nugget nestled in a gold-flecked sandbar with mindless green and blue-spangled waters splashing patterns over your bed—yet the shadows of the water cannot hide your shine.

You are a cloudless blue sky. You are the warm wonder of the sun. You are a storm cloud sweeping over the face of the mountain to feed the grassy meadows and rioting wildflowers with gentle rain.

There is moonlight in your eyes, the soft touch of love in your smile. You are a walking poem, a love song, a living, walking promise of joy and happiness.

You are my life.

Poems end. Life continues in a different pattern. As long as God is in it, nothing is ever truly lost. Everything we see—or write—is temporal, even poetry. God alone is eternal.

“For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18

Amazon.com: Stephanie Parker McKean: books, biography, latest update

“Always the Moon” – even at Christmas

Usually I write at least one column every year bashing “Santa.” This because how can we trick our children into believing in the “jolly red elf,” then expect them to believe us about God after they find out we’ve lied to them about Santa?

However, this Christmas I want to write about my hero. Her dream since childhood was to become a writer. She survived a horrific childhood that included repeated, brutal rapes. One of them put her in intensive care for a week because she nearly bled to death. The only way to stop the bleeding was a transfusion and she was a rare blood type. Unforgivably, no one asked questions and the rapes continued. At one point, she was held captive on a boat with an armed felon who had drowned his own son so that she would not flee or tell anyone about the abuse. She escaped and married a Mexican National. They lived across the border in a one-room shack and shared a communal outhouse with ten other families. She worked on the U.S. side of the border and walked the four miles across the bridge to and from work every day.

They rented a house on the U.S. side of the border for themselves and their three children, a one-bedroom, three-room house with a bathroom and shower attached outside the house. Her husband was critically injured at his road job across the border. It took years for his head and leg injuries to heal enough that he could return to work. Meanwhile, she discovered questionable procedures at her job and was fired and blacklisted for vocalizing her concerns. By this time they had a fourth child. They were so broke that they sent their baby across the border to live with grandparents temporarily. She worked her way through university graduating with honors. Through all this…she never stopped writing. She never let go of her dream to be a successful author. Now, just in time for Christmas, she has released a poetry book of intense, moving brilliant poetry, “Always the Moon.”

Oh, and did I mention her other books, A Love Beyond, His Temporary Wife, Wildflower Redemption, Take Me Out, Unattainable http://www.crimsonromance.com/
La Llorona (The Wailing Woman), and inclusion in two internationally best selling cowboy anthologies?

My hero sister, Leslie P. Garcia.

http://www.amazon.com/Always-Moon-Leslie-P-Garcia-ebook/dp/B0196OK5AK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450026769&sr=1-1&keywords=always+the+moon+leslie+garcia

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