Sounds of Hope

It was in a classroom on one of the lower floors at John Jay High School in Park Slope Brooklyn.  We had to write a composition about an essay, or short story we had read.  I remember picking up my pen and putting it to the three holed paper - loose leaf paper, we called it.  I wrote something about enjoying what I read because I too wanted to be a writer. That was a very long time ago.  My attempts at writing have filled these pages as well as those of Storehouses of Snow and Kingdom Bloggers .  I can't tell you how many times I've been told to write a book or how many times I have asked - should I write a book?  My analytic mind asks endless questions and never settles on an answer. But I've got that itch.  I've got that itch to set my fingers to the keys and share my thoughts once again.  Will I ever write that book?  I don't know.  But I need to write.  I thought about a new blog but decided this one will do just fine - I'm still listening to the Soun

I would like to say I come from a family of writers. However, I think it would be more accurate to say, I come from a family of “wanna be” writers. Within my extended family sphere, three of us are blogging. My daughter is the latest to blog . She has been writing deep poetry for many years now and I am glad to see she has taken this step. Even in her teens, her poetry when read in church brought tears to the eyes of the hearers. Her poem about the death of her grandmother was read at her funeral.   I am very proud of her. We have another poet in the family, a niece, who has won awards and trips to Europe. I’ve not read her poetry, but evidently it is quite good. The awards give a legitimacy to her poetry.  Another niece has a deeply profound and moving blog about her journey. She is quite candid about her life. Since unfortunately my only personal interaction with this niece was when she was a baby, I’ve gotten glimpses of her as person through this blog. She has tremendous strengt