Happy Chanukah! BE the Light you want to See in the World! #PlantYourDream 2018!
Adrienne Prince, my editor, is working on bringing out A History Of Peace on Earth-#lesliegoldmanlegacywritings.
Last night I read one of the poems from this compilation at a gathering of Shir Ha-ham Havurah Community, here in San Diego. I enjoyed being able to share this memory from my childhood, growing up in the Boyle Heights neghborhood of Los Angeles, in the 1950’s:
COOKIE LOVE
At the age of seven, on my first walk
home from school all by myself,
(School! That place of confinement
where as part of my parochial education
I am to memorize Hebrew paragraphs
with no meaning I will ever remember, besides
my mental pain of trying to learn them)
I pass enchantedly, the Raskin's bakery
on First Street - a comforting place
for me before I ever went to school.
Outside sits Sidney Raskin,
large, roly-poly, philosophical;
my teacher, friend, brother of the owner,
wearing a five-o'clock shadow,
sitting on a Knudsen's blue milk crate.
He calls me "crocodile!" straight-faced.
I call him "lion!" with intense feeling,
as I hear in the synagogue.
He calls me "monkey!"
I call him "alligator!"
And so goes on and on, the history of our world
until we both laugh.
In what becomes a daily ritual,
he reaches over and pokes me
in the belly and invites me in for a cookie.
Even though he walks ahead of me
I feel his arm on my shoulder.
He reveals the inner life of baked goods -
fresh flours milled, rolled,
punched by hand. Plastic outer-space men
for birthday cake trimmings
wishing soul to soul someone well.
All I can say is, Sidney Raskin
made life wonderful for me.
I don't think I'll ever get him
or his cookie love from my blood.
I'll be looking for Sidney Raskin
forever without knowing it.
As long as there exists a Jewish bakery
and its cookie
made before dawn, I must look.
And my sadness is,
I will forever seek hin
and be disappointed.
He will never again
be there in the faces
behind the counter
who do not seek to touch me
as he did.
How hard I try to live outside bakeries -
I will always be primed
to make my pilgrimage
to look, and to bite.
Leslie Goldman #YourEnchantedGardener #PlantYourDreamBlog
Photo: the woman in this photo is a Kick in the Pants for me, Shannon McCabe, who I call simply “McCabe.”
I get to see her once a year and next at the #heirloomExpo, National Heirloom Exposition (8th Annual) Tues-Wed-Thurs, Sept 11-12-13, 2017.
Join the Enchanted Garden Club and make a financial or barter contribution to support this Journey To inspire and help 144,000 See themselves as #SacredSeed though our activity called #PlantYourDream.
I am convinced that a key to 1000 years of Peace on Earth is having at least 144,000 of Us in 2018 recognizing that True Governance Now Begins with Self Care and Inner Governance.
http://plantyourdream.net/?page_id=16019
How to Plant Your Dream http://plantyourdream.net/?p=21492
