ZCW #7-C
Posted on September 20, 2013 Leave a Comment
This week’s comic haiku: Black birds line the fence./Then scatter searching the sand./Seeking sustenance. – Make your own mini-comic of this haiku – https://www.facebook.com/pages/ZiNC-COMICS/332958361838
Visit This New Website
Posted on September 19, 2013 9 Comments
To reach a wider audience and to share more of my work, I’ve launched a new website, www.skywalkerstoryteller.com. This site offers a free subscription to Letters from Wonder Way, reviews of my books and other books, a blog that will link to interesting stories and articles, and audio stories. Please visit and subscribe.
Stay posted for opportunities to be the first to read and review The Ultimate Wonder, World Stories Illuminating Death.
The Unspeakable Subject
Posted on September 15, 2013 10 Comments
Looking out the attic window, the eight year old girl wondered what would happen if she jumped. Would she fly off through the sky free as a bird or would she plummet to the ground like a stone and shatter into a thousand pieces. Would those pieces still be her? Would they feel the hardness of the concrete or would she melt into nothingness? Would she no longer exist? Would she not move like the rat her cat killed or be slimy like the roach Daddy smashed with his shoe?
During those few moments looking out the attic window I first consciously wondered about death. This wonderment continued over the years, as I lost friends, my mother, and my fathers. This fascination led to me writing , The Ultimate Wonder, World Stories Illuminating Death.
But, when I mention my book’s title, people don’t gush and ask, “Oh wow, what kind of stories? How did you come up with that idea?” Death is a subject most shy from discussing. Some cultures hold the topic of death as taboo. But, as a Buddhist, the reality that death may happen at any moment keeps it forefront in my mind. As a nurse I have seen those who, although knowing death was coming, refused to accept or prepare for it, and meet the end in pain, anger, and fear. But others, who finally accept their next journey manifest a peace and calm that often surprises those around them.
So, do you contemplate death? Is it something you fear? Do you feel how we live our lives can influence how we meet death?
ZCW #6-C
Posted on September 13, 2013 Leave a Comment
Last page of this week’s comic haiku – Birds hop through garden/search for food then fly over/fence to rest in shade. To make your own mini-comic click here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/ZiNC-COMICS/332958361838?hc_location=timeline
Diplomacy Not Weapons for Syria
Posted on September 8, 2013 12 Comments
I am a pacifist. I’ve been against war since I was a child living on an Air Force Base. So, I see through the sleight of hand in this latest “limited involvement” in Syria. Innocents are always hurt when missiles fly. Here’s an idea floating around – Why doesn’t the leader we elected for change take a bold step – an unexpected move — and invite the President of Iran to join with him to bring about a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Syria? Or at the very least listen to Congresspeople such as Rep. Barbara Lee, from California, who supports diplomacy over the military option.
The following poem was written a few years ago after reading a report about the billions of dollars involved in U.S. foreign military arms sales.
Weapons to Windmills
Ghazal to the World’s Number One Arms Dealer
“They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” Isiah 2:4
Change the weapon into a windmill to build peace.
Let the roar of war machines be still to build peace.
Land of the free must sell weapons for protection,
this defensive posture, too puerile to build peace.
Preferred oil access to vend arms?
Self-interest is not the best mode to build peace.
U.S. wants employment income from missile trade.
Create non-violent mercantile to build peace.
Allies are essential to fight terror’s onslaught.
Criminal states cause too much ill will to build peace.
Aid to African countries is a noble goal.
Millions of guns sold so thousands kill to build peace?
Democracy is freedom’s golden currency.
Sales to countries that torture is swill to build peace.
Wonder why governments perpetuate bloodshed?
It’s too easy to buy many bombs “to build peace.”
Protection of human rights, the paramount goal
Stop the battle cry too volatile to build peace.
End land mine use. Endorse a global treaty for
non-proliferation. Show the will to build peace.
Compassion’s call compels this poet to take a stand,
to act with belief, life’s greatest work, to build peace.
ZCW #5-C
Posted on September 6, 2013 2 Comments
This is the last page of this week’s Haiku: Desert sun blasts all dry./Quiet in mind numbing heat./Poet’s Solitude. If you want to make your own mini-comic go to https://www.facebook.com/pages/ZiNC-COMICS/332958361838
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