Finally published - Tucker and the Holocaust Survivor - Poem: The Former First Lady Tries Yoga

View the true story at Literary Yard. Thank you Onkar Sharma of Mumbai India.

Click here.

Onkar always chooses a perfect image.


  Ed Quinn called to tell me how much he liked the short story. Made him cry at the end.

I wrote it about a year ago and could not find a publisher, including the Jewish Exponent, who kept me waiting for weeks.

Anyhow, I feel great about it and am moving forward.

Wrote a Letter to the Editor to the Inquirer about the great service from SEPTA during the repeated snow falls we've had.

And, Guy P from the Intell and Courier Times said to go ahead and write a guest column in response to the recent school murders.

Freda is reviewing it now.

Here's my morning poem:

From the Geraldine S Dodge Foundation:

Poetry of the Body:
Led by a certified yoga instructor, participants will explore yoga as poetry of the body through a combination of gentle poses, guided meditation, listening to poetry and taking pauses for writing and reflection. Movement and mindfulness will become writing prompts in this special session.


THE FORMER FIRST LADY TRIES YOGA

We guide her gently, as she remembers
that husband of hers, yes, she loved him,
would run through the corridors of hell
with him

Was he a winner or loser? The Checkers speech,
the humiliating treatment as VP by his beloved Dwight
D Eisenhower.

Relax, now, Pat, we said, placing our hands gently
on the kinks in her neck, sitting inside loud helicopters
she always thought would crash, her pocketbook
beside her.

China she loved. They treated her with deference.
She slouched in China, watched ballets, operas. As a
kid she loved General Tso Chicken.

That final helicopter ride out of the White House.
"Shave, dammit," she told Tricky Dick before they
boarded the helicopter.

"It's so sad, It's so sad," she said.

***

My front door had smudge marks on it so I put the cat photo on it plus the white azaleas.

Last night I finished my collage and neighbor Pat K hung it up today, after shoveling w his friends. He selected the space and it looks great.

Push pins.

Helen thought the mini-egg cartons were pill boxes.

I'd guess the mobile took about five hours to make. I walked around a lot, thinking. In the Obama portrait book, there are marvelous shots of him thinking.

I particularly like the huge crab hanging down on one of the jutting-out arms.

The Eagles' emblem.

Just finished reading Obama: An Intimate Portrait by official White House photographer Pete Souza.



I bought the book on Amazon. Here's Pete's website.

Lunch was a chick pea salad with tangerines, pecans, sunflower seeds, tuna fish, mayo, pepper and paprika.

Fab!!!

My sugar is normal now - 111 - so before I go to Scott's I've gotta eat something. How about salted pretzel rods and peanuts?

Got a new book out of the library. Of all the books I'm reading, this is the best!

Great research job, J. Randy Taraborrelli, who's written many other great bios. While reading, I practiced saying his name dozens of times but still can't remember it!

Taraborelli, taraborelli, taraborelli - several names in one. 


Now, in his new book Jackie, Janet & Lee: The Secret Lives of Janet Auchincloss and Her Daughters Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill, author J. Randy Taraborrelli takes an intimate look at the sisters’ complicated relationship with the shipping magnate, and reveals for the first time what really happened when Lee learned her sister was marrying Onassis five years after John F. Kennedy’s death. Below, BAZAAR.com publishes an exclusive excerpt.