Selected Verse - Faith and Family

A collection of poems telling the history, struggles, growth and development of a family, leading into reflections on glimpses of the divine; how they clash with a fallen world and call us to something higher. "Rhymed tales of love giving way to life, yet love remains and grows rather than stretching thin. This is a story first of love between two people. We follow them through rhymed verse and become an intimate observer of this man's life and his closest relationships. Soon, as is often the case with life and families, the family grows larger, child by child, even finding room for canine memberships. A man not without strife and struggle, he has success in the greatest battle of all - the battle of building a family with his love. We travel with him through self-deprecating feelings arising from common human frailties and are by his side when he loses trusted elders who had guided him. We see him -- as he did throughout the building of his family -- turn to God again and again. We see his wisdom grow as he fully perceives the world around him and the difficulties inherent in it, exhibiting a true knowledge of good and evil. As he becomes fully mature so does his love; love for wife, children, family and then mankind itself, as that is what God demands. He recognizes this is what God has demanded of him since birth - and without fully understanding it - love is what this man has given freely. So we have here a journey - figuratively from cradle to grave with the literal journey closing faster than we might like." EJ Shumak - published poet in GAS LIGHT and BETWEEN THE SPECIES