Remembering Real

At last, the day.

The Real Mary goes to # 21, Anonymous, signed "Grace and Peace." Congratulations! Please contact me by Monday, October 12, 6:00 pm. EST, with your name and address and I'll send along your copy. And if you like, you've also won the chance to guest-post on Beliefnet, to share your thoughts about the book.

[UPDATE: Alli from SC is the new winner of the giveaway, as Anonymous has let the deadline for contacting pass. Thanks, Anonymous, for your gracious comment. And congratulations, Alli! :) Please contact me by Wednesday at 6:00 pm EST.]

Since today is poetry Friday, I'm also offering... a poem! In answer to our The Real... prompt at High Calling Blogs...


"Page 5"

The menu
says strawberry
shortcake

with whipped cream

but here's the deal:
I remember what's real,
my mother's child-small

hands turning flour

sugar, shortening
the "size of a big egg"
so the old recipe

instructed, I remember

sun-kissed fields of
furrows, hills my
grandmother's rough

patched, yet painted

hands turned and raised
for strawberries blushed
and bleeding real juice

not perfumed water

that pretends ripeness
cut and strewn over too-
sweet cake. I remember

cream, real, whipped.

_________

A special thank you again to everyone who posted about and linked to/tweeted/or Facebooked the giveaway. You made it a Grand Celebration. And thanks to Scot McKnight for writing a fine book.

POETRY FRIDAY:
High Calling Blogs Real Business Men Read Poetry
Monica’s Attracting His Gaze
Laura’s Fast
Bonnie’s The Bloom of Becoming
Maureen’s The Real Me
Glynn’s The Real Poet
A Simple Country Girl’s Little Things
Kelly’s Real Time
Claire’s This Concept of Real
Monica’s The Real Paul
Tweetspeak’s Poems of the Ruby Moon
Fred's Cooking 1 and Cooking 2
Deb's Mothers, Mary and Obedience

The Real Mary photo, by L.L. Barkat.