Northern Lights
When Northern Lights drift close to you They’re after your spirit. Bid your adieux! They’ll carry you off to other souls Already there in that big black hole Electric, magnetic, gigantic spheres Travel by star in universe years I watched the Northern Lights quite often Near Anne-Shirley’s open coffin When at […]
Cousins IV
We come from a town Where we were all cousins Mennonite parents Kids by the dozens All were Mennonite Through and through Jacobs found Annies Who said “I do.” Abrams found Liesbets Way across town Weddings in church Such beautiful gowns Then along came Anitas Anne-Shirleys, Eileens Names in that town Before […]
Easter 2022
I celebrate Easter in my old age with memories of music and memories of my daughters in pretty yellow outfits. I don’t celebrate the risen Christ. Why? It’s a story I should leave untold, but anyway, here goes. The supernatural events of Christ as a human have seemed more ridiculous to me with the […]
Lost in Lumber
We were lost, me and my two cousins Paul and Harvey, they with guns and me with a camera. We were hunting bear in a 99-year growth of lumber in Oregon. Trails crisscrossed up hills and down slopes to streams. We should have picked up a map when we registered in a camp office not […]
Yosemite
Some scenes become crisp in clean air. When they do, they bring new meaning to words like Cathedral. The symphony of the forest can be heard coming through morning mist. Not long ago I went to Yosemite National Park to discover a tiny church built long ago. In my pre-journey research, I had found nothing […]
My Window
I sit at the computer and look out my bedroom window, realizing that I have to move out of this house and out of this room by the end of the month. This is a room with a window through which I have viewed the world with eyes unfogged again since graduating from a year […]
Easter Journey
My Easter journey this year followed a pattern of expansion in relationship. It started Maundy Thursday, continued Good Friday, and came to light Easter Sunday. Maundy Thursday, I attended a Seder at First Christian Church in downtown San Jose to hear again the 2,000-year-old story of Jesus’ walk along the Dolorosa in Old Jerusalem. A […]
Mary’s Prayer
One spring I travelled by bus from Los Angeles, California, where I was finishing high school, to Amarillo, Texas. It was Easter time. I went there to meet my now-long-gone parents, Peter and Susan Kroeker, my sister Mary and her husband Herman Wilms, and my uncle and aunt, the late Abe and Elizabeth Kroeker. Six […]
Steinbeck in Salinas
Not often do I get my picture taken as an author. I have a respectable resume, but usually I am at the working end of the camera. I was in Salinas, California, visiting the Steinbeck Center where executive director Colleen Bailey was overseeing celebrations in honor of author John Steinbeck’s 108th birthday. The center is […]