THIS GIRL IS SINGING!

So, here's more for the "Thank you, Universe" file. 

Everyday, I spend time clearing through, cleaning up, re-organizing or otherwise going through Mom's stuff.  She left behind a lot of stuff and the process is weighty (as it forces me to remember various aspects of her life when I'm in mourning that she's gone).  But, this morning, I came across a book -- a book that she'd put on her shelves of Bibles and various Biblical studies, which is to say, a treasured space to Mom -- this book:

I hadn't looked at this particular book, this MARVELOUS BLESSING, in a while (it was released in 2009).  It's a book curated/edited by John Bloomberg-Rissman; that is, John focused on a poem I wrote "Girl Singing" and then put out a call for poets and artists to respond to it.  The result became a book.  And as I looked at the copy that Mom gave, I remembered that I had given it to her as a gift (was it for Christmas that year?).  I opened it, and saw this:

So, ONCE MORE and FOREVER MORE, thank you to editor John Bloomberg-Rissman and the forty-ish poets and visual artists around the world who generously responded to my poem to give a "thousand views."  You didn't just make me happy, but you gave so much pleasure to my Mom.

THANK YOU, UNIVERSE!