Alphabet Soup Compiled by Martha Allen
Poems by Lagunitas Community School 5th grade class
The Shadow by Griffin Martino
Tree by Eloise Granelli
When I go to sleep I feel something, a shadow, cold to the touch It covers me I squirm but I can’t get out
The Goldfinch by Hazel Miller
you stand tall, taller than me
your old bark peeling, just like your leaves.
I begin to drift off into nothingness The shadow pulling me down forever Two Haiku by Henry Schell Two birds sing melody Dancing in the glinting light The sun just shining As the gophers wake And the birds sing and dance out The old dog just sleeps
When the Goldfinch flew in the unfinished tree How it grasped the wobbly stem of the sunflower That was no brighter than it
when the sun rises, your shadow grows dark when the sun sets, your branches will arch. in the spring, Your new leaves bloom, just like all of the flowers around you. in the summer, you dry out brown, from the sun in the valley, shining out loud. in the fall, your leaves become yellow, and it makes me mellow as I watch you big fellow. in the winter, your leaves fall to the ground, barely making a sound.
When it flies over the rainy sky A secret spills out of its core A message that the rain will pass And soon the sun will return Wherever it wanders Wherever it flies It will leave a trail behind it Of truths and lies
Black Birds Call by Sanvi Kakke
Bright yellow And jet black
The way you feel when this happens, a loneliness a sadness a depression. Just the thought of something like it makes you want to cry. A dawn of sorrow falls like the horizon Over you like a rock, so hard you feel like you never want to see the sun again, but you resist you push and push and the rock moves you see the sun, although it’s hard you make it. A black bird calls a sorrow song, as you drift away on a boat of wood and feather. Grey Fox by Mizuki Ortiz
Cheerfulness and sorrow May blind your eyes when you see it
that is why it is truly The sibling of the sun Ocean-To-Sea by Ember Averback
One day you are at a beach You stay until the sun meets the glistening water With little knowledge of the wave behind you. The ocean inhales you, scooping you away. And you float there as the wave carries you. Ocean-To-Sea. Under stars, storms, sun and night. You see creatures, fairy tales, and your own imagination You watch wondering when you’ll hit shore. And when you do, you get up and explore a new world.
The Donkey at the Lake by Paisley Ramirez
I was at the lake in Arizona The sun was going down But with the last drop of sunlight My family and I saw a donkey It was glistening in the sun eating grass that formed around the lake Its fur seemed to melt as the sun went down
As I stare out my window And open my presents And under the willow
The Old Blind Dog by Owen MacKenzie
There is a presence A pack of grey foxes They snuggle and twirl In empty Christmas boxes They were as beautiful as a pearl.
The old blind dog stumbles through the large dark house she runs into the deep walls many times and will occasionally get stuck in a corner.
Reflections by Suzanne Sadowsky
working out their social constructs in team projects. Instead they were at home alone attending classes on Zoom, missing out on school events and social activities. Jacob, my grandson and his 8th grade class couldn’t take their trip to Birmingham, Alabama that year when Covid hit. What an extraordinary experience to have missed while he sat in his bedroom in front of his computer doing his class work. He was not a kid who was into sports, so there was little opportunity for him to be socially engaged in that way. His experience was true for many of the kids of his generation – Gen Z the generation that’s now in their twenties. They still primarily rely on their phones to stay connected. For old people, including the boomers who are now in their 70s and 80s and even older it’s been the same -- fewer opportunities to get together. During Covid and even since we we’re afraid to go to social events and public gatherings. We wore masks when we went grocery shopping. We stopped visiting one another in our homes for dinner or to play bridge or mahjong or Scrabble or going out to dinner or to the movies. We started spending lots more time sitting in front of screens, alone watching TV or texting or connecting with friends on Zoom or FaceTime. In 1956, I had graduated from college and started working at the New York Regional Office of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It was the dawn of the electronic age when new technology was just emerging in the public domain. My office was on the 10th floor at 341 Ninth Avenue in Manhattan --- down the street from Penn Station and a few blocks from Macy’s on 34th St. We were just beginning to replace manual typewriters and adding machines with electric versions. This was way before the internet. Decades later, after I had transferred to the California office of the BLS, we began to set up internet connections, hard-wired Local Area Networks and soon WiFi. I soon learned to be very comfortable with computer technology, spreadsheets, word processing, desk-top publishing and a full range of software applications. Today I can’t understand how I would manage my life with- out my computer and cell phone.
Random thoughts and Memories on a Sunday Afternoon
After weeks and weeks of not knowing what to write about, I have finally been able to sit down my computer and appreciate the value of voice typing to transcribe my random thoughts. I’m a clumsy typist and I have a terrible handwriting -- and it’s getting worse as I age as a struggle with the peripheral neuropathy in my fingers. I sometimes can’t even decifer my own scribbles. So voice typing is my salvation. I speak into my computer and by magic the words appear on my laptop screen wait- ing for me to edit. It is the last Sunday of 2025, December 28. Not the best year of my life, but not the worst year, either– at least so far. Four weeks ago today, on November 30th I turned 90. Last night as I was sitting alone in my house I began thinking of all the people that I lost this past year—people whose voices I will no longer hear, but who I think will stay with me in my memory forever. I began pondering about being alone and out of touch – about social isolation-- a kind of loneliness that many of us are feeling right now – both old people and youngsters -- boomers and Gen Z. We are living in the aftermath of COVID, with cell phones, AI, social media and technology all together hitting us all at once preventing us from being physically in touch with one another just when we most need to be during these very difficult and scary times.
For young people, Covid came at a time when they would have attending school,
Reflections continues on page 15
Page 14 SGV Community Center Stone Soup
Made with FlippingBook Digital Proposal Creator