Take Pride in Literary Accomplishments

Sometimes people can -- and should -- be proud of small things. My wife's aunt has, for years, enjoyed writing for local publications (garden club and the social register, for example). She takes great joy and amusement from this endeavor and who can blame her. Well, now she has something of which she can be justifiably proud. One of her poems has been printed in the June 2009 issue of The Saturday Evening Post.

Just in case the text is too small in the scan, here is her poem:

And We Call Them Weeds

Don't be down on dandelions;
I'm not.
They have something to say,
And they mean a lot.
One morning you
look out,
And guess what appears?
All you can see are the little dears.
They pop up their colors
In bright yellow and green.
They're so
happy,
Never intending to be mean.
Dandelions were imported,
Those
versatile gems,
By colonists who cooked
And fermented even their stems.
How graceful bobbing their heads
In tune with the wind,
Knowing not
how soon
Their flock to be thinned.
Enjoy their short company,
Who
sleep from dusk to light.
And before you cut them all down,
Bid them all
a "Good night!"

--Pearl Joffe

How many of us can say that we've had our creative writing published in a magazine whose origins predate the birth of America?