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    A Life Well Lived Through Words
    A Life Well Lived Through Words
    A Life Well Lived Through Words
    Ebook168 pages1 hour

    A Life Well Lived Through Words

    By Sharon D. Greenspan

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    About this ebook

    Celebrating her successes and coping with lifes challenges, A Life Well Lived Through Words is an account of a womans lifelong struggle with love, relationships, geopolitical issues, lawyering, and disease. Sharon Greenspan has always looked to poetry and writing to find her peace. She writes about her life as an immigration attorney, both in private practice and for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, her relationship with her daughter Samantha, her challenging loves, and her battle with chronic fatigue syndrome. She weaves a story of a life well lived through words.

    Greenspans poems are poignant at times, at other times whimsical, almost fey. She has organized her work well and included both intimate thoughts about her relationships, grander themes such as 9-11, and the foundation of the state of Israel. Taken together, they tell her stories with verve and charm.

    -The US Review of Books

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTrafford Publishing
    Release dateMay 5, 2014
    ISBN9781490734118
    A Life Well Lived Through Words
    Author

    Sharon D. Greenspan

    Sharon Diane Greenspan is an Immigration Attorney. Previously, she spent two years as a journalist, writing and editing the Illinois Education News, where she won National Press Awards.  

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      Book preview

      A Life Well Lived Through Words - Sharon D. Greenspan

      Copyright 2014 Sharon D. Greenspan.

      sharondgreenspan@gmail.com

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

      ISBN: 978-1-4907-3412-5 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4907-3411-8 (e)

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

      and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      Trafford rev. 05/02/2014

      33518.png www.trafford.com

      North America & international

      toll-free: 1 888 232 4444 (USA & Canada)

      fax: 812 355 4082

      Contents

      Dedication

      About the Author

      Letter from the Editor

      MAGICAL MOMENTS THAT CHANGE YOUR LIFE

      Seventy-Five Candles On A Cake

      I Danced On Oprah

      By Definition

      ON POETRY AND WRITING

      Riding The Waves

      A Plea From The Poet

      To John Steinbeck (About Journey Of A Novel)

      On Poetry

      The Gypsy Lady

      Vulnerability

      Poetry Is Not Good Enough

      Beware Of Mentors

      Paper The Walls With Poetry

      THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE:

      MY LIFE AND TIMES AS AN ATTORNEY

      The Lawyer

      Love In The Time Of The Immigration Service

      The Name Game

      Doris Day

      Persian Princess

      LOVE, LOVE, LOVE…

      Friend Or Foe

      Sonnet I

      In The Tropics

      The Persian King

      California Dreaming

      Dissonance

      Moonlight Shivers

      I’d Like To Know…

      In An Instant

      Inspiration

      Dimples

      To My Lost Husband

      I

      II

      III

      IV

      V

      A Few Around…

      Bus Stop

      Phone Static

      Soul Sores

      The Body Remembers

      Today Is My Birthday

      MY SAMANTHA

      Wonder Bread

      The Terrible Twelves

      Separation Anxiety

      Vacation With Samantha

      MUSINGS ON LIFE

      Cooked Chickens

      Penny Karma

      Time…

      Executive

      The Chicago El

      Little Girl

      The Secretary

      Moving Home

      Sunday Afternoon

      Life

      My Post Office

      I Am Old And I Am Not Wearing Purple

      I Hate Tuesdays At 10:30 Am

      I Still Have Words…

      Wheel Is My Savior

      Out Of The Rubble: Cfids And The Wtc

      What Kind Of Day Is Today? (An Ode To Cfids)

      ON JUDAISM AND SPIRITUALITY

      Avodah

      The Plagues Of Pesach

      For Israel

      The World Trade Center: Tower Of Babel

      HONORING FRIENDS AND FAMILY

      Brunch

      For Tracy, On Her Birthday

      For Tamar

      Ruth Anne

      The Thirteenth Tale

      An Ode To Carole-Towne

      Jeff Gusfield’s Bar Mitzvah

      My Uncle Jack

      Ten Aunts And Uncles

      Tante Leah

      Those Two Guys

      For Alex Kulik

      N’shama Chaya, For Betty Kogan

      In Honor Of William B. Odencrantz

      Sylvia’s Eulogy

      Glossary

      Acknowledgments

      Dedication

      For Samantha.

      Always follow your dreams, you were my dream and I will always be there for you.

      About the Author

      Sharon Diane Greenspan is an Immigration Attorney who worked for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service as an Assistant Regional Counsel, in California. Born to immigrant parents, Sharon has always been drawn to the immigrant experience. Before becoming an attorney, she spent two years as a journalist, writing and editing the Illinois Education News, where she won National Press Awards. Her early childhood was spent in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago. Over the years, she endured challenging relationships, but eventually married Steven and had her daughter Samantha. Her major challenge in life has been battling chronic fatigue syndrome. That was the major reason she retired from full time law practice. Through it all, she has always looked to poetry and other writing to find her peace. Within the following collection of poems, Sharon recounts her experiences and weaves together her own story of a life well lived through words.

      Letter from the Editor

      To paraphrase Ann Patchett, writing is a craft. It is something you hone after getting all your first attempts out on paper. Not everything you write will be good; not everything you write makes you a writer. It is the practice and the craft of trying that makes you great.

      Sharon has been writing for decades, getting everything from raw emotion to words of wisdom out into the written word. But more than that, Sharon is a true storyteller. Drawn from all crucial moments and relationships in her life, these poems are her stories put to paper creating a tantalizing memoir of a life well documented through poetry. I applaud Sharon for reawakening the love of poetry and writing not just within me but for those reading this collection. For those of you who have any inkling or spark of wanting to write—prepare to ignite it.

      Hillary Marshak Preston

      MAGICAL MOMENTS THAT CHANGE YOUR LIFE

      01.JPG

      SEVENTY-FIVE CANDLES ON A CAKE

      For the library—institution of public learning—

      seventy-five candles are a tribute, an achievement.

      It incorporates the notion that we are immortal,

      Through our words.

      When we humans,

      Go to blow out our birthday candles,

      If there are seventy-five—we think of all those years,

      Life is winding down.

      Why does the library live and age so gracefully?

      It is a home—to the words of mystical-angel inspired,

      writers, poets, jokers, illustrators—

      who imbue their creative spirit energy into print,

      and colored pictures, and novels.

      To the poor and desolate,

      the abused and bemused;

      it is the ability to take us away.

      Ah, the smells and touches of the library.

      The feel of a well-worn Huckleberry Finn,

      Or my pre-adolescent Nancy Drew Detective

      The ever-present joy when I read to my one and only daughter,

      "I’ll love you forever—

      As long as I’m living my baby you’ll be."

      Feel the first experiments at curling up

      in a library to do research:

      First research

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