Elizabeth Moak Skorpen: Children's Book Author and Inspired Poet

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/ghosts-at-the-liquor-store

Ghosts at the Liquor Store None of us thought my dad was the enemy. Perhaps booze was. At the time, thick as we were with shame, the enemy looked like other people.

I love this.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZQUBLX3LOQ

Charles. Charles by Liesel Moak SkorpenPictures by Martha Alexander ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UefxzpIwL2I

Adventskalender Södra Vi Djursdala församling Lucka 20 Del 1 av 2 Kyrkoherde Anita Waernqvist läser ur boken Rufus nya husse av Liesel Moak Skorpen Lucka 20 del 1

Our mother would approve....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZQUBLX3LOQ

Charles. Charles by Liesel Moak SkorpenPictures by Martha Alexander ...

The Women: Mary’s Boy

Not a grave or solemn child
That came later with the weight of sorrow
Merry, we thought him
Laughter light as bird song
Mischief dancing in his eyes
Like moon beams toying with the tide
He ran with our boys
He teased our girls
Plucked our ripening fruit from the bough
To gaily pay us with a pinch
Of mustard seed

Afterwards we said a sort of light went with him
Soft and consoling as moonlight
But kindling like the sun

Perhaps, but really how were we to know?
And yet I think
Somehow we knew
By heart we knew
Beyond the grasp of words
We simply knew
Our Joshua
Our Lord
Immanuel. Liesel Skorpen © 2003


January 2004

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXEMmqleLUg

A Grapevine Library Storytime Video: We Are Tired of Living in a House by Liesel Moak Skorpen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV1wzEvqpmg

We Were Tired of Living in a House by author Liesel Moak Skorpen and illustrator Joe Cepeda Two brothers and a sister are tired of living in a house and decide to try living in other parts of their surrounding home. They find fun adventure in their ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GFGQIZ4UaA

We Were Tired of Living in a House by Liesel Moak Skorpen: Read Aloud 3/24/20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w7jYM5lRo4

We Were Tired of Living in a House Greater Lovell Land Trust Executive Director, Erika Rowland, reads her favorite childhood story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHMEdAAQ5No

Storytime: We Were Tired Of Living In A House by Liesel Moak Skorpen Join Resource Depot’s Education Director Chelsea as she reads aloud in a tree! Follow along with the book “We Were Tired Living In A House”, written by Liese...

We Have Not Loved

Abided, yes,
And tolerated
With frozen smiles
Mouthed the magic words
Spared a penny for the poor
Scratched loveless letters
Said our prayers
But, no,
We have not loved.

Merciless
We beg for mercy
Hard of heart
For pity pray
Who have not loved our neighbors
Who have not loved our Lord.

Listen!
For still
In the gathering gloam
The Lord of Love calls
Come
Hearts heavy with regret
We turn
Sick with shame
For all we’ve done
For all we’ve failed to do
We turn
And yes,
We hear Love’s still small voice
We turn
And yes,
We come.

Liesel Skorpen ©2005

August 2005

Untitled

LORD,
Your morning,
Starved for conversation,
Eager to bare her hearts to me
In tongues of spilling milk and sibilant kettle,
In the long, low patience of dust to dust
Returning
Whiles away these opening hours
Waiting for but a word of welcome,
But a glimmer of my kind attention.

In the wild generosity of first light
Brushing eyes that I took for blind
Rousing sleepers whom I took for dead
The blessing of Your morning
On my threshold
Bids me hush
Fear's cunning calculations
Bids me yield to her tender touch
The sealing stone
That hold my heart in hiding
Turning to her,
Attentive.
Attentive, Lord,
To You.


Liesel Skorpen © 2003

December 2003

https://youtu.be/5f7FLGBgCo8

All the Lassies All the Lassies written by Liesel Moak Skorpen and illustrated by Bruce Martin Scott. Read aloud by Sarah T. Janus (Scott) This is the first Father's Day wit...

A number of Liesel's children's books were published in foreign languages including one in German. The book 'Charles' (1971) was releasedb as 'Rollo' (1985) in German....

I have a copy which my German wife read to our children when they were younger.

List of her published children's books:
• If I Had a Lion (1967)
• Outside My Window (1968)
• Than Mean Man (1968)
• We Were Tired of Living in a House (1969)
• All the Lassies (1970)
• Elizabeth (1970)
• Charles (1971)
• Plenty for Three (1971)
• Phipps (1972)
• Old Arthur (1972)
• Kisses and Fishes (1974)
• Mandy's Grandmother (1975)
• Michael (1975)
• Bird (1976)
• His Mother's Dog (1978)
• Grace (1984)

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/memoriam-liesel-moak-skorpen-1935-2013/

In Memoriam: Liesel Moak Skorpen, 1935-2013 | Kirkus Reviews (blog): Children's: >

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvKsubvX6Sg

Liesel Moak Skorpen recites the Beatitudes in Aramaic

LORD,
Your morning,
Starved for conversation,
Eager to bare her hearts to me
In tongues of spilling milk and sibilant kettle,
In the long, low patience of dust to dust
Returning
Whiles away these opening hours
Waiting for but a word of welcome,
But a glimmer of my kind attention.

In the wild generosity of first light
Brushing eyes that I took for blind
Rousing sleepers whom I took for dead
The blessing of Your morning
On my threshold
Bids me hush
Fear's cunning calculations
Bids me yield to her tender touch
The sealing stone
That hold my heart in hiding
Turning to her,
Attentive.
Attentive, Lord,
To You.


Liesel Skorpen © 2003

Credo

I believe in clocks and calendars
And nimble little numbers adding up.

I believe in and
I believe in but and maybe

I believe in black because
I’ve been there
I believe in faces
What’s between the lines
I do not believe in names
Any more
But I believe in touch

My mind’s not broad or deep enough
For God
My heart’s not sweet or clean enough
For Christ

But once upon a now
In a here too far for words
I met a man who was and wasn’t there
I met him face to face
We touched
And blessed
I believed.

Liesel Skorpen ©2006

Answers for D

Scribble your urgent questions
On a scrap of courage
Chew them up
Gulp them down
Or throw them to the wild, wild winds.
And you will have answers
One fine day and
The answers will amaze you.
Just when you are otherwise preoccupied
Preening or posturing
Or playing the fool
Up you’ll glance
And there they’ll be
Silken threads
Translucent
To lead love lost out of the maze
Like angels of Light.

Liesel Skorpen ©2005

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