Behind the Writing of
"The Interlude"

I am sitting in the backyard once again after a very cold Chicago winter...
seated in a lawn chair, with my feet propped on the picnic table bench...
exactly as I was at this time last year for the writing of "May's Song".
But on this day my mind turns to the writing of "The Interlude"
and how it came into being.

It is said that Stephen King always carries a notepad
in his shirt pocket in case a sudden inspiration
for a story should arise.
Another author, not as well known,
relates that he always keeps a small tape recorder
tucked in his pant's pocket.

For me, writing has always come as a sudden inspiration
and when a new poem is written I always say that the poem "came".
I have never sat and tried to think of a rhyming verse...
rather words were...and are..just suddenly there.

Although I can't speak for such writers as Stephen King,
it is my opinion, regarding my own writing,
that the words come from the spirit and the mind
has little or nothing to do with it.
The day "The Interlude" was written was such a day but yet,
in some ways, unlike any other experience
I have had before or since.

How many mothers and fathers are familiar with
the children's television show Sesame Street?
Probably if it were a show of hands many
hands would be waving in the air right now!
Sesame Street! The best baby sitter in the world if
an important phone conversation needed to be made
or a lavish meal prepared!
All of my chidren are grown and I hadn't thought
of this show in years until...
the day of the writing of "The Interlude".

A familiar skit from the show had begun going over and
over in my mind early that spring morning of April 2000.
This particular skit featured a little girl
preparing to go to the store for her mother.
The mother, having verbally given the grocery list
to her little daughter asked:
"Can you remember what I have asked you to buy?"
The little girl jumped up and down, pig-tails bobbing.
"I can remember! I can remember!"
she exclaimed ready to burst with excitement.
"A loaf of bread, a container of milk and a stick of butter!"
And so, off she went, repeating the phrase
over and over.

"A loaf of bread, a container of milk,
and a stick of butter."
"I can remember! I can remember!" she exclaimed with joy.

On the day "The Interlude" was to be written, having heard the words
running through my mind all morning,
by mid afternoon I was repeating the phrase
outloud with a definite rythmn.

"A loaf of bread, a container of milk and a stick of butter."
Fortunately there was no one home at the time but me...
and it was probably just as well!

Late afternoon I could almost see the items walking side by side.
"A loaf of bread, a container of milk and a stick of butter."
By evening, that which would become "The Interlude"
started to take a definite shape...
and the familiar loaf of bread, container of milk and
stick of butter had become predator and prey...
walking together side by side.

A dog, a cat and a mouse passed by.
"For whom do you wait?" they asked me.

Thoughts came and went...my forever cottontail friend Shoo-Fly,
a fox, a weasel, a ground squirrel
and many others accompanied me to sleep.
The Book of Isaiah, Chapter 11, verses 6-9...
the coming Kingdom of Peace.
At three in the morning I awoke.
"The Interlude" was ready to be written!

A loaf of bread, a container of milk
and a stick of butter. I went with the rhythm those early morning hours.
A loaf of bread, a container of milk and a stick of butter became...
a dog, a cat and a mouse.
A loaf of bread, a container of milk and a stick of butter further became...
a lion, a deer and a wolf.
Together. Side by side. Walking as one.
Walking at one with each other.

I saw myself sitting on the back porch step
where I always waited for Shoo-Fly.

"A dog, a cat and a mouse passed me by.
"For whom do you wait?" they asked.
"I wait for he who hops upon the ground",
I answered.
I then gave a description of my friend.
"He has four feet...very swift.
Two ears...quite long
and a very cottony tail."
"Oh," they answered and went on their way.

In reading the poem as written so far
I could see a work in progress
but still not complete.
The animals walked together as one,
but I still waited for Shoo-Fly.
For my friend.
I could further see, by their answer that
they knew they could not help me.

"But then along came a Man
and He did not pass me by."

By the time the Man came along it was
clear I was losing all hope.
"For whom do you wait?" He asked me.
"I wait for he who hops upon the ground," I answered,
my eyes filling with tears.
"He has four feet...very swift. Two ears...quite long
and a very cottony tail."

The Man turned toward me and smiled.
There, nestled into the crook in His arm,
snuggled into a fold in His robe...
was my friend!!

Gently He placed him beside me.
"I have been holding him for you all along." He said.
And as I looked into His clear blue eyes I saw in them a joy
that matched my own!

But as I rose to thank Him I saw that
He had already gone on His way.
"Thank You, kind Sir!" I called to the departing Figure.
"Thank You!"
And the Man stopped in His journey and turned toward me
and smiled and I could see even from a distance
that His eyes lit the sun!
And as I looked at my friend sitting beside me once again,
all features of death removed,
I knew that we would never be parted again!

And so...the writing of the Interlude.
A child's skit turned into predator and prey walking side by side
as promised in Isaiah....
A child's skit turned into a now living hope
that I hold onto daily.

"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
and the calf and the young lion and the
fatling together; and a little child shall lead them."
Isaiah 11:6