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    Salmos from South Bethlehem: An Advent Memoir
    Salmos from South Bethlehem: An Advent Memoir
    Salmos from South Bethlehem: An Advent Memoir
    Ebook97 pages43 minutes

    Salmos from South Bethlehem: An Advent Memoir

    By Pamela Smith

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    About this ebook

    This collection of 20 poems is spoken in the voice of a character named Rosa Celestina Morales, a 17 year old Puerto Rican girl living in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the early 1970s. Rosa's hopes and dreams, frustrations and torments are expressed in a mix of street talk, self-mumbling, and phrases from familiar prayers in Spanish, imported from the Spanish Mass and the first 20 psalms. The content is drawn from the author's own experiences during the year she lived in Rosa's neighborhood as well as from stories she heard and people she met around the neighborhood.
    Several of these poems have appeared previously in the New York Quarterly, Cimarron Review, and Woman Song III. This is the first time the set of 20 have been collected in book form.
    The work is framed as a poetic memoir. A prose introduction by the author and an afterword in Rosa's voice round out the series of poems and project what Rosa's life might have turned to some forty years later.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTrafford Publishing
    Release dateAug 7, 2012
    ISBN9781466950955
    Salmos from South Bethlehem: An Advent Memoir
    Author

    Pamela Smith

    Pamela Smith, an inside sales representative, has a bachelor of arts degree in marketing from Lindenwood University. She loves being creative and has always dreamed of being a writer. Since elementary school, Pamela has been complimented on her essays and story writing from her teachers and her parents. This is her very first project, and she is excited to write more short stories. Writing is not her only creative outlet; Pamela has been a dance instructor for six years. She enjoys being creative while bringing ideas to life through dance movement and choreography. Her book “Bullied on the Court” tackles issues with bullying, friendship, and peer pressure. Pamela felt that those issues were important, and children of all ages can enjoy a good read while learning how to handle life’s challenges. Since her oldest daughter loves to play basketball, Pamela decided to use basketball terms throughout her book. Pamela was born and raised in Saint Louis, Missouri, and she currently resides in Buford, Georgia. Although she misses her parents and siblings, she knows how to stay busy. When Pamela is not working, she enjoys spending quality time with her daughters and her husband. Whether it’s watching a movie, attending a sporting event, or traveling, Pamela and her family likes to keep busy. Pamela gets her writing inspiration through her children as she watches them grow up. This is Pamela’s first book, but she has plans to write more books that kids can enjoy while learning how to overcome life’s adversities.

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      Book preview

      Salmos from South Bethlehem - Pamela Smith

      Copyright 2012 Pamela Smith.

      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: 978-1-4669-5094-8 (sc)

      isbn: 978-1-4669-5096-2 (hc)

      isbn: 978-1-4669-5095-5 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2012914010

      Trafford rev. 07/31/2012

      7-Copyright-Trafford_Logo.ai

      www.trafford.com

      North America & international

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

      phone: 250 383 6864 ♦ fax: 812 355 4082

      Contents

      Acknowledgments

      Dedication

      Introduction Rosa Celestina Morales

      Salmo 1: Siempre Manzanas (Always Apples)

      Salmo 2: Nuestro Pan de Cada Día (Our Daily Bread)

      Salmo 3:¿Y en la Tierra Paz? (And on Earth, Peace?)

      Salmo 4: Ten Piedad (Have Mercy)

      Salmo 5: La Temporada Gravida (The Pregnant Season)

      Salmo 6: Confesión (A Confiteor)

      Salmo 7:¿Una Caña Sacudida por el Viento? (A Reed Shaken by the Wind?)

      Salmo 8: Poco Menor que los Ángeles (A Little Less than the Angels)

      Salmo 9: La Esperanza de los Afligidos (The Hope of the Afflicted)

      Salmo 10: Para que No Vuelva a Aterrorizar (Just So He Doesn’t Terrorize Me Anymore)

      Salmo 11: A la Misa del Segundo Domingo de Adviento (At the Mass for the Second Sunday of Advent)

      Salmo 12: Amigos (Friends)

      Salmo 13: Mamacita (Little Mama)

      Salmo 14: Toda Tu Familia Santa (All Your Holy Family)

      Salmo 15: Hoy Brillará una Luz (A Little Light Will Shine)

      Salmo 16: Dentro de un Poco (In a Little While)

      Salmo 17: Tú Has Probado Mi Corazón (You Have Probed My Heart)

      Salmo 18: Mi Asilo (My Stronghold)

      Salmo 19: Mi Roca (My Rock)

      Salmo 20: Si Dios Quiere (If God Wants)

      Forty-Plus Years Later

      Acknowledgments

      Salmo #2 and #8 both made an early appearance in the New York Quarterly in numbers 13 and 14 (1972-1973).

      Salmo #9 was in the Cimarron Review in 1973.

      Salmo #13 appeared in Woman Song III (NRVC, 1989).

      I am grateful to the editors of the publications named above for their interest in the work.

      Thanks to Trafford Publishing and the efforts of Chris Toring and Jose Rodriguez, the full sequence of twenty poems from which these came is now appearing. The current collection has been updated, with an introduction and afterword added.

      Dedication

      With gratitude for street smarts, vision, and compassion, this collection is dedicated to those who peopled it forty years ago in Pennsylvania, whether by person or by mail:

      Awilda Castañon, wherever she may be;

      Padre Juan Campbell;

      Bill Gasparrini, who still sends Christmas cards;

      Louie, Uncle, and Helen, who live in fond and bemused memory.

      Today it is for these South Carolinians:

      Dee

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