Lilac Bush

"Lilac Bush" welcomes each reader to go on a perspective-altering journey along with the author while taking in the poetic aroma of lilacs which symbolizes renewal. From valleys of hardship and turmoil to mountains of sheer strength and hope, each poem serves as a beacon of awakening and cultural change. Through heartfelt narration, Pamela C. Nwokeji shares her personal experiences growing up in an urban neighborhood to bring awareness to the ongoing strife endured by Black Americans. Above all, this poetry book was penned into existence with this one main vision in mind: to be a call-to-action for the future generations for societal change through stronger families, higher education, success and strength in God.

This is about a couple who move into an old plantation house not knowing just what curse is upon the land and house. Can they survive? What has taken place there? Is it safe to stay?

" West Virginia boasts an unusually rich heritage of ghost tales. Originally West Virginians told these hundred stories not for idle amusement but to report supernatural experiences that defied ordinary human explanation. From jealous rivals and ghostly children to murdered kinsmen and omens of death, these tales reflect the inner lives—the hopes, beliefs, and fears—of a people. Like all folklore, these tales reveal much of the history of the region: its isolation and violence, the passions and bloodshed of the Civil War era, the hardships of miners and railroad laborers, and the lingering vitality of Old World traditions.

Applying Jewish values to our personal and communal lives. Ammiel Hirsch has been one of America’s leading rabbis for more than three decades. A Zionist activist who spent his formative years in Israel, Hirsch rose to prominence as the executive director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America and then as the spiritual leader of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in the Upper West Side in Manhattan. The Lilac Tree offers stirring reflections on life and death, science and faith, political activism and deep learning, and history and the future. Hirsch grapples with the harsh realities of COVID-19, anti-Semitism, and America in the wake of the Trump presidency. We travel with him to the ruins of Ancient Greece and Rome, the site of Auschwitz, and a hotel in Basel where Theodor Herzl dreamed of a Jewish state—all seen through his incisive, witty, and eminently Jewish lens. Moving easily between the day-to-day and the sublime, The Lilac Tree draws upon Hirsch’s wealth of Jewish and general wisdom to present a comprehensive worldview that is both eternal in its scope and acutely relevant, even urgent, for our own lives.

"HANNELORE, YOUR PAPA IS DEAD." In the spring of 1942 Hannelore received a letter from Mama at her school in Berlin, Germany--Papa had been arrested and taken to a concentration camp. Six weeks later he was sent home; ashes in an urn. Soon another letter arrived. "The Gestapo has notified your brothers and me that we are to be deported to the East--whatever that means." Hannelore knew: labor camps, starvation, beatings...How could Mama and her two younger brothers bear that? She made a decision: She would go home and be deported with her family. Despite the horrors she faced in eight labor and concentration camps, Hannelore met and fell in love with a Polish POW named Dick Hillman. Oskar Schindler was their one hope to survive. Schindler had a plan to take eleven hundred Jews to the safety of his new factory in Czechoslovakia. Incredibly both she and Dick were added to his list. But survival was not that simple. Weeks later Hannelore found herself, alone, outside the gates of Auschwitz, pushed toward the smoking crematoria. I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree is the remarkable true story of one young woman's nightmarish coming-of-age. But it is also a story about the surprising possibilities for hope and love in one of history's most brutal times.

Ten short stories and seventy-one poems on a variety of topics.

Hope, Courage & Triumph is the story about one young widows journey through adventures and madness. Determination and love were the key elements of her being as she struggled to face the demons of the illness of her husband, Jerry. Tragedy was no stranger to her. No one knew what horrors lay behind the closed doors of her life, yet hope drove her on. One evening, after work, Jerry held her in his arm, confessing his love to her. Suddenly, a glaze covers his eyes, and a look of hatred crosses his face. Looking at her, he began talking weird about things she knew nothing of. He said, Ive heard that before. You know what Im talking about. She couldnt move. The glaze left his face as suddenly as it came, and moving toward her, he said, I love you more than life itself. Hope drove her as she struggled to pull him out of the pits of hell. An earlier marriage between two teenagers is also addressed in Hope, Courage & Triumph. One day, after I said, I love you, he squeezed my hand, opened his eyes, and looked directly at me. There was no more joy, for hope and courage were lost, and there was not triumph.