What a wonderful way to begin. Isn’t this blog theme beautiful? The theme includes the tree and the sky at the top and also, probably, the layout or template. It has been provided by wordpress.com.  (Note to reader:  This theme has been changed. takizen 1-7-2008)

I’m very new to this blogging thing and the mechanics are rather offputting, to say the least. Even so, I’ve started two other blogs in addition to this one: Mai Celia’s Index and Artemisa’s Well. I was once a newspaper writer in the Tidewater area of Virginia but haven’t written for publication in a very long time. Now just the thought of an audience, whether I have one or not, makes me want to write all the time. I’ve been uncorked!

I found an invitation from WordPress.com while I was checking out the website of One Dharma Nashville. It is lovely, also. I had just visited the Nashville Buddhist Festival where I learned about several Buddhist centers including One Dharma.

Today is September 15, 2007. The beginning of Takizen’s World.

In closing, I would like to remember four little girls who were killed 44 years ago when a bomb exploded at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.: Denise McNair , Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins. Denise was 11 years old; the other girls were 14.
Spike Lee’s documentary about the bombing, 4 Little Girls, was released in 1997. (This film is available for rental on Netflix).

Denise, Cynthia, Carole and Addie Mae were among the martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s. Things changed after they were killed. No one could look the other way any more. In 1963, I wrote a poem, an elegy, about the children’s deaths. I’ve never shown it to anyone. But several years ago, on April 19, 1995, to be exact, I sat down to work on it, to polish it so I could share it with others. I had barely begun my work when a radio announcer interrupted programming on National Public Radio with a story about the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

I have never finished my Elegy for Innocence.

–Takizen