And Then Moses Was There: Voices from the Old Testament
()
About this ebook
And Then Moses Was There celebrates events in the Old Testament by exploring them through the eyes of people who were there.
In these quietly professional yet accessible poems, Loretta Miles Tollefson combines her award-winning poetic skills and knowledge of the Bible to look in a new way at the ancient stories and the people who lived them.
Read these poems and experience a fresh approach to and appreciation of the Old Testament stories. Each poem focuses on a different event, from Noah's weariness and Pharoah's certainty of his divine rights to Jonathon's admiration for David and the prophet Jeremiah's anger with his people.
And Then Moses Was There is the companion volume to Mary At The Cross: Voices From the New Testament.
Loretta Miles Tollefson
Loretta Miles Tollefson has been publishing fiction and poetry since 1975. (She’s not old--she started young!) Growing up in foothills of the Olympic Mountains in the log cabin her grandfather built and her father was born in led naturally to an interest in history and historical fiction. When she retired to the mountains of northern New Mexico, writing historical fiction set there was a logical result. The Moreno Valley Sketches books are the first in many planned books set there. Before turning to historical fiction full time, Loretta wrote Crown of Laurel, a novel set in Seattle in the recession of the early 1980's. Loretta holds a B.S. in Bible Education from Multnomah University in Portland, Oregon. This background informs her poetry collections Mary at the Cross: Voices from the New Testament and And Then Moses Was There: Voices from the Old Testament. In the mid-1980's, Loretta and her husband suffered the loss of their first child in the fifth month of pregnancy. Her poetry collection But Still My Child came out of that period and is designed to help others deal with the pain of miscarriage. Loretta holds M.A.'s in Communication and in English Literature from the University of New Mexico. Most days, you'll find her researching New Mexico history in the 1800's and writing furiously. She publishes short historical fiction every week at LorettaMilesTollefson.Wordpress.com.
Read more from Loretta Miles Tollefson
The Streets of Seattle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Texian Prisoners: A Biographical Novel of Old New Mexico Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBut Still My Child Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMary at the Cross Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ticket Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Locke Family Saga Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to And Then Moses Was There
Related ebooks
Mary at the Cross Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Amazing Journey Through the Bible: The Pentateuch, the Historical Books, and the Wisdom Books in Poetry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBuilding Castles on the Rock Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Prodigal Son Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClockwork Phoenix 3: New Tales of Beauty and Strangeness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ciro Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSnatched from the Jaws of the Enemy: A Personal Journey into the Depth of the Love of God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Have Called You by Name: Tell of My Kingdom's Glory, #2 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Retelling Genesis Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In Many Pulpits with Dr. C. I. Scofield Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Nativity Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Storyteller Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRide On, King! Ride On!: A Collection of Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThey Will Never Be Forgotten Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGold in Havilah: A Novel of Cain's Wife Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMimosa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beloved Gomorrah Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nephilim Wars Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHandled: Handled, Held and Led by the Hand of God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnd Then He Touched Me: Poems of Wayne Robinson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTangents Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Book of Verses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStormy Winds Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Prophetess: A Woman's View of The Prophet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBreve Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Book of Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Quiet Talk about the Babe of Bethlehem Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHigher Grounds: Finding Common Ground Series, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Marriage of Heaven and Hell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMake Room for Your Miracle Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Poetry For You
Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Prophet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Iliad of Homer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way Forward Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Poems That Make Grown Men Cry: 100 Men on the Words That Move Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inward Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tao Te Ching: A New English Version Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Twenty love poems and a song of despair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Selected Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daily Stoic: A Daily Journal On Meditation, Stoicism, Wisdom and Philosophy to Improve Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beyond Thoughts: An Exploration Of Who We Are Beyond Our Minds Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beowulf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dante's Inferno: The Divine Comedy, Book One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Edgar Allan Poe: The Complete Collection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love Her Wild: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gilgamesh: A New English Version Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leaves of Grass: 1855 Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bedtime Stories for Grown-ups Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Odyssey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Waste Land and Other Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Not Taken and other Selected Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for And Then Moses Was There
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
And Then Moses Was There - Loretta Miles Tollefson
PREFACE
No matter whether you believe the events in the Bible really happened or are just stories,
the people in those stories have much to teach us. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the Bible stories aren’t relevant to us today, either because we believe that the events they tell about didn’t really happen or because they seem to tell us about people who had a special in
with the Divine.
But we’ve all read at least one great novel or short story that helped us understand ourselves by pointing out the similarities between human beings that transcend culture and time. In the same way, the Bible stories can increase our understanding of ourselves and others. After reading these stories we can comprehend a little more clearly how even the wisest of men can justify actions of great folly. We can see why the seemingly simplest of girls can be called to enormous tasks, or what would compel a daughter-in-law to sacrifice everything to follow an old and poor woman into a land full of strangers.
And we can also see that these are men and women with human failings and strengths. They are not superhuman and thus able to experience God in a way we cannot. Nor are they less than human and in need of more-than-ordinary divine intervention. They are like us, and their link with the Divine is the same link we also can have. If they could, we can.
In the poems in this collection and in Mary At the Cross I seek to ask what might it have been like to be a particular individual in a specific Bible story. How might it have felt to live those circumstances? Why might that person have reacted in that way? There are no definitive answers to these questions. Like all great literature, the stories give us clues, but not answers. Those clues provide us with a springboard for meditating on the human emotions and reactions that bridge centuries and particular habits of life, as well as on Divine grace and love, which are not bound by space and time.
The poems in this book are the result of my own meditation and research. I hope they will provide a point of departure for you, the reader, as you also think on these things.
Loretta Miles Tollefson, Feb. 2014
EVE
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:16-17)
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: . . . your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And . . . she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat . . . [Therefore] Unto the woman [God] said, . . . in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. (Genesis 3:4-16)
Eve
They call it the fall.
As if life’s fragments
can be caught up in
a package of words
and disposed of. What
the serpent