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Leslie Ihde

Forest Home Church During the Pandemic

Somehow, week after week, she pulls it off: sermons with just the right balance of inspiration, kindness, and depth.    

She works systematically choosing a theme, and then, gathering quotes to be sewn together like some patchwork quilt; an Appalachian Spring on happiness, or faith, or gratitude, or forgiveness. A poem, words from Aristotle and Viktor Frankl blend with biblical phrases to serve as the bones. Rebecca’s own slightly sad warmth is the flesh and blood of the house she builds. Her soft, grandmotherly face beams gently on each individual in turn. “All Welcome,” the sign says. 

     her right eye smiles 
     her left narrow with some pain
     the Reverend gazes on her congregation
     video zoomed in small boxes
    ~ a tic tac toe of hungry lives

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About the Author

Leslie Ihde fell in love with Basho in childhood, and with tanka and tanka prose in 2011. She works as a psychotherapist in Ithaca, New York, and uses tanka writing as a practice with her clients.