Whispers of love, the poems in this section, express tender, caring, true unconditional love as well as dreams of the future and memories of the past. Feelings to share with the one you love, trying to put into words emotions when no words are needed. Miscellaneous poems are just that, most were written to or using names from an Internet chat room. Many I first met online are now close personal friends.

Wusel the mouse, Hoot the curious owl, Hunter the busy beaver as well as their friends Cheeks the forgetful squirrel, and Pokey the shy porcupine learn that being different is okay. Living close together and each learning about the others they come to realize they all have their special talents and are all-important. Their adventures as well as their mistakes teach them to except one another. They also learn things about themselves. Can a small mouse help an owl? Can a strong busy beaver help his friends? Will the shy porcupine perform an act of bravery? Why does Cheeks have blue spots? Are owls really wise or do they also need to learn? Do we all look at things and see them the same? I hope you enjoy reading The Mouse & The Curious Owl and learning some of the lessons they learned.

If children are our future, its important that they remember the past, because if they dont, no one will. Who, if not parents, can impart family histories and heritage upon children? Nkem DenChukwus inspirational collection, the issues of bloodline and heritage are tackled head-on, along with the importance of ones culture. In Part I, DenChukwu delves into the tribal heritage of the Igbos of Eastern Nigeria. She explains it vividly, how being born in any one country does not determine who you really are. Instead, your bloodline represents your true heritage. In understanding the difference, DenChukwu believes you can better understand yourself. In Part II, she transitions into lucid life tales to show the beauty in a language, how ones culture and the lack thereof, can affect ones thought processes and behavior. It is possible to lose an accent or assimilate into a new culture. It is also possible to forget your heritage, and in this forgetfulness, people lose much.

In rural Montana in the early 1940s, a group of friends, boys and girls share secrets, dreams and ideas. Follow their intertwined paths leading to adventures, misadventures, escapades and disaster. Naive, not yet wise to the ways of the world, but on their way to maturity. They learn about sex, trust, right and wrong together. Enters Lou, she's older, hardened, wiser, manipulative and greedy! With drugs, lies and deceit she changes all of their lives forever. When their paths cross hers these young teens are forced to make decisions. For some of them the decisions they make cost them their lives. Others will be left with shattered dreams and a loss of innocence. Through sorrow, triumphs and defeats, others find life long friends.

Security carted a ranting Nurse Lanning off Echo Property. Bart apologized to Echo with Dora's intrusion. Thanked her for not believing Dora's lies. Echo in turn snapped, "Dr. Mc Burney you will knock before entering my office, I have a patient waiting so please leave!"He's sick at heart and dug himself deeper by snapping back with, "Dr. Von Solo do you want my resignation?""That's your choice, not mine!" She ordered like a Drill Sergeant.

Sounding 7 begins with Echo 107 titled CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN EYES ON THE OZ CULTURE-CLASH FRONTIER followed by echoes on BUCKLEY REVISITED, AFTER THE PROTECTORATE CRUMBLED and WHAT OF PROTECTOR ROBINSON? Echoes follow on salvaging tribal ways, the Merri Creek black orphanage, ‘going round the bend’ at the Asylum and Echo 114: THE CELESTIALS OF VICTORIA, being the resented Chinese gold miners. Exploring the contrasting fate of Batman, La Trobe and Derrimut, leads into echoes on fringe-dwelling, cultural resistance and Oz racism, in particular the mass psychology of racist ideology that culminated with World War 2. After the gold rush era, life and right behaviour at the Healesville Coranderrk mission station and re-thinking William Thomas the Aboriginal Guardian lead to the pleasant notion of civilizing British colonies through sport. The life and exploits of Tom Wills is celebrated in Echo 122: THE MAKING & BREAKING OF VICTORIA’S FIRST SPORTING HERO. Turning to political history, Oz class struggles – convicts, capitalism and nation-building asks the question with Echo 124: WHITHER MARXISM [?] and then BRITISH EMPIRE POLICY REFORMS IN THE 1840s to contain a Chartist-led revolution. Facets of Victorian ‘quality of life’ since the land grab are followed by echoes on the astrology of the 1802 Port Phillip Crown possession claim and an echo titled TOWARDS AN ASTROLOGY OF CIVILIZATION. The Sounding concludes with approaches to researching Aboriginal society, an undergraduate essay on the Dreamtime and finally with Echo 130: A RAINBOW SERPENT BRIDGE. Today in the 21s century, I wonder how differently Oz would have developed if the then ruling British government in Sydney and London had not used censorship to delay the gold rush for almost 40 years! Sounding 8 begins with Echo 131: HISTORY DISTORTION & CENSORSHIP and is backed up with a critique of Britannia’s pirate empire that together spawn two more echoes of doubtful but controversial polemics in 1421 – THE YEAR CHINA DISCOVERED THE WORLD suggesting they were here in Oz many centuries before Captain Cook. Echo 135: THE KADAITCHA SUNG MEETS THE DRUID INHERITANCE pits Palm Islander Sam Watson’s 1990s fiction The Kadaitcha Sung [the ‘clever’ occult Oz Dreamtime] in occult war with the equally ancient European / Celtic / Druid magic in the psyche of the Aryan ‘race’, so to speak. Going even further out on a limb, the focus shifts to recent light shed on ‘dark ages barbarians’ now considered by some historians to have been more culturally refined than the modern city individual. Back in Oz with Echo 137: WHITE MAN’S LAW – BLACKFELLOW LAW and Echo 138: McLEOD’S BUCKET FROM SKULL CREEK brings Western Australia after WW2 into wider awareness with the Pilbara pastoral workers strike of 1946-49 that won half-decent wage rights for Aboriginal stockmen. Moving further north, Echo 141: RECENT ARNHEMLAND CONNECTIONS Part 1: Taming the NT is the stuff of White Australia’s race-based patriotism as depicted in Ion Idriess’s once-mainstream fascist fictions counterpointed by Part 2: James Gaykamangus’s Striving to bridge the chasm: my cultural learning journey. The final echo 142 talks treaty.