nichepoetryandprose

Late at night in February 2015, as my husband and I crossed the Patrick Owens Covered Bridge on the Rusagonis Stream, we startled a rabbit in the middle of the span. The rabbit raced through the bridge in front of the truck. I can still see the shadow of his long ears and the scurry of his feet. Since the incident occurred during the February 21, 2015 conjunction of Venus and Mars with the sickle moon, I thought of all the legends about the hare and the moon. This led to the poem “conjunction” and a question about what other plants and animals find shelter in or around our covered bridges in New Brunswick.

~

I am please to announce that my resulting book of poems ‘in the shelter of the covered bridge’ is now available. The book includes 21 of my drawings and more than 70 poems. The Foreword is written by my friend Brian Atkinson who wrote New Brunswick’s Covered Bridges (Nimbus, 2010).

~

~

‘in the shelter of the covered bridge’ is now available through my publisher Chapel Street Editions http://www.chapelstreeteditions.com and at upcoming readings. You will soon be able to find it at Westminster Books in Fredericton and Tidewater Books in Sackville.

I hope you enjoy the book and take every opportunity to drive through one of our covered bridges in New Brunswick!

~

~

conjunction – February 21, 2015

Patrick Owens Bridge

Rusagonis River #2

~

Venus and Mars

sickle of mid-winter moon

planet and moon light scamper

into crevasses

~

headlights of the half-ton enter

overwhelm planet shadow

startle a winter hare

erect on haunches, paw lifted

~

frosted by sky-gaze, worshiping

the sliver of moon, dismayed

at desecration, round glare

of the truck’s predatory eyes

~

fright to stop a heart

or flight to mobilize

hind-legs straighten

before fore-legs turn

~

long ear shadows

quit the length of the bridge

ahead of whiskers, chin velvet

and rabbit wisdom

~

~

From ‘in the shelter of the covered bridge’, Chapel Street Editions, 2017

~

Copyright Jane Tims 2017