Archive for the ‘myth and mystery’ Category
coat hanger
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My most recent poetry book, a glimpse of dragon, includes several poems about the mystery and magic of the night sky. One of the most interesting star groupings I have seen is Collinder 399, also known as Brocchi’s Coathanger. Its ten stars look a lot like a little upside-down coat hanger. The grouping is not a true star cluster or constellation, but is considered an asterism — just a random pattern of stars. To see the asterism, you need a dark, summer sky. Find the Summer Triangle (the triangle created by Altair, Vega and Deneb) and Collinder 399 is near the line between Vega and Altair. On my back deck, it can be found by facing south, and looking along the roof ridge of our house, so I can always find it at the right time of year.
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(Source: Wikimedia Commons, Petr Novak)
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Here is a poem about the asterism from a glimpse of dragon:
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coat hangers
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1.
metal hangers aggravate
refuse to cooperate
they are
jangled, tangled
twisted
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2.
her closet has
grace
padded satin hangers
plumped
muffled
kind to arthritic hands
pearl buttons to keep
her dresses from slipping to the floor
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3.
Brocchis’ Coathanger Cluster
between Altair and Vega –
with binoculars
this fuzzy patch of light resolves
to ten splendid stars
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suspends the fabric of sky –
a strong little hanger
with an oversized hook
upside-down
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To get a copy of a glimpse of dragon, take a trip to Westminster Books in Fredericton, or order from Amazon https://www.amazon.ca/glimpse-dragon-Jane-Spavold-Tims/dp/B09M5KYBS3.
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Hurry up summer sky!
All my best
Jane
now available: a glimpse of dragon
a glimpse of dragon, second poetry book in the ‘glimpse of’ series, is now available at Westminster Books in Fredericton.
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The book is illustrated with my black and white drawings and considers extraordinary things in ordinary life. These are poems about comets in the sky, ghost cars in the covered bridge and dragons lurking in the campfire.
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campfire dragons
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dragons prowl
in balsam
backcrawl in amber
blisters of pitch
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dragons lurk
under mantles of smoke
blacken the stones
spurt throatfuls of fire
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dragons leap
to the Draco sky
watch us grow small
with sparking eyes
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close their lids
and sleep in flight
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You can also order a glimpse of dragon at Amazon, click here.
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I hope you enjoy ‘a glimpse of dragon.’
Jane
a glimpse of dragons
This year, I am continuing to gather my various poems into categories for publication. I intend to publish three books of poetry in the ‘a glimpse of…’ series.
So far, I have published ‘a glimpse of water fall,’ a collection of poems about waterfalls and the way lives can sometimes take a ‘downwards’ turn. In 2012, the manuscript for a glimpse of waterfall won Honorable Mention in the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick’s competition for the Alfred G. Bailey Prize.
Next year, I will publish ‘a glimpse of sickle moon,’ poems journeying through the various seasons of the year. In 2020, the manuscript for a glimpse of sickle moon won Third Prize in the Bailey competition.
Later this fall, I will publish ‘a glimpse of dragons.’ This poetry collection is about the mysterious events in my life that take imaginative reasoning to understand. The title comes from the idea, in the Dark Ages, that unexplainable celestial events were the actions of dragon-kind.
I have gathered six types of poems into this collection and I illustrate many of the poems.
1. those ordinary things in my life that seem imbued with magic;
2. my ‘observations’ of dragons;
3. unexplainable events in my life that would fall into the category of ghost stories;
4. my encounters with magical people;
5. poems about my deep appreciation of sky and the awe that accompanies trying to understand the reality of space;
6. a tribute to the crow, an animal I feel kin to, and the dark women I associate with crow-kind.
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The poetry book ‘a glimpse of dragons’ will be published by kdp and available in paperback on Amazon in December. The book will also be available from Westminster Books in Fredericton.
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Take care in these days of pandemic,
all my best,
Jane
the wisdom of faerie tales
As I write and revise the poetry for my ‘garden escapes‘ project, I search for references to enrich my poems. One category of these is the faerie tale. Many faerie tales include gardens in their tale-telling. Some include wisdom to be applied to my experience of the abandoned garden.
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I have chosen three faerie tales to include in my poems:
Rapunzel: the beautiful girl with the long, long hair is imprisoned in the tower because her father makes a bargain with a witch. In one version of the tale, the father steals rampion bellflower from the witch’s garden and gives his daughter as compensation.
Beauty and the Beast: a beautiful girl falls in love with an ugly beast. The tale tells us that you must sometimes look beneath the exterior to find inner beauty. This is another tale where a father is caught stealing a flower (a rose) from a garden and gives his daughter as compensation. Hmmmm.
Sleeping Beauty: when the princess is put to sleep, a thorny vine grows around the castle to hide her away.
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I have included these faerie tales in three of the poems I have written. Below is my poem incorporating the tale of Sleeping Beauty.
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wild cucumber (Echinocystis lobata)
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I think the story of Sleeping Beauty requires a little retelling, to make the princess less compliant. The three vines in the poem are:
- Clematis (Clematis virginiana): names include virgin’s bower and devil’s darning needle. This climbing vine has delicate white flowers and fluffy seeds
- Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia): an aggressive climber with leaves palmately divided into five lobes
- Wild cucumber (Echinocystis lobata): a prickly annual vine and a climber with tall columns of white flowers
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Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)
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Sleeping Beauty
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“… round about the castle there began to grow a hedge of thorns, which every year became higher, and at last grew close up round the castle and all over it, so that there was nothing of it to be seen … ” –The Tale of Sleeping Beauty, the Brothers Grimm
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three vines whisper—
Clematis virginiana
Virginia creeper
wild cucumber, reshape
the hawthorn, the rose
with frail flowers
and five fingers
tendrils like springs
disguise the thorns
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keep curiosity seekers away
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dampen noises from
beyond the barrier
where wakeful Beauty
taps her nails
on foundation granite
wonders if anyone
will dare to tear
at tendrils, breach wall
of thorn and vine
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the need for rescue always in doubt
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only decades ago
a home chuckled
behind the hedgerow
mowed lawn and a dyer’s garden
tansy at the cellar door
flax in the meadow
Beauty dibbling seeds
deadheading flowers
tying up sweet pea
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only the cellar remains
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perhaps she will slash
her way through hawthorn
rip out wild cucumber
scrape away suckers of creeper
tame the hawthorn, the briar
renovate house and barn
encourage the scent of sweet pea and petunia
transparency of hollyhock and mallow
whisper of yellow rattle, rustle of grasses
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no more virgin’s bower
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Clematis virginiana
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This work was made possible by a Creations Grant from artsnb!
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All my best.
Are you getting COVID-fatigue?
Stay alert!
Jane
crystal ball
During these incredible days of isolation, our writing group has begun a series of prompts to help stimulate writing. One of our members suggested ‘weird phrases’ as the prompt category. So far we have had ‘ear hair,’ ‘under the fridge,’ ‘spider web’ and ‘crystal ball.’
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I have two ‘crystal balls,’ both small and both more properly called ‘glass spheres.’ But they are as close to a crystal ball as I will ever have. I am certain neither sees the ‘future’ but both show an interesting ‘present’ and both remind me of the ‘past.’
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clairvoyance
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my crystal ball
is a glass sphere
from a claw-footed
piano stool I sat on
to practice my scales
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chipped, it never
snags the sun
will not scry or clarify
occludes
forecasting fog
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it has a past
Chopin’s Butterfly Étude
in half-time
and a furry
Für Elise
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but gaze
though I may
it never resonates
with a note
about tomorrow
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although it has
guessed, after
damaging percussion,
I will never play
Carnegie Hall
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All my best,
Jane
watching you …
A couple of years ago, I did a set of five small acrylic paintings to reflect my love of mythical dragons.
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Dragons can be nasty creatures. They hoard gold, breathe fire and frighten the villagers. But they have a good side. They provide hours of entertainment, they helped explain comets in the skies for centuries and they have soulful eyes!
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Just to say, there is some good in every situation.
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All my best,
Jane
wings of angels
As part of my at-home-writers-retreat, I had a ‘break’ day yesterday. I had my hair cut (always relaxing) and went with my husband for a drive to our cabin. We read our book aloud (a Philip R. Craig Martha’s Vineyard Mystery) and took lots of photos. This evening I wrote a poem, based on today’s photos. Most are blurry, because of the relentless wind.
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wings of angels
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I don’t believe in angels,
though I catch their whisper
between stems of Poa,
meadow grasses and blue.
Discover feather fall,
seed tufts of goldenrod,
Solidago. Wing tips
disguised as autumn leaves,
staghorn sumac or oak.
Glimpsed along low ditches,
silken hairs of rabbitsfoot
Trifolium arvense.
Find feathers aloft, on air,
cirrus or stratus clouds,
or wind-smoothed cotton-grass,
tassels of Eriophorum.
Catch scent—Dennstaedtia
hayscented fern, or cedar,
sets cones for another year.
I think of angel wings
and refuse to believe.
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Copyright Jane Tims 2019
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All my best,
Jane
tweeting about writing
Every day, I write. Today I worked on the story for Book Six in the Meniscus Series — Meniscus:Encounter with the Emenpod. I also did some editing of an upcoming mystery novel I refer to as HHGG. Tomorrow I will be writing poetry for a series about abandoned communities and what happens to plants in abandoned gardens.
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Working back and forth like this between projects at various stages of completion is a great strategy for me. I never get bored, I never get writers’ block and I think shifting projects keeps my writing brain refreshed.
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Besides blogging, I participate in Twitter, sending a tweet almost every day to #amwriting … if you’d like to find out what my writing life is like, follow me at @TimsJane … I report on what I am doing and share a bit of writing wisdom. I’d love it if you would follow along!
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A little about the mystery novel since I tweet most often about it. HHGG is one I wrote in 1997. I have learned a lot since then, so editing makes me laugh. HHGG is about a woman and her two kids who seek summer solace at her old family home. She never dreams she is walking into a village rife with mysteries, some of them stretching back more than a century. I have a few human antagonists, but one who is anything but human!
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Hope you are enjoying your summer and your own writing life!
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All the best,
Jane.
faerie, one wing, frowns
faerie, one wing
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frowns at the hesitant
fluff of feathers
perched on her finger
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this creature has
two wings,
can fly
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wonders where
verdigris
and copper
wingtip
flew to ?
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stands
in a blue and green
periwinkle sea
and, earthbound,
scowls
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All my best,
Jane
creepy camera
Today as I was making trips to the bird feeders, I set my camera down in the entry-way. I did fumble with it a bit as I left, trying to turn it off.
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Later, as I went through my bird-feeder photos, I found this in with the rest of the files. The photo is one frame of a one minute video. Me, leaving to go outside.
Creepy camera.
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Copyright Jane Tims 2018
nichepoetryandprose 