Posts Tagged ‘Nancy Drew’
windy October drive
On Monday, I went on a drive to Cambridge Narrows, to visit an antique store and a roadside market. My goal: to buy some Nancy Drew mystery books for my collection and some pumpkins for Halloween.
It was a blustery day, windy enough to put some whitecaps on the St. John River…
The wind was especially evident along the former Trans-Canada Highway, where dry leaves have gathered in all the ditches. Since only a few vehicles use this older highway, the leaves blow into the roadway…
The day had a luminous quality, in spite of the wind. Most of the reds are gone from the trees, leaving the yellows of the poplars, the rusty-orange of the oaks and the gold of the tamaracks…
I had a successful day. I bought some small pumpkins at a roadside stand…
three little pumpkins from the roadside vegetable stand (the faint eyes in the background are the amber eyes of our owl-andirons)
I also added five books to my collection of Nancy Drew mysteries…
five new mysteries for my collection… enough ghosts and glowing eyes for a spooky Halloween
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andiron
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wrought owl with amber eyes
perches on the hearth
hears a call in the forest
six syllables and silence
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Great-horned Owl, light gathered
at the back of his eyes,
and the oscillating branch
after wings expand and beat
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iron owl longs for a glimpse
of the sickle moon
the shadow of a mouse
sorting through dry leaves
~
in this cramped space
night woods are brought to their essence
fibre and bark, sparks and fire
luminous eyes
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Copyright Jane Tims 2012
hidden in the hollow heart of an oak
Hollow trees create mysterious spaces in the woods.
When I was young, a hollow in a tree was a secret hiding place for treasures, and one of my favourite books was a Nancy Drew mystery – “The Message in the Hollow Oak”. In the story, a hollow tree is used as a secret mailbox between long lost lovers.
- Carolyn Keene 1935 The Message in the Hollow Oak (a later edition, probably around 1965)
a hollow log in the woods
Cavities are usually found in mature trees. Their importance as habitat is a good reason for protecting older, mature trees in the woodlot. When my son was young, we made wooden signs saying “DEN TREE” for the older hollow trees in our woods, so we would remember not to cut them down.
Do you know a hollow tree and would you reach into the cavity to retrieve a letter???
requesting the favour of a reply
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these leafless trees
brush against
a linen sky
ink strokes
on rice paper
letters
penned at midnight
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hidden in the hollow
heart of an oak
afraid to reach in
to feel only
curls of bark
desiccated leaves
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these trees
all seem the same
empty envelopes
parchment ghosts
~
branches tangled
messages
lost
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black spruce scribbled on sky
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Published as: ‘an answer in silence’, Spring 1995, The Cormorant XI (2)
(revised)
© Jane Tims
