Posts Tagged ‘poetry’
Celebrating bookstores and reading – Canadian Independent Bookstore Day
On Saturday, April 28, 2018, I will be participating in Canadian Independent Bookstore Day at Westminster Books in Fredericton. I will be there to talk with you about my books in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series and sign copies. I will be at the bookstore from 11:00 AM to noon. Hope to see you there!!!
Canadian Independent Bookstore Day is a day to celebrate the amazing independent bookstores in communities across Canada that develop and maintain a thriving book industry across the country. It is a day to go out into your community and enjoy the unique intersection of art, culture, business and opportunity that bookstores provide. Thanks to your participation, this event can continue to grow and thrive in the years to come. The purpose of Canadian Independent Bookstore Day is to show off the unique community spaces that bookstores create and was born from Authors For Indies.
Authors for Indies was a national grassroots movement in support of independent bookstores. It’s a day when authors take time to give back to the bookstores who support authors every day of the year by volunteering as guest booksellers. We meet and greet customers, recommend books, tell our friends and relatives to come to the store where we are working. Hundreds of authors across Canada have done this for the past three years. It’s been a national phenomenon.
Jane
ice-falls in New Brunswick
An ice-fall along highway #102 in New Brunswick
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One of the sad things about the end of winter is the demise of our ice-falls in New Brunswick. Along the roads, where there are streams intersected by road-cuts, we often have a build-up of ice as it drips from the top of the cut. Some of the ice-falls are spectacular and all are dazzlers in the sun. For more about ice-falls in my blog see here.
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From my reading, I know that ice-falls begin as ‘frazil ice’, a suspension of small ice crystals adhering to soil, rock or vegetation. As meltwater flows over the surface of the frozen ice-fall, new layers are built and a cross-section of the ice will show bands of ice.
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In New Brunswick, some ice-falls are climbable, and some create caves under the curtain of ice. A famous New Brunswick ice-fall is the Midland Ice Caves near Norton. https://www.explorenb.ca/blog/icecaves
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one warm hand
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icicles seep between
layers of rock frozen
curtains separate
inner room from winter storm
glass barrier between blue
light and sheltered eyes
memory of water flows
along the face of the rock
one warm hand melts ice
consolation, condensation
on the inward glass
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(published as ‘one warm hand’, http://www.janetims.com, March 10, 2012)
Copyright Jane Tims 2018
in the shelter of the covered bridge
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in the shelter of the covered bridge
by Jane Spavold Tims
poetry with illustrations
Chapel Street Editions 2017
poems about plants and animals living in the vicinity of the covered bridge
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73 poems, 35 bridges, 21 illustrations
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From the Preface:
Where I live in rural New Brunswick, driving through a covered bridge is a daily occurrence. The sounds of the tires on the decking, the glimpses of river and sunlight between boards, the fun of seeing a family fishing and the sight of a groundhog carrying her kit across entryway of the bridge — these are touch-stones for my existence.
The inspiration for this book came in 2015, when my husband and I crossed the Patrick Owens Bridge on the Rusagonis Stream and 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 just above the planets, 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.
My husband and I carried out the field work for the book during 2015. We focused on covered bridges in the entire Saint John River Valley, but we also visited bridges in Charlotte and Westmorland Counties. Travelling around the province, visiting covered bridges and paying special attention to the nearby wild life, was an ideal way to spend a spring and summer in New Brunswick. Some bridges were easy to find, others a challenge. Each bridge contributed its own personality, history and component flora and fauna.
The covered bridge is endangered in New Brunswick. In 1900, there were about 400 covered bridges in the province. By 1944, there were only 320. In 1992, when Glen, Michael and I visited some of the bridges for Canada’s 125th birthday, there were 71. In 2017, as I write this, there are only 60 remaining. Vandalism, flood, accident, fire and age claim more bridges every few years.
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… In 2018, there are 58 covered bridges remaining …
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Book available from Chapel Street Editions
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dry wind
French Village Bridge
Hammond River #2
the bridge leans, upriver
wind enters, a beer can
rolls on the deck
white butterflies obey
the valley breeze
navigate the scent of wild roses
avoid the dogs
cooling off in the river
the beach folk, sunning themselves
bracts of Yellow Rattle
and Silene, inflated bladders
dry as old boards
aspens tremble
a song sparrow stutters
a loose shingle rattles in wind
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drawing of the French Village Bridge 2015: ‘enter’
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About the Author
Jane Spavold Tims is a botanist, writer and artist living in rural New Brunswick, Canada. She has published two books of poetry, within easy reach (2106) and in the shelter of the covered bridge (2017), both with Chapel Street Editions, Woodstock. Her first four books in the Meniscus series, Meniscus: Crossing The Churn, Meniscus: One Point Five – Forty Missing Days, Meniscus: South from Sintha and Meniscus: Winter by the Water-climb, were published with CreateSpace in 2017 and 2018 under the name Alexandra Tims. In 2016 she won the Alfred G. Bailey Prize in the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick Writing Competition for her manuscript of poems about bird calls. She is interested in identifying plants, bird-watching, science fiction and the conservation of built heritage. Her websites feature her drawings, paintings and poetry.
www.janetimsdotcom.wordpress.com
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both books available from Chapel Street Editions
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abandoned buildings
We are living in a time when many of our older buildings are reaching the end of their useful lives. Old churches, old covered bridges, old schools and old houses are everywhere, facing the indignity of old age. So many succumb, end up in landfills or as rotting derelicts. Yet these are buildings where history whispers. Buildings with stories to tell, our stories.
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abandoned church
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highbush cranberry
first, fruit hard and green
then, red, ready for wine
then shriveled raisins
hang on a leafless vine
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the wick of a candle stub
competes with cobwebs
for thickness, thin sunlight
oozes, amber glass, a saber
along the empty aisle
threatens motes
in stale air undisturbed
where stray wind never
finds its way
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deconsecrated and so
not desecrated when mice
squeeze under the threshold
gnaw at the pulpit, or when
vines whisper
vague obscenities
at the lintel, tap on glass
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stripped of cross and steeple
people, prayers
stained glass and benches
removed and sold at auction
mice pause at their industry
to assess ambiguous whispers
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the young girl who sat on the stair
sang a song to her mother
the warden who argued to fix
the seep in the roof
the Minister
who stuttered
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Copyright Jane Tims 2018
writing with a sense of place
On Thursday this week (March 1,2018) at 7 PM I will be joined by three other authors to celebrate “Writing with a Sense of Place“. The readings are part of an art exhibit at the R.P. Bell Library, Mount Allison University, featuring the book cover and book design work of thirteen graphic artists from New Brunswick working in conjunction with eight regional publishers. My books covers for ‘within easy reach’ (Chapel Street Editions, 2016) and ‘in the shelter of the covered bridge’ (Chapel Street Editions, 2017) have been included in the exhibit. I will be reading poems from in the shelter of the covered bridge and talking a little about the role these bridges play in our landscape.
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Press Release
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The New Brunswick Book Design Exhibit will open at the R.P. Bell Library, Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB on March 1st and run through April 19th. The Exhibit showcases the book cover and book design work of thirteen graphic artists from New Brunswick working in conjunction with eight regional publishers.
The Exhibit will open the evening of Thursday, March 1st at 7 pm with a program of readings by NB writers Beth Powning, Allan Cooper, Peter J. Clair, and Jane Tims, all of whom have books included in the display. The theme of the program will be “Writing with a Sense of Place.”
The New Brunswick Book Design Exhibit consists of sixty-three enlarged book cover images mounted on panels for wall display and twenty-nine books for table display. The book cover images illustrate a wide range of design approaches. The books on display provide an engagement with the design and graphic features of high quality printing and fine bookmaking.
A second program of readings will be held on Saturday, March 17th from 10 to 12 p.m. with authors of books for children that are also included in the Exhibit.
The Exhibit will be set up in the main entrance of the R.P. Bell Library and can be viewed during library hours: 8:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The Bell Library is located at 49 York Street on the campus of Mount Allison University. The Exhibit and its programs are open to the public without charge.
The New Brunswick Book Design Exhibit was created Brendan and Keith Helmuth for Word Feast 2017, a St. John River Valley literary festival based in Fredericton. The Exhibit was first on display at the Andrew and Laura McCain Gallery in Florenceville-Bristol and then at Connell House in Woodstock. In September it moved to the Fredericton Public Library. The Exhibit has since been enlarged to include additional examples of NB book cover design.
The Exhibit has been created with the cooperation of Goose Lane Editions, The Fiddlehead, Gaspereau Press, The Anchorage Press, Rabbittown Press, Monster House Publishing, and Chocolate River Publishing. Financial support for the production and display of the Exhibit has been provide by the Royal Bank of Canada, the NB Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism and Chapel Street Editions.
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My book in the shelter of the covered bridge explores the part the covered bridge plays in our New Brunswick landscape, both for plants and animals who live there and for the humans who leave their marks within. I am so proud to be part of the exhibit and the readings. I hope you will be able to attend.
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Jane Tims 2018
special book offer – in the shelter of the covered bridge
To celebrate my reading at Odd Sundays yesterday, I am selling my book in the shelter of the covered bridge (Chapel Street Editions 2017) at the reduced price of $25 (including postage) from February 16, 2018 until February 28, 2018. If you happen to live in my driving area (within 30 km of Oromocto or Fredericton, New Brunswick), the price for a hand-delivered book is $20. Just email me at timstims@nbnet.nb.ca and we will arrange for payment and delivery.
The book usually sells for $28 so this is a great deal if you love poetry, covered bridges or wild life.
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in the shelter of the covered bridge is published by Chapel Street Editions (Woodstock) and includes over 70 poems about visits to 54 of New Brunswick’s covered bridges. The book is illustrated with my pencil drawings and has a foreword by Brian Atkinson, a well-known New Brunswick photographer.
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“… A delightful blend of her poetry and drawings, as well as the natural and cultural history of this province …” Linda Hershey, Moncton Times-Transcript, Nov. 30, 2017, writing about in the shelter of the covered bridge
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Copyright 2018 Jane Tims
Reading – Odd Sundays – and a special book offer
On Sunday February 18 at 2:00 PM I will be one of two featured readers at Odd Sundays in Fredericton. Wayne Curtis, well-known New Brunswick author, is also featured!
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Moores Mills Bridge near Sussex, north entrance, 2015
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I will be reading from my new poetry book ‘in the shelter of the covered bridge’ (Chapel Street Editions, 2017). If you love covered bridges, you will enjoy my poems. Each one was written after a visit to a particular covered bridge and the poems feature the plants and animals (and humans) who look to the covered bridge for shelter. Some love stories among the lot, since we will be near to Valentine’s Day! The book features my poems and my pencil drawings of some of the plants and animals I encountered.
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carving inside Moores Mills Bridge near Sussex
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As a special deal associated with this event, you can get a copy of the book (which sells for $28) for $25, postage included. Just email me at timstims@nbnet.nb.ca and we will arrange for payment and delivery. This offer last from today February 16, 2018 until February 28, 2018.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I hope if you are in the Fredericton area, you will come to hear me read. The event is at Corked on Regent Street in downtown Fredericton. Come and enjoy a beverage and the readings. You may win a book in the draw or decide to read your own work in the open mic segment of the program.
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Moores Mills Bridge near Sussex, south entrance, 2015
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Remember to email me and get your own copy of ‘in the shelter of the covered bridge’. Nice gift for someone who loves covered bridges.
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Copyright 2018 Jane Tims
ordinary magic
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Although I am a biologist and understand that even the magical can usually be described in concrete terms, I prefer to not try to ‘puzzle out’ at least some of the ‘magic’ in my life. After all, what is more delightful and truly mysterious than a six-sided snowflake, the pattern of veins in a basil leaf, the smell of lavender at bedtime, the pungent, cold-busting taste of turmeric, or a line in a movie that brings tears to your eyes.
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When I wrote the poem below, I was playing Dungeons and Dragons regularly and keeping watch for the magical in life. I still have the small blue jar with the magical false bottom.
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ordinary magic
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small blue jar
emptied of face cream
has a false bottom when held to the light
a bright inverted inner shell
hovers untouchable
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the peel of an orange
spurts flammable oil
cantrips of fire
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press a shell to your ear
murmur of ocean
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Copyright Jane Tims 2018
free book – Meniscus: Crossing the Churn
Want a quick read? A chance to explore a distant planet with two spirited characters? The first book in my science-fiction adventure series Meniscus: Crossing the Churn (Kindle version) is available for free for the next five days on Kindle. From January 27 to January 31, you can meet Odymn and the Slain, and learn about their meeting and their first travels together across the landscapes of planet Meniscus.
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From the dangerous streets of Prell-nan to the dark woods of the Themble, this is a dystopian adventure, set on a planet where Humans are slaves to an alien race. Their only hope for freedom is to work together, foraging for their food, running from the nasty Dock-winders and battling the wild life. The only way to survive will be in their growing love for one another.
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A sample from the story …
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She watches the fire,
the space where flames
feign glowing eyes.
The creature speaks and she startles,
then knows the words are the endless friction
of two close-growing limbs of banyan.
High pitched squeal, low grown.
She peers at the Slain.
“I’m Odymn,” she says,
points to the place
between her breasts,
the now-charred microchip.
Points at him.
“Who are you?”
Emphasis on ‘who’ and ‘you’.
Unwavering stare.
His eyes not black, but amethyst,
dark rings around the iris.
At the edges a pale film,
nictitating membrane.
Long lashes.
“Odymn,” she says.
“Named by my father.
“Rare earth metal, Neodymium.
Atomic number 60. Silvery,
soft, tarnishes in air.
“Common as copper.
Makes a reddish dye,
colour of my hair.
“Now you,” and points at his chest.
Blue sparks snap to the tip of her finger.
Faint vibration through hand, along arm,
deep into torso.
Penetrating stare.
Lazy double blink.
Membrane and lashes close and open.
“OK. I’ll choose a name for you.
Daniel. Or James.
Not quite right, too common.
“You need an alien name.
Something deep from Dock-winder mythology.
Amblyn, god of fire. Or De-al, water-weld.”
Steady stare. Double blink.
One hand lifts. One finger raised to lips.
Be silent.
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To get a free Kindle version of Meniscus: Crossing the Churn (from January 27 to January 31), just click on the book icon in the margin. This will take you to the Amazon website where you can get a free copy downloaded to your Kindle device.
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If you like Meniscus: Crossing the Churn, you will love the continuing adventures of Odymn and the silent Slain – Meniscus: South from Sintha, Meniscus: Winter by the Water-climb and the newest book Meniscus: One Point Five – Forty Missing Days, available January 31, 2018.
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Copyright Jane Tims 2018
ghost stories
Although I hesitate to write this post, I am trying to go through my older poems and think about them a little. The next one on the list (I am working backwards through the alphabet) is called ‘visitations’. The subject matter is a bit ghostly.
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I do not generally believe in ghosts although I do believe in phenomena if that makes sense. A phenomenon is defined as a fact or situation that is observed to exist or happen, especially one whose cause or explanation is in question.
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I have experienced many phenomena in my life. Odd things that seem to have some particular significance at the time. My mother, who also had such experiences, called them “comforts from heaven.”
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Here are a couple of examples from my own life:
- After my mom died, a little yellow bird came almost every day to peck at our windows (not a goldfinch, in spite of the drawing below). After that year, I never saw it again.
- Once I bought a handmade quilt at an auction and laid it over our upper loft railing. One night I came out to the hall in the dark, touched the quilt and heard the following words, quite distinctly: “Henry, come in to supper!” I don’t know anyone named Henry.
- When she was alive, my aunt and I had a contest to see who could lose the most weight. My aunt told me to pick an item from her home as the ‘prize’. I know she was disappointed when I chose a little framed picture of a waterfall she had won as a prize in Sunday School in 1937. Neither of us lost any weight so the prize was never claimed. After her death, we retrieved some boxes from her estate. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened the box in the trunk of my car and the little picture of the waterfall was the top item.
- Once when I was staying away from home, I heard the front door open and footsteps, crossing the tile floor. I expected to see someone else and instead a little girl with ringlets came into my view, reached up for the doorknob of the adjacent bedroom and went inside. There were no children in the house at the time and I was terrified.
- My husband had his own weird experience on our local covered bridge. He was crossing the narrow bridge one day in our truck and was alarmed to see another car enter the bridge. He was certain there would be a crash but the other car, an older V-8 model, squeezed right by. My husband, knowing there was no way two vehicles could pass in the bridge, had to stop the truck at the other side of the bridge, he was shaking so hard.
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Now every one of these experiences could be explained. Probably a vivid imagination is part of that explanation. But I do believe in the phenomenon. Have you had any experiences of your own?
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visitations
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moonlight on birch
stark shadows
words precise on the page
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her tread heavy
she reaches for the door
opens, ringlets close as a spring
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lengthen, what else is possible?
hand touches a quilt, a voice asks
a practical question, distilled in velvet
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a small yellow bird
at the window
every morning for a year
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Copyright Jane Tims 2018
nichepoetryandprose 