pumpkins | nichepoetryandprose

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

andiron

wrought owl with amber eyes

perches on the hearth

hears a call in the forest

six syllables and silence

Great-horned Owl, light gathered

at the back of his eyes,

and the oscillating branch

after wings expand and beat

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

Copyright Jane Tims 2012

Written by jane tims

October 24, 2012 at 8:06 am

Posted in along the roadside, collections

Tagged with andiron, autumn, Great Horned Owl, Nancy Drew, nancy drew mysteries, nature, owl, poetry, pumpkins, roadside stand, St. John River, yellows of autumn

covering the pumpkins

with 6 comments

This year our garden was an unqualified failure. Between the slugs and the shade, none of my poor pumpkin vines made it to the orange pumpkin stage. But in the past, we have had worthy pumpkin patches. One year our pumpkins were so prolific, one of the vines even strayed upward, into a maple tree. In October, we had an orange pumpkin in the tree, about four feet above the ground.

my son with pumpkins from our garden, about 22 years ago

This year, my pumpkin sightings have been in other people’s gardens and in the bins at the grocery store. At least I am spared the desperate efforts of the past, to squeeze one more day of growing from the season, by covering the pumpkins before the frost.