NORMA WEST LINDER

                                               Common Scents

                                                Walking my small dog

                                                across the nearby park

                                                the scent of dry cut grass

                                                in August sun

                                                drifts up, envelops me

                                                I close my eyes

                                                to travel back

                                                to Manitoulin days

                                                when I was ten

                                                --a tomboy then

                                                given free rein to roam

                                                the rustic countryside

                                                meadows of childhood

                                                Those heady days

                                                of endless summertime

                                                are always just a thought

                                                or two away

                                                I felt immortal then

                                                when all the world was new

                                                Now time is like a train

                                                that’s speeding up

                                                so every now and then

                                                it’s good to stop

                                                pull on the brakes

                                                and let a special scent

                                                bring back the past

                                                if only for a moment

                                                or  two   

                                                          

                                                Norma West Linder

    

                        

                                                      Norma West Linder and fiance James Dheal 

                                                                  BIO

            Norma West Linder was born in Toronto,  spent her childhood on Manitoulin Island, and teenage years in Muskoka.  She is a member of The Writers’ Union of Canada, PEN, The Ontario Poetry Society, The Canadian Federation of Poets, WIT (Writers in Transition)and Past President of the Sarnia Branch of the Canadian Authors Assoc. Linder is the author of 5 novels, 12 collections of poetry, a memoir of Manitoulin Island, a children’s book, and a biography of Pauline McGibbon.  For 24 years she was on the faculty of Lambton College in Sarnia, teaching English and Creative Writing.  For 7 years she wrote a monthly column for the Sarnia Observer.  He short stories have been published internationally and broadcast on the CBC.  Her poetry  has been published in Fiddlehead, White Wall Review, Room of One’s Own, Quills , Toward the Light, Prairie Journal, FreeFall Magazine, Mobius, and other periodicals.  In 2006 she compiled and edited Enchanted Crossroads for The Ontario Poetry Society. Her latest publications  are collections of poems entitled  When Angels Weep and Lovely as a Tree She has two daughters and a son.