Saturday, August 6, 2011

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.

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