February Muse
February 2023
November Writers Muse
Published by the Writers Foundation of Strathcona County
“There are perhaps no days of our childhood that we lived as fully, as the days we think we left behind without living at all: the days we spent with a favourite book.”
Proust: on contemplating why we read.
Editor's Note:
The Strathcona Writers Muse is a forum for members of the Writers Foundation of Strathcona County to publish their works.
Important Dates
Writers Circle Virtual Sharing Meeting online
Next date Feb 7, 2023 7 pm
RSVP on the website and the link will be emailed to you prior to the meeting.
https://www.wfscsherwoodpark.com/event-details/writing-circle-meeting-online-13
Next Board Meeting: Feb 14, 2023
Poets in the Park
Poets in the park meets the third Wednesday of every month online.
Reply to the link on the WFSC website
www.wfscsherwoodpark.com
Next scheduled meeting Feb 15, 2023
Children's Creative Writing Workshop
Second Monday of each month
Next Meeting Feb 9, 2023
Reply to the link on our Website
www.wfscsherwoodpark.com
This Month's Submissions
The History of the Nearly Bird
by Mandy Eve-Barnett
Professor Claude Rune stood straight backed behind the podium awaiting the last of his university students to sir in the auditorium. When the last pupil sat down, he tapped his pen on the wooden stand. Accustomed to the professor’s strictness for complete silence and focus the room’s inhabitants became silent.
“Good morning students. Today’s lecture is somewhat special in its topic. As our last lecture prior to the summer break, I am going to relay a personal experience. One that propelled me into my current position. He watched the curious glances around the room. It was unusual for him to deviate from the syllabus, but he wanted to keep them on their toes, so to speak, as well as ignite interest.
Clasping his hands behind his back, he began to pace the stage, left to right and back again. His mind took him back in time and place to the exploratory visit to darkest Asia. As a young man of twenty-seven, his mentor, Professor Archibald Grant, had seen his attention to detail and research abilities and requested him as his assistant on the trip. Claude was honored to be picked, knowing if they did under cover the artifact, they would make history. The Nearly Bird was thought by western intellect to be a folk tale, but to Asian culture it was a symbol of a mystical visitation.
The trek through thick jungle and up the side of a mountain was tortuous and exhausting. Claude was astonished at his ‘old’ professor’s ability to transverse the changing terrain. A feat a man half his age, such as Claude himself, would find taxing. A local tribesman guided them and stopped abruptly mid trail. He pointed, laid down his considerable backpack, bowed and sat down.
Claude’s puzzlement was met with a nod from his professor to the guide and himself.
“We will continue alone from here. Our local man will not proc