May Newsletter
Newsletter May 2021
'If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write' - Stephen King
Editor's Note:
The Strathcona Writers Muse is a newsletter to members of the Writers Foundation of Strathcona County. It also provides an opportunity for members to publish their works. Anything published in our newsletter is eligible to receive a publishing credit. Since very few, if any, submissions are refused, it is a wonderful way to publish your work. We accept poems and short stories of 1000 words or less. Longer pieces can be accommodated if they can be published in parts. Works can be essays and opinion pieces as well as short stories and poems. We are always in need of new items for each month so don't hesitate if you have something we can put into our publication.
Send submissions to wfscsherwoodpark@gmail.com care of Henry Martell, editor.
Important Dates
Writers Circle online
Next date May 4, 2021
RSVP on the website and the link will be emailed to you prior to the meeting. www.wfscsherwoodpark.com
Next Board Meeting: May 11, 2021
Newsletter Submission Deadline: May 24, 2021
Monthly online Creative Writing Workshops
Held last Saturday of every month at 12:30 to 2:30 pm
Go to the website to register - click the RSVP and the link will be emailed to you prior to the workshop.
The Sentinel
By Dennis Wilson
I grew tired of looking out my office window this last winter. I felt restricted; cooped up.
I was. I could sense cabin fever slinking around me; trying to encompass; overtake me.
The only consolation to the dreariness of the snowscape I had squinted upon day after day; the only bright spot that lit up the boringness of the view, was the lonely sentinel standing always at attention. The sentinel is an old gnarled tree that has seen a multitude of seasons come and go. It understands, much better than I, how the seasons work, one into the next in order.
Today, if I could hear the ancient tree speak, it would declare, “I’m not dead, as it would seem. I’m simply waiting for budding-forth time to come. Then I will again give you shade on those hot days of summer when ice-cold tea is your best friend.”
No, that is not correct; that is not how I feel bout you.
You are more than a provider of shade for me.
You, Sir Sentinel, are my friend.
Summer Contradictions
Escape into the wildness of summer
Lush boughs of green and abundance of colour
Replacing steel grey and mirrored facades
Floral scents and mountain breeze
Instead of choking emissions
Warmed skin by summer sun
Rather than brash dry forced air
Bird song and nature’s silence
Replacing constant tumult