nature poems

Snow Covered Fields–an Ekphrastic Poem by Bev Gorbet

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Snow covered farmer’s field at sunset, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Ice clad prisms, snow covered fields of glittering fire…
Winter days, the  wondrous glow: ultramarine lights and turning shades
The magic song: ice and gently underflow of meandering  streams 
Singing waters on the tortuous pathway below…
Clangor, bell sounds: the moving harmonies on icy slopes…

Jackson Creek in winter, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Ice ‘islands’ touched by sunset light in Jackson Creek, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Ice block in Jackson Creek, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Farmer’s field in Kawarthas, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

A bronze feathered hawk sails high above 
Into the bright sunlit skies,
Hawk, swiftly carried in its flight above bended fir and aspen forests,
A wild, fierce, freewheeling majesty…

Icy bay and shed in the trees, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Small cabin in a meadow, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Trees by fence in farmer’s field, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Snow from a cedar tree showers down glitter-dust in a light breeze in Jackson Creek Park, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

The many pristine snow reflected lights, glittering fires
Above a snow clad world in a time of darkness:
Nature’s  magic universe everywhere extant:
We are overwhelmed, confounded by the wonder of it all.

Skier checks his path on a slope at sunset, BC (photo by Lindsay)
Snow glistening in the sunset on a very cold day, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Reflections in Thompson Creek outlet after a new snowfall, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Otonabee River glittering in the sun, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Bev Gorbet is a Toronto poet. She has published several poems with the Retired Teachers Organization and most recently in “Literary Connection IV: Then and Now” (In Our Words Inc., 2019), edited by Cheryl Antao Xavier. 

Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press(Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.

“A Savage Beauty” an Ekphrastic Poem by Bev Gorbet

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Path to bridge over Otonabee River on a foggy morning, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

The strange merry-go- round will turn and turn;
Season to season in sacred passage,
Time’s gentle silences softly unwinding…

Marcescent Beech trees in a Kawartha forest during fog, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Days of a savage beauty:
The world’s innate beauty, 
The world’s inevitable pain…

Snowmelt along country road in Kawarthas on a foggy morning, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

We, both predator and prey:
Wild song, wild nature’s order…
Moments of perplexity and loss,
The many daunting questions: 
Unanswerable visions beyond the abyss.

Mallards feeding in Thompson Creek, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Too often the inaction, 
The inscrutable silences
In a time of fear…

Tree reflected in Thompson Creek, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

The cruel histories: these misbegotten tales?
Where has love gone this solemn time?
Sacred memory and hope?

The Otonabee River during a snowstorm, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Generations have trod on unending journey
Neither question nor answer to guide
The lost ever lost, the perplexed ever perplexed…
Love is all, time’s vast unwinding.

Thompson Creek marsh, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Bev Gorbet is a Toronto poet. She has published several poems with the Retired Teachers Organization and most recently in “Literary Connection IV: Then and Now” (In Our Words Inc., 2019), edited by Cheryl Antao Xavier. 

Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press(Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.

“To Wander the Fields” an Ekphrastic Poem by Bev Gorbet

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Farmer’s field at sunset in early winter, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Oh! to wander the fields wild and free,
To commune with wild nature,
Her beauty everywhere extant.

Small country road in Ontario (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Path through meadow of goldenrod in fall, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Tender lullabye and song in forested glade,
A still peace this sacred moment:
The profound silence: holy echo of dream, every hope;
Melodies of heart and soul;
Rhythms, memory and wonder in a windrift calm,
Tree and bough, moment of a joyous uplift

Field in early spring fog in Ontario (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Meadow in fall in Peterborough, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Forested cathedrals, great songs of heart and mind,
All the majesty: a windstorm day in fierce call and cry
Whisper and sigh midst far tossed leaf and bough…
Promise and a grace filled endurance
All the beauty flame interior universes:
A captive soul set free.

Path through meadow alvar, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Path through farm country, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Fields in the Kawarthas, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

NINA MUNTEANU is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit  www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press(Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.

My Autumn World… An Ekphrastic Poem by Bev Gorbet

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Sugar maple tree with fallen leaves in autumn, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

My world: most wondrous, mystic shelter, 
Holy meridian of a life’s overwhelming mystery,
Magic center of hope
Haunting universe of a deepest longing…

Reflections of trees on outlet of creek into Otonabee River, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

My autumn world, tormented season
And still time of the calm pastoral moon:
Skies overhead, windtossed wildernesses,
Seasons of joy, seasons of a bittersweet discontent
Time’s last flowering before a fierce winter of silences

Snowing in treed meadow, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Autumn ‘s last reflections midst storm ravaged skies…
Last songs, the changing lights,
Amber and golden hours
Windswept calls, wild cry, surge, a windswept rage
Rising lights, moving shadow across far spread field,
Across wide spread glade…

Creek flowing into Otonabee River, ON in early winter (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

A sacred bend and flow this existential time,
Rhapsodies across a dying land
Rain and storm riven sky songs,
Windsong days, wild  blasts to ravage and torment

Horizontal snow in a strong snow storm, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

The high windstorm prophesies:
Promises of a fierce unmanning;
Storm and lost days, winter and last days’
Their  return too soon presage….
Haunted universes of a deepest longing.

Marsh at lagoon of Otonabee River in winter fog, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Bev Gorbet is a Toronto poet. She has published several poems with the Retired Teachers Organization and most recently in “Literary Connection IV: Then and Now” (In Our Words Inc., 2019), edited by Cheryl Antao Xavier. 

Moss-covered rocks and leaf fall in Jackson Creek, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

NINA MUNTEANU is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit  www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press(Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.

“Sunlight on Snow” an ekphrastic poem by Bev Gorbet

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Snow glitter rains down from cedar tree on a sunny day after a major snowfall, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

Bright lit: the great cedar forest,
Cathedral dome skies bright sunlit above…
All of a fulgent blue, all of an azure glow…
Everywhere, the peace of a radiant sunlight

Pine tree with snow glitter behind in Jackson Creek Park, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Worlds of magic and a most sacred light
Bright sunlit day, bright shafts 
Through a portico of treetops high above
The trees reaching so very high,
Deep into the sheltering skies

Snow-covered Buckthorn with path through a snowy meadow, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Snow decked branch and bough: gently swaying memory;
Movement into the swaying winter winds
The gentle whispers, the gentle sighs 
The treetops,
Their  song, their gentle touch, their toss, their glide

Snow dust falls in a cedar forest, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

A deepest silence, a most profound contemplation
Midst snowdrift and snowlit mists as they shift
Between icy branch and snow covered green bough

Dust of snow and cedar lights:
All the ethereal wonders of a snowy day, 
The snow blessed, lost ephemeral lands
In a full clothed beauty, snowy wonders: of sunlight, of shadow

Snow-covered shrub on a snowy day, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Oh! sacred forest, this great beauty of place
To overwhelm, to protect, to shelter…
Here, a deepest meditation, a deepest circumspection…
Snow and ice and all the wonder of a  glorious sunlit day
All the ephemeral beauty in a winter’s sunlight world.

Snow dust rains down from snow-laden cedar trees in Jackson Creek Park, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

Bev Gorbet is a Toronto poet and retired school teacher. She has published several poems with the Retired Teachers Organization and most recently in “Literary Connection IV: Then and Now” (In Our Words Inc., 2019), edited by Cheryl Antao Xavier.

A Late Autumn Snowfall–An Ekphrastic Poem by Bev Gorbet

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Otonabee River glints in the sun as it snows, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

An autumn’s last days, fierce snowfalls, fall lights and storm
The autumn landscape now full of wild moods,
Hints of a magic wilderness and an encircling cold,
The bitter winds, the fast falling hail:
Landscape echo and retreat

Mallards contently swim the marsh under a heavy snow, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Snow veil mists over the receiving marsh lands:
Somber cloud grays, shades of amber glow…
Mallard ducks unconcernedly paddling 
On the smooth black marsh waters
The snows above falling in majestic blizzards:
Powerful bursts of snow over treetop
And bended bough,
Moody haze lit skies high falling away
In blasts of snow and wind

Heavy snow falls in the riparian forest, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Snowy reflections over high treetop above…
Snowy days and last messages of a fading autumn’s glory:
Detritus of bronze leaf, the withered beauty of a fading goldenrod
A final sadness, autumn’s last messages, 
Haunted promises of a brilliant winter sunshine
On snowy fields, velvet days and gold

Snow flies horizontally in a fierce wind, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Now the forests bend, overwhelmed by the flying snow
Thick tumbling down, shards of ice and rain
Clouds of snow falling everywhere
Forest pathways now covered in a lucent white glow,
The shaded greens of cedar and fir picked out in a forest landscape;
The continuing deluge, wild nature’s primordial powers: 
Mad windstorm and snow drift

Sun emerges over Thompson Creek marsh after the snowstorm, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

The still marsh waters now reflect the gray cloud, the  sky high above
All the windstorm madness, the bog detritus on the still marsh 
Now snow covered and silent, the snowfall ended
The marsh now a sacred retreat: worlds of a glorious and gentle reflection,
A tender, and radiant peace overall.

Bev Gorbet is a Toronto poet and retired school teacher. She has published several poems with the Retired Teachers Organization and most recently in “Literary Connection IV: Then and Now” (In Our Words Inc., 2019), edited by Cheryl Antao Xavier.

Thompson Creek marsh after a first snow in late autumn, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Nina Munteanu revels in a snowstorm in Ontario (photo by Merridy Cox)

“Rhapsody in the Rising Windstorms”–an ekphrastic poem by Bev Gorbet

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Poplar trees in the late autumn, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

My heart will rise to follow in the fierce rhapsody:
Wind’s cry and rapture;
Mystical beauty in the primal call, wildernesses,
Mad windstorm  moving from treetop to treetop,
From branch to bending branch, from singing leaf to leaf
Moving, high sheltering in the high tumult, skies above
Midst songs of midnight, darkest shadow, deepest shades

Path through maple-beech forest, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

The great beauty in the wind’s mystic path
Darknesses far beyond into the cathedrals of the night:
Airs, echo and sighs, dreams,
Thoughts of all our  tomorrows:
Sacred windstorms at the beginning of time:
A glorious sun and the rising dawn lights

Pine cedar forest in Ontario (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

All promise was once ours,
Echoes of dreams once ours,
All beauty once ours and days never to be forgotten
Dawn lights and dusty twilights:
The songs of the wind’s rapture,
Fierce windstorm sighs, cries through branch and bough…

Old maple tree in a mixed forest, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)
A pastoral field blazes with autumn colours of sumac and maple, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Oh! memory hold strong
Windsong: mystic soul of creation: the mystic fire, the holy flame;
Worlds ablaze
The long sacred journey into mystery
Beauty transfigured, wind’s message and haunting
Windstorm and mystical  worlds, sanctuary far away
All passion spent.

Marsh at sunset, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press(Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.

“The Forested Sanctuary” by Bev Gorbet

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Stream runs through cedar poplar forest in the rain, Trent Nature Sanctuary, ON (photo and dry brush rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Oh! great mysterium:
Great forested sanctuary into the heart of being
Oh! to walk pensive, in solitude into the center
Of a cedar forest, worlds all russet and green,
Branch and bough, rain swept landscapes
The high treetops, far whisper and echo…
The great winds in high flight high above…
Songs to pierce the sullen skies,
Melodies of joy and of a deepest longing…

Cedars and poplars in a morning mist, Trent Nature Sanctuary, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

Songs of immortality, worlds full aflame,
Mystic cathedrals and dawn memory,
Haze and gray day, silver sky, silver cloud
Rain downfall and mist…
Leaf, branch and bough, the wind and the rain
The bending and wind tossed land

Mist hangs over Trent Canal, Trent Forest Sanctuary, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

The spring scents, spring grasses and nearby stream;
Rivulet and rhapsodic song,
The holy silences, the rain, fall, hiss and far echo…
Cedar forest cathedrals, branches overspread,
Red winged blackbird, soaring alone high above,
High into the receiving dome of haze and sky
Free swoop and whispering forest airs

White birch in Trent Nature Sanctuary, ON (photo and dry brush rendition by Nina Munteanu)

The far meditation:
Sacred journey into a holy wilderness:
Forested worlds beyond time…

Cedar root among ferns and moss in a light mist, Trent Nature Sanctuary (photo by Nina Munteanu)

Forested worlds of an existential beauty,
Great moss silences, tree root and bough…
Great worlds of hope and the tenebrous shadow
Of a rain swept day…
Holy encounters: the great mysterium
Sacred worlds beyond still time…

BEV GORBET
Moss and lichen cover an old cedar log, Trent Nature Sanctuary, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)
Tinder polypore fungus on white birch, Trent Nature Sanctuary, ON (photo and dry brush rendition by Nina Munteanu)
Moss on a log in Trent Nature Sanctuary, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)
Cedar boardwalk in a misty rain, Trent Nature Sanctuary, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press(Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.

“Postlude to a Winter’s Day” by Bev Gorbet–An Ekphrastic Poem

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First big snow in Thompson Creek marsh, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

A winter’s rapture
White crystals piercing the envelope
Of the sheltering sky
Soft, slow falling down
Out of the cool receiving airs…

First snow, Rotary Trail, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

Sacred nocturne, a  gentle windfall:
All the pristine light of a still winter’s night
Stars fallen, reflected on snowy harvest field
and bough
Streetlight images dancing in rainbow
glow,
Blue and lavendar haze skies,
over a dark pine forest, over moonlight…

Pine tree in winter snow, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

The cool mists of a winter’s day
Veiled branch and bough 
everywhere down bent, pure weight
snow fall held close
Oh! sacred winter, season of stories:
Wedding of the earth to the stars

Restaurant in Zermatt, Switzerland (photo by Nina Munteanu)

Let us remember you well
When again the spring
will be upon us,
the winter rest over
and life now dormant will awaken;

Rural house in Bridgewater, NS (photo by Nina Munteanu)

The eternal cycle renewed
and all our love, all the living world…
Life renewed out of a purest silence:
Holy season of solitude, season of dreams.

—Bev Gorbet, November, 2020

Snow path near Manning Park, BC (photo by Nina Munteanu)
The Matterhorn seen from Zermatt, Switzerland (photo by Nina Munteanu)
First big snow at outlet of Thompson Creek, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press(Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.

To the Mystic Forest by Bev Gorbet–an Ekphrastic Poem

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Path birch PPP

Trail through mixed birch-pine forest at Petroglyph Park, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

Since moving temporarily to Peterborough during COVID-19, I have been on an adventure with Nature in the Kawartha region, north of Toronto. The region contains a chain of lakes that form the upper watershed of the Trent River; the lakes are situated on the boundary between the Paleozoic limestone region of the Golden Horseshoe and the Precambrian granite Canadian Shield of northern and central Ontario.

I’ve explored several local parks and lakes with wonderful swamp cedar on the Otonabee River and Jackson Creek and uphill beech-maple forest in the Trent Nature Sanctuary.

Farther afield, I wandered through the pine forests of Petroglyph Park, north of Peterborough, with its intriguing meromictic McGinnis Lake.

When I shared some of my Petroglyph Park photos with Toronto poet and friend Bev Gorbet, she was inspired to write this poem. I am overjoyed to share her ekphrastic poem with you here:

 

Path pine forest wide PPP

Trail through pine forest, Petroglyph Park, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

To the Mystic Forest: Reflections on Natural Beauty

Forests of the mind, wild forests of the heart…
The ethereal sounds: windstorm and echo
On a spring day…
The wind’s fierce flight through bended bough,
Through swaying treetop

High high above, the windswept call, the cry,
All the beauty in a wilderness forest…
The whispering grasses, below,
Song all bend, all flow in a cathedral clearing…

Trillium aging white

Aging white trillium, Petroglyph Park, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu)

Radiant beams, sunlight and shadow peppering
The moving boughs overhead…
Azure and lavender, sky-swept cloud
And mystic glow…

Oh! great forests of the mind,
Great forest of the heart…
A deepest beauty along an existential meridian:
The heart passionately centred, deeply into reflection:
Haunted days and alone

Wind call and cry, whisper and sigh
Great wilderness lands, wide forested plains
All the wondrous beauty, all the holy mystery:
Windswept, wind-tossed skies, the great forests
Mystery glorious, mystic days beyond time.

Bev Gorbet, June 2020

 

BevGorbetBev Gorbet is a Toronto poet and retired school teacher. She has published several poems with the Retired Teachers Organization and most recently in “Literary Connection IV: Then and Now” (In Our Words Inc., 2019), edited by Cheryl Antao Xavier.

 

 

 

 

 

Path Pine forest drybrush PPP

Petroglyph Park pine forest trail (artwork by Nina Munteanu)

 

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Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press (Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.