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    The Water Poems
    The Water Poems
    The Water Poems
    Ebook151 pages47 minutes

    The Water Poems

    By Candice James

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    About this ebook

    “One of B.C.’s indefatiguable poets and literary spark-plugs, Candice James is prolific, exuberant, and writes grownup poetry that’s seen its share of dust and joy out on the road. A poet with the long view her work is mnature observant, freighted with tenderness and shaped by traditional form as well as metrical invention. There’s no artifice here: what you see is what you get—James is a poet of direct experience and recollected emotion.Old love, the blessedness of rain, things broken too long to be fixed, or the blue stillness of eternity—all are netted by her unquenchable zeal for poetry. From her opening epigraph from Laotzu through images of a Captain Morgan kind of night that only long years in Canada can truly understand, the music of what happens is present here in every bittersweet refrain.” ~ Trevor Carolan

    After serving two 3 year terms as Poet Laureate (2010-2016) Candice James has been awarded the title of Poet Laureate Emerita of New Westminster, BC Canada, by order of City Council. She is also a visual artist, musician, singer/songwriter, book reviewer and workshop facilitator. She is Founder, and Past President of Royal City Literary Arts Society; Director of Pacific Festival of the Book Society; Past President of the Federation of British Columbia Writers; Past Director of Slam Central and Past Director of SpoCan. She is a full member of the League of Canadian Poets and Thee Writers Union of Canada. She also is founder of: “The Fred Cogswell Award ForExcellence In Poetry”; “Poetry In the Park”; “Poetic Justice” “Poetry New Westminster”; and she has been keynote speaker at “Word On the Street”, “Word on the Beach”; and “Black Dot Roots Cultural Collective.” She is the author of eleven previous books of poetry.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSilver Bow Publishing
    Release dateOct 5, 2018
    ISBN9781774030004
    The Water Poems

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      Book preview

      The Water Poems - Candice James

      The Water Poems

      By Candice James

      Smashwords Edition 2017

      License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not

      be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book

      with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If

      you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for

      your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own

      copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author

      Copyright © 2018 Silver Bow Publishing

      978-1-927616-61-1 (e-book)

      Silver Bow Publishing

      www.silverbowpublishing.com

      Nothing is softer

      or more flexible than water,

      yet nothing can resist it.

      ~ Lao Tzu

      The Water Poems

      by Candice James

      Introduction to The Water Poems

      At the edge of a dream

      In a broken stone-age dawn

      I saw a column of mist

      Rise up from the sea

      It took the form of a long bony finger

      It scrawled in bold letters across the sky

      And engraved into my mind

      The Water Poems

      Colours of hydrogen

      Textures of oxygen

      Dreams of life and death,

      Tears of joy and sorrow,

      Rivers of ice,

      Lakes of fire

      And secrets stolen

      From the soul of the universe

      I awoke

      I picked up my pen

      I wrote

      The Water Poems

      ~ Candice James

      Table of Contents

      Black Onyx Lake

      The Drowning

      Ink Stain in the Rain

      The Hungry Waves

      Waves Washing

      Justified Water

      Lost Water

      Sailing the Night

      Weave of the Waves

      Remembering the Rain

      A Hard Rain

      Black Shiny Pool

      Blue Silence

      Indigo Waters

      Sailboats and Sunsets

      The Seventh Fountain of Heaven

      Stranger on the Shore

      The River’s Ice Blue Sheen

      Surreal Ocean

      On a Dog-Eared Ocean

      What the Dead Scrolls See

      Beachcombers

      Listen to the Rain

      White Water Rapids

      Pages in the Rain

      Stormy Evening

      Slice of Rain

      The Rain

      Two Separate Teardrops

      Ghost of the Ganges

      Indian Nights

      Broken Too Long to Be Fixed

      Burnaby Lake Sunset

      Stones

      This Ever Prevalent Rain

      Shards of Sea Glass

      The Rain Pounds

      Water and Broken Glass

      Glossy Nights

      On a Star Dusted Sea

      Ship of Dreams

      The Rain Calls

      The River Screamed

      The Depth of the Dance

      Tidal Flats

      Distance

      Fifty Million Raindrops

      The Illusion

      The Wet

      Inverted Sun

      Mica Creek Park

      Spilling July

      Beneath the Weeping Willows

      Blue Water Corals

      Crab Boat

      Eddying

      Gritty Sand of Need

      Marshland Pond

      Feel It

      Blessed Be the Rain

      Showers and Dust

      Sand Line

      Cracked and Broken Water World

      Watermark

      At the Lake

      Antique Harbour

      Bay of Shadows and Light

      Breakers

      Pool of Timelessness

      Laws of the Waters

      The Nets

      Whale Song

      Aegean Mist

      Inside This Perfect Silence

      Ripple Down Tim

      Spring Rain

      Tranquility

      Rains of Change

      This Relentless Rain

      Cool Water Piano Keys

      Summer Rain

      Wasteland

      Unsearchable

      Waterfall

      On a Cloudy Day

      Once Upon a Time in France

      At Rest

      Water

      Acknowledgements

      Candice James Poet Profile

      Black Onyx Lake

      Above the lip of a black onyx lake,

      I walked as a ghost in a foreign land,

      All around me in a state of flux:

      Mountains dissolving;

      Sand dunes shifting;

      Sky cracking open;

      Stars in free-fall

      Above the lip of a black onyx lake.

      I saw stars being born,

      Burning out, disappearing;

      Angels in flight touching down on the lake.

      I saw high-wires, guidelines and cities

      Constructed with neon and gauze;

      Rainbows changing their colours at will.

      In a moment of madness

      The sun kissed the moon;

      And imagination’s children were born,

      Raining down sweet inspiriation

      Spilling from a crack in the sky

      Onto poets, musicians and artists

      In reverent and sacred free-fall.

      My eyes overflowing

      With moon, stars, and sky

      And wrapped

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