The Apples in My Orchard

Happy New Year, Poetry Friends!

Yesterday, I had the chance to return to the independent bookstore in Brockport, New York. The village of Brockport sits on the Erie Canal. Currently, the lift bridge that allows boats on the canal to sail under and continue their journey is under renovation. It has been like this for over a year.

I never spent much time in Brockport but grew up in a nearby town, called Hilton. Brockport, Spencerport, and Greece were nearby communities. Greece was the only town besides Hilton where I spent time growing up. Our church was in Greece, so I had “church friends” and school friends.

I decided yesterday that I like Brockport. Of course, it is much more built up than it was in the 1970s and 1980s and boasts stores like Wegmans Supermarkets that weren’t there before.

The bookstore or bookshop as it’s called is only one of two or three independent bookshops I’ve ever been in and it’s I feel it’s a great one. The first floor has new releases, commonly read authors, a children’s area, a local author area, and a game area. Downstairs are used books.

After perusing the first floor and noting some possible purchases, I went downstairs to see if I could find my husband a couple of new reads. He reads much faster than I and has finished three books in the time we’ve been here – just over two weeks.

I’m still reading the book, Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz that I picked up for $1.99 in paperback in the used books section on our last visit. Upstairs, I noted the same book is for sale (new) at $18.95. I got a bargain.

I like bargains and so does my husband; this brought me back to the Lift Bridge Bookshop in Brockport yesterday.

I quickly found Tom Clancy and David Baldacci books that he hadn’t read before. I snatched them up.

If you remember, the last time I visited I bought a locally written poetry anthology and was disappointed. I found I couldn’t relate to any of the poems by the Buffalo authors, despite having lived in Buffalo for ten years.

But, that experience didn’t keep me from the poetry section. I found a compilation by Emily Dickinson, a poet that I told some last week in my comments that I was going to try and read more of this year. At $5.00, another bargain was found, and I bought it.

Back upstairs, my other purchases included two sets of stickers, made locally, and a set of mushroom playing cards (for a gift).

I scoured the Dickinson poetry book for poems about winter and did not find much. Then, I turned to online sources of Dickinson’s public-domain poetry. And found the poem,

There’s a Certain Slant of Light (the bolded type is a clickable link that will take you to the poem online), written in 1861. Due to the odd copyright laws surrounding Dickinson’s work, I cannot share the actual poem. Yes, you can find it online but there are extending copyright circumstances regarding her work that require permissions to share.

However, there’s an analysis of the poem here. I started writing this post fully intending to share a poem of hers.

This poem reflects how I feel in the winter, especially this year. I urge you to read it online.

I’ve set some goals for the new year. They are the following:

1. Finish my novel (started)
2. Work on a 52-week photography project of my own: macro photography (started)
3. Continue Medium postings at least five days a week
4. Prioritize self-care

As always, you can find me on Medium. Here are a couple of recent posts, shared with a friend link that allows you to read for free. (Addendum: I’ve deleted the Medium.com links that I provided yesterday. Apparently, I cannot post friend links to this blog.) You can find me on Medium.com and if there is an article you’d like to read in full, you can send me an email at labcar81@gmail.com with the name of the article and I’ll send you a friend link to open it. I apologize for this inconvenience.

Mary Lee Hahn is hosting the Round-up at A(nother) Year of Reading. Please visit her blog for more poetry and links. She offers a creative conjunction poem that will make you smile! And we all need more smiles! Thanks to her for hosting.

Happy New Year!