Lucile Barker is a Toronto poet, writer and activist who has been writing since she first swiped her grandmother’s Waterman fountain pen and her mother’s lilac ink. The time spent in the corner gave her more opportunity to write. This was augmented by time in the hall and the detention room later. Since 1994, Lucile has been the coordinator of the Joy of Writing, a weekly workshop at the Ralph Thornton Centre. The group now has a Facebook group of almost 150 members, some of whom actually do the assignments. Her poems and stories have appeared at Memewar, Room, Antigonish Review, Rougarou, Literbox, Flashlight Memories, Bat Shat, Snakeskin Review, Hinchas de Poesia, Jet Fuel Review, U.M.ph! Menacing Hedge, Nashwaak Review, and the Danforth Review. With an unlimited supply of postage and chutzpah, there is the possibility that Lucile has the largest collection of rejection slips in the world. There are no plans for an exhibit of these at present, even though this would be a great fundraiser for the community.
Sorceress
By Lucile Barker
The magic child spins in the forest,
hiding in the cobwebs,
sprinkling herself with the sun’s rays.
She knows the spells
of the squirrels and the birds;
she knows where the secret pools lie.
The triangle of oaks is her altar,
and she knows the words the butterflies
write on tree trunks with golden dust,
the music of the milkweed pods on the wind.
She dances with dandelions in the spring,
spreads their seeds with her gentle breath.
The magic child knows the smell of the brook,
the whiteness of her hands under the water.
The bubbles she blows are blue,
they float heavily on the surface.
This is the magic child’s destiny:
To write her name in the sand
with a branch from a crabapple tree;
to lose the magic world when
the wind blows the blossoms into snow.
A beautiful poem that captures the magic of innocence.
Lucy The Sorceress is beautiful! Were you inspired by Cherry Beach? Blessed be Deborah