In June 2013, the EBSNS launched Echoes of Elizabeth Bishop: The Elizabeth
Bishop Centenary (2011) Writing Competition. The editors have asked a some
of our readers to provide a comment, a personal response, to the collection. We
will post them over the next few weeks. We hope these readers’ responses will tempt
you to buy a copy for your own library. It also makes a wonderful Christmas
gift!
You find out more about Echoes on
the EBSNS website:
You can purchase online at: http://www.elizabethbishopns.org/publications.html
or at Bookmark, on Spring Garden
Road in Halifax,
N.S.
******************************
Response from Robert Bent
The first time I read Echoes
of Elizabeth Bishop I read it just for the enjoyment. I pushed my promise
to write this whatever-it-is into the back of my mind, ignored what prize the
author had won in what category, and just enjoyed each selection. Out of curiosity,
after each story, I turned to the brief biographies at the end of the book. The
thing that struck me was not only the age of the writers, some as young as ten,
but the quality of their writing and the depth of feeling. I knew in my memory
that teenagers could write, for I had been a high school English teacher in a
previous life. But ten! Maybe there’s hope for the world after all.
Rather than write about every selection, I want to comment
on the youngest writers, beginning with Maria Duynisveld’s “Wallace by the
Sea.” Of all the stories in the book, regardless of the age of the author,
Maria’s opening lines are my favourite: “Wallace
by the Sea. That’s what they call it. It fits. The wharf — that’s part of what
fits. The ocean view — that fits too.”
Wallace by the Sea is a beautiful village, and as Maria
describes it, a wonderful place to grow up.
And she nails the ending just as effectively as she nailed the
opening: “There’s something about the
ocean that makes me “me,” and I think it’s something that will last forever.”
It will, Maria. It will.
Lauren Kruisselbrink’s story, “Going Climbing” reminds me of
another little girl I know who also had “a tree” in front of her house where
she would climb “to calm down,” often by reading a book. She grew up to be a
very special lady who had lots of adventures, but not as many as she would have
wished, I’m afraid. I hope Lauren continues “going climbing” in her “tree” and
has as many adventures as her life can hold.
I also know what Lauren’s gonna be. —She’s gonna be — Lauren. And that
will be a treat for everyone who meets her, and reads her stories.
Dakota Jewel Warren’s “Home Sweet Home” revisits the same
themes first encountered in “Wallace by the Sea,” only now it’s Neil’s Harbour.
And she ends with the same sentiment, “I’ll eventually come back one day though
because I can’t live without it.” It’s
true. “Home” calls you back, especially if that “home” has dear hearts, gentle
people, and a trace of salt in the air; even if you only return in your memories
and your dreams. It’s true of Wallace by
the Sea, it’s true of Neil’s Harbour, it’s true of Great
Village, and it’s true of all the
rural towns and villages scattered around Nova Scotia.
I would like to end with a word for Ryan Spencer. Yes, Ryan,
I did enjoy your letter, and I’m sure Elizabeth Bishop would enjoy it too, and
smile to know so few things in Great
Village have
changed. Do you know why your letter was
the last piece in the book? It’s the
same reason you eat dessert last — because after you’ve finished a feast,
that’s the taste that lingers in your mouth.
*****
Robert
Bent lives in Lawrencetown, in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley. He has been previously published
in the Nashwaak Review and All Rights Reserved and a series of
travel/running articles in the Run Nova
Scotia Raconteur. He is currently working on a book of Christmas stories entitled Have
Yourself a Silly Little Christmas along with illustrator Andrea Wood.
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