From Goose Lake

Hi everyone,

My love for living on a lake remains one of the highlights of each day. When I get up, I walk through the house toward the kitchen for coffee without turning on a switch. That way I see the water in the natural dusky light of predawn.

This is the time of year when the geese seem restless. Many of them disappear during the day only to return to Goose Lake in the evening, issuing loud cries as they circle and glide in for a watery landing.

I know the time is coming when squadrons of geese will take off, one after another, leaving the lake to the ducks. Many of those same birds will return to spend the winter here but something deep within tells them it’s time to migrate so they must go through the motions of leaving.

Many of you know of my e-book of poems and prose about this quiet, lovely little lake. I have dubbed both the lake and the book GOOSE LAKE. The book is available on Barnes & Noble and Amazon for $1.99. GOOSE LAKE was illustrated by Sladjana Vasic and formatted by her husband, Milos.The foreword was written by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong.

I haven’t posted a sample for quite a while so here’s the first one in the collection.

Sometimes skunks cross our yard
when it’s too dark to see black fur.
Their white bands jiggling up and down
seem to glow like skeleton bones
out to trick or treat.

This summer we saw
a mother of seven
doing her best to keep her kids
from wrestling in the street.

I wonder how many
passed their babyhood lessons,
advanced to mischievous youngsters
who may, as I sit here sniffing the air,
be target practicing
at a horrified
neighborhood cat.

— David L. Harrison

GOOSE LAKE is finally an eBook

ANNOUNCEMENT: I thank Robyn Hood Black for posting an interview with me on her splendid blog today. If you’d like to read it and explore Robyn’s place, here’s the link. http://www.robynhoodblack.com/blog.htm?post=828175

BULLETIN: GOOSE LAKE IS NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM and on BARNESANDNOBLE.COM.

Hi everyone,

Announcing the publication of my eBook collection of prose and poetry

GOOSE LAKE

A Year in the Life of a Lake

Poems by David L. Harrison
Illustrations by Sladjana Vasic

Living on a lake has its privileges. I watch the sun come up across the water each morning and look out dozens of times each day to see what’s going on. I’m never disappointed. My endless fascination with life around the lake will be apparent when you read GOOSE LAKE, my first poetry collection published as an eBook.

Sladjana Vasic illustrated the poems beautifully and Milos Vasic did the formatting. My courage to try this comes from the pioneering collections of poetry assembled and edited by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell. Janet mentored me through the steps and she and Sylvia wrote the foreword for the book. My thanks to all!

The book begins . . .

August 4, 1989
Meeting Our Neighbors

As I stooped in my driveway for the morning paper, a delegation of geese hissing like punctured tires flat-footed it toward me across the grass. This was not a social call. My new house squatting on their land beside their lake was an outrage. Indignant to their pinfeathers the geese closed ranks and delivered their ultimatum in a furious chorus.

Bills hard as chisels,
tails aquiver,
necks recoiling like missile launchers
firing off fierce glares
the posse bristles pigeon-toed
to enforce goose law:

Trespassers
will be hissed
until
they learn their lesson.

Over time we humans near the lake have made peace with the geese which, on a busy day, outnumber us twenty to one. Our key concession is to their occasional messy forays into our yards. These Canadians don’t know about their ancestors, those hardy enforcers of goose law that established goose rights in the neighborhood. It’s always hardest for the pioneers. The lake lacks an official name but I call it Goose Lake. It seems fair.

I hope you’ll download a copy of GOOSE LAKE. It’s priced at $3.99 and is available from Barnes & Noble (http://www.barnesandnoble.com ), Amazon (http://www.amazon.com ), and iTunes (http://www.itunes.com ). Formatting is suitable for Nook, Kindle, iPad, and smart phones.

Thanks very much.
David

P.S. I’ve set up an additional e-mail address specifically for correspondence regarding GOOSE LAKE. It’s davidlharrison2-gooselake@yahoo.com . For anything else, please continue contacting me at davidlharrison1@att.net.