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by Nellie DeVries (Author)
Start in the spring, the quintessential garden season. Travel through summer, fall, winter, noticing changes in the trees, flowers, wildlife behavior, and visitors. Readers find themselves in these moments: sitting on a bench, leaning on a bridge railing, walking on gravel paths as views soften and expand. Look up to see a spider on the knotty pine gazebo ceiling, look out to the tea house beyond, breathe deep the floral scents, and listen. These Japanese-style poems lead readers in simple observation of extraordinary beauty all around the pond at the heart of this garden.
Author Biography
Nellie deVries visited The Richard & Helen DeVos Japanese Garden at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, and composed a poem inspired by the beauty and serenity all around. Soon she was visiting weekly, during every season and weather, gathering poems as she went.
Four of these poems, along with visual art by Nola Nielsen, entitled "Japanese Garden: Four Seasons" was a winner in the WordView: Art Inspiring Art, Lowell Arts juried exhibition in 2022.
Her poems have been published in Peninsula Poets, The 55 Project, Exhale, Heart of Flesh, in anthologies Adam, Eve, & the Riders of the Apocalypse; Michigan Roots; Busy Griefs, Raw Towns, and elsewhere.
