Bones of My Garden

About the Book

The bones of a garden refers to its skeletal structure, the basic organizational form of a garden's plantings and permanent structures. The poems collected here are "the bones" of my life's garden, beginning the faith stories I was raised on and have re-read through the years in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Included also are "the bones" of family. Since I know that all of our children and grandchildren will immediately calculate whether or not they have equal space, I have made certain that each one is the subject of one poem. There are others in my files for my next publication, but for now I am satisfied that no one member of the family has the spotlight. People and nature are prominent themes in this book of poetry that moves through America as I travel. A view across Central Park from East to West spreads the dawn of early morning: "A celestial match/ scrapes its head along concrete ledges/ until golden flames ignite behind black glass." The Oklahoma plains appear as "wind-cleansed land/ sighing between two oceans." People are observed from birth to death: a new-born who "mews like a kitten," and nursing home patients in "rooms occupied by slumping ghosts." A homeless man from somewhere and everywhere "...kneels/ as if in prayer beside one bag/ ripped open with a rusty key" at the same time an apartment tenant chooses colors that "unroll hope into living/ camouflage impermanence/ celebrate spaces/ storing renter's dreams." My wish for the readers of these "bones" is that they will walk in their own gardens of discovery and perhaps enjoy what Anna Quindlen exquisitely defines as the poetic experience: "...the heart coming around the corner and unexpectedly running into the mind."

About the Author

Jane Perdue cannot decide which best describes her present lifestyle: "Have Husband, Will Travel," or "On the Road Again." Her job listings of the past fifty-four years include employment as a child welfare worker for one year between graduating from The University of North Carolina and marriage to her college sweetheart; eighteen years of FULL TIME working at home and raising five children; and twenty-plus years teaching, beginning as a director of a nursery school in Austin, Texas, and ending as a Social Studies teacher in an inner-city high school in El Paso,Texas. Throughout those years, in the early morning hours, she wrote reflective articles and poetry and was published in denominational periodicals. When her husband retired from his final full time pastorate in 1998 (he is an ordained Presbyterian minister), she left the classroom. She planned to spend her days at their home in Canyon Lake, Texas writing, unless she was baby sitting grandchildren. Then her husband decided to continue his ministry with a series of interim assignments. Away with dreams! Jane has continued writing as she has moved with her spouse during the past twelve years to Texas, West Virginia, Tennessee, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma and North Carolina. During this time, she has always found interesting places to write. There have been local libraries, coffee shops on side streets and even a writing table on The Concourse of Rockefeller Center. Such adventures enriched her writing and served as settings for many of her poems. During this "living in the interim," some of Jane's poems have been published in various editions of "Inkwell Echoes," the anthology of the San Antonio Poets Association and in "Voices Along the River,' "The San Antonio Express News" and "The Dreamcatcher."