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Join Peter White Public Library in celebrating reading, literature, and the diverse people who make up our home in the Upper Peninsula.

March 28, 2025: Jennifer Elen Brid, "Sap Season"



Sap Season 

In loving memory of Helen Haskell Remien 

by: Jennifer Elen Brid

everything is in a circle 
they said 
roundness of birch trees 
bark thin and curling 
Golden Lake, 
the tires of the bike 
that could have killed 
me on James Lake Road 
across from the sixteen acres where we tapped 
maples for amber elixir, 
stirring, stirring 
in the cook pan sweet steam 
and woodsmoke, a benediction 
in that garage of logs and chipped chinking 
snow-melt streaked 
across the floor 

some March not long ago 
my friend Helen offered me 
a jar of sugar water 
the first of sap gathered 
filled with Faery glee, her 
body thin and curling 

I had forgotten sap’s mellow sweetness 
how it courses through the body 
how it made me feel at one 
with trees 

only the maples knew 
or the Faeries maybe 
that this would be her parting gift 

this woman made of leaves and honey 
body housing nymphs and elves 
wildflowers sprouting 
from her lips 

a song from my childhood 
a verse I had forgotten 

I think 
that spring 
the maples 
wept.




Jennifer Elen Bríd (Jennifer Howell) was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, having lived in Gladstone, Marquette, and the Keweenaw. A musician, English as a Foreign Language teacher, non-traditional wedding celebrant, and eclectic solitary practicing Druid, Jennifer weaves magical surrealism, romance, and intrigue into her writing, exploring the wonders of Creation through these meditations on experience. Jennifer plans to immigrate to France in 2025, and will carry the blessings of the lakes, forests, people, and experiences of the U.P. within her always.  She is a Yooper.

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