Wonder

A Golden Shovel Poem after L.M. Montgomery’s “The Gable Window”

Curtains fluttering in summer breezes framed it,
that long-ago portal of dreams that opened
on prairie horizons. I sat beside it, on
lazy afternoons and starlit nights, envisioning a
path out and away to all the corners of a wide world
of possibility. And now, miles and years away, I dream of
that distant window and its horizons of wonder.

Imagine a World

Imagine a world
where red roads wind
through whispering fields
and along the azure sigh of the sea.

Imagine a world 
where cherry blossoms birth marble halls,
white things flit in a Haunted Wood,
and dryads laugh beside the spring.

Imagine a world
of broken slates,
mice perishing in pudding sauce,
ridgepole dares 
and forgotten flour in cakes.

Imagine a world 
where Octobers are blessings in themselves,
tomorrows are always free of mistakes,
and bends in roads abound.

Imagine a world of hopes 
and dreams
and home.

Imagine yourself
in the world of Green Gables,
among kindred spirits,
and you’ll never be alone.

Winter Forest

“I had a vision of woodland solitudes of snow, arcades picked out in pearl and silver ...”
—L.M. Montgomery, “The Woods in Winter”

I stand at forest’s edge in crisp moonlight
where arches trimmed in pearl and silver gleam.
Their mystery and magic beckon me
despite the chill of this black winter night,
and I elect the path beneath the dream
they weave of stars and glinting snow and tree.
It is a mystic realm where time stands still,
where branches, frost, and moon together seem
a great cathedral dome in filigree,
where searching souls find peace and each heart will
be free.

Valancy’s October

“Never had she imagined anything so splendid. A great, tinted peace.”
—The Blue Castle, Chapter XXXI, by L.M. Montgomery  

crisp blue skies
clouds’ shadows race
rivers of colours and dreams
stormy winds swirl autumn’s palette
paint October moods
great tinted peace

Moonlight’s Rightful Home

A Golden Shovel Poem after The Blue Castle, Chapter XX, by L.M. Montgomery

Moonlight has slipped into her orbit, though she
does not yet know her rightful name. It was
providence, destiny, all some unfathomable part
of the ebb and flow of the tides, the turning of
pages in a story she didn’t know she wrote, a
stone in the foundation of her dreams. A comet
of freedom carried her along, rushing
her towards independence and home, gloriously
building her Blue Castle through
choices, at last, of her own. And on the
solitary road, out of gas on the night
of the dance, she feels the first realization of
love, of Moonlight’s rightful home in space.

Fireshine and Shadow

Inspired by Anne of Green Gables, Chapter XXX, by L.M. Montgomery

One builds her castles in the air
beside the glowing embers’ light.
The other watches from her chair
with tenderness of heart alight
as dull dusk fades and blurs to night.
This girl is hers because of chance,
and love shines through her fading sight
as fireshine and shadow dance.

Bio: Julie A. Sellers is the author of the novel Ann of Sunflower Lane (Meadowlark Press, 2022), a Kansas National Education Association’s Reading Circle Commission Recommended Title and a 2023 High Plains Book Award Finalist, and of Kindred Verse: Poems Inspired by Anne of Green Gables (Blue Cedar Press, 2021). She was the Kansas Authors Club’s Prose Writer of the Year (2020, 2022, 2023) and the Kansas Voices Contest Overall Winner in Poetry (2022) and Prose (2017, 2019, 2024). Julie’s creative prose and poetry have appeared in publications such as Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies, Kansas City Voices, Flint Hills Review, 105 Meadowlark Reader, Cagibi, Wanderlust, The Very Edge, Unlost, and Kansas Time + Place. She is Professor and Chair of the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Benedictine College.

Banner image: A life-sized bronze statue of L.M. Montgomery entitled A Glimpse of Beauty in Montgomery Park in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island. Conceptual Design by Grace Curtis. Sculpture and Casting by Nathan Scott. Photo by Julie A. Sellers.