Declarations On the Power of Time and Place

An antique dealer/bookkeeper, Jeanne DeLarm-Neri, featured reader at tonight's Barnes & Noble's Open Mic, enjoys writing poetry and fiction and has placed two pieces in the Winter 2011 and Winter 2012 editions of Times of Brunswick, published in Greenwich. "DeLarm-A Single Tear or An Elm Tree" was her prize-winning entry in the Winter 2011 "Connecticut Maple Leaf" essay contest.

A graduate of Fairfield University's MFA in Writing program, her occupational delvings into the historical resonance of time and place finds expression through several new projects, such as a series of stories taking place in Stamford, a novel about a small-town girl and a collection of poems inspired by antique photos. Below is a spooky, seasonally appropriate excerpt from her story, "Springdale Haunt": 

“A nice yard, it was, with a twisted apple tree. I climbed that tree, hiding in the leaves. When the Dooneys moved away, the next people smashed off the coal bin attached to the house wall. That made my mother breathe easier, she said. She couldn’t see that coal bin without imagining what happened inside of it.”

Kathi hugged herself, feeling a chill from the trees overhead. “What happened inside? You mean, rats or mice living in there, or something?”

The old man’s eyes shifted away from the conversational link between them, to a place on the driveway, some place in his memory. “We all lived with rats. But that’s not what I mean.” He frowned, caressing his chin with his hand. “It’s a funny thing. One of my earliest memories is of the wailing coming from that kitchen.”

You can email Jeanne at delarmneri@gmail.com.

Hosted by Frank Chambers and PoemAlley's Nick Miele, the Barnes & Noble's Open Mic Poetry program meets the second Monday of each month in the cookbook section on the main floor of the bookstore (located in the Stamford Down Center), beginning at 7:30 p.m.

For more information, contact:

Barnes & Noble

100 Greyrock Place Suite H009

Stamford, CT 06901

203-323-1248