The Birch Clump Portfolio
&
Johnson's Illustrations
The third volume in a series by Brother Joshua Seidl, SSP. Soon to be published.
The BC Portfolio

← "A book about dem der Yoopers, eh."

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Part One Publication Progress.
& a couple drawings and photos by the author.

This is part two: About the book and illustrations

Birch Clump Portfolio

About the upcoming book

     A publication date has not been set, but we hope it will be available before June 2010.
     The Birch Clump Portfolio is a collection of poems and short stories Joshua Seidl worked on since about the year 1997 through 2009. The bulk of the book consists of short stories of the Northern Great Lakes Region, namely Michigan and Wisconsin.
     The poem, Waabanong Run honors the Anishinabe run from Bear River near Lake Superior through Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia and eventually to Washington DC as a prayer for a favorable outcome on treaty rights. An Eagle followed the runners the entire distance. That took place in November and December 1998.
     Frith is an honoring poem for my little sister.

Short Stories

     There are a few Jason stories, a diminutive Métis teenager of the later half of the 1960’s. His family is from the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) and his later childhood is spent in suburban Detroit. He is likable and reasonably well mannered, goofs up some and sees himself as quite misunderstood at times. Jason’s meanderings that get’s him in jams reminds me of a book my congregation, the Society of St. Paul, put out, God Must Be a Teen by James Penrice subtitled No One Understand Him either.

     His Grand and Great Grandmothers, Helga and Ria dote on him in the comical little story, Tea. He, in like manner, knows how to cater to them and discreetly cover up their modest little indiscretions.
     His early endeavors to court girls comically go awry when he tries two timing. He is coerced into a fight for Linda’s honor. He loses the fight, but retains her loyalty.
     Paul, in Like a Dog, hails from around White Fish Bay in the U.P. and looked for employment in metro Detroit after recovering from drinking problems. His observations of the staff of losers at his first office job pokes fun at ill-conceived government job programs.
     The Fugitive, is a murder mystery; so well cloaked that murder is never mentioned.
     Stillness honors our veterans and is a tribute to fond memories, the trials, and more importantly, the love between a single father and his son.

     Some stories are about the Village of Birch Clump that was brought out as the central point of my first two novels, Hawk Dancer and Cloudburst. Other stories are not directly connected with the village, though a number of the characters have knowledge of Birch Clump or has been associated with other characters from those novels, or might only have passed through at fifty to sixty miles per hour leaving it not much more than a blink of an eye if they knew the name of the place or not.

About the illustrations

Kathy Johnson’s illustrations for the Birch Clump Portfolio brilliantly portray each story or poem.

Winter’s Veil, is dedicated to my God Children:

In the hour of circling swallows,
Grey shadowed deer crossed our paths,
bears sauntered back to their dens.
It was with you I shared these things.


Window Pane, identifies almost anyone’s early morning trance before that first cup of java.

Oats simmering on a gas range
steams the inside of the window pane
and small droplets pull together
forming crooked streams down the glass.


The Fugitive, is a bit darker than most of my stories.

     The moon was not far over the horizon, or where he thought the horizon should be. At night, with distant clouds, this is not clearly defined; but there was a small space between the moon and it's twinkling shaft of light. It crossed the water to where he stood. At one point it resembled a long silky nightgown. That bothered him. He expected a larger than life resurrection to rise out of the water, so he walked on farther.


Frith

She walks the hard packed sandy beach
Profiled in summer's setting sun,
While gulls hover for one last dive
And the sandpiper sings his last.





The Mirror, is for an Elder whose name I never learned.

The gray speckles of a once blacken beard
are not those of a wise and weathered king,
nor the stubble of a trained, royal prince,
but the hairs of an aged, foolish man.
     He tries to erase those hairs from his face,
     but his old electric razor shorts out.
     So in his anger he rips off a bedpost
     to use it against the mirrored image.

Whole or in shards, the mirror tells no lies.
Gray stubble and all, he's just an old fool.
The party is over; the night is gone,
the time of boasting has come to an end.


Cursed, is about a monk on a late evening drive in the country.

Accelerating down quaint country lanes
with Beethoven's ninth on the radio
blasting the Song of Joy for all to hear
is to me, what makes life so worth living.
     To have rubber squeal rounding a curve,
     or swerving to avoid a skunk in the road,
     spawns a quick, adrenaline pumping thrill
     adding to the simple pleasures of life.


Paul, is a young man who is destined for better places.

     People were getting suspicious that Paul was drunk. He never drank that they knew about. Mr. Coffee Spill once asked him about loosening up a bit at the staff parties. He thought it would be funny to get the kid drunk. Paul unabashedly told him that he didn’t drink anymore because he is an alcoholic. “What made you quit?” – “Almost died in a bar fight.” At the time, that was hard to believe. The scar he sported proud and carefree for these women made it believable now. Who would go after an innocent kid like him?
     Look at him, Coffee Spilled On His Tie reflected. His jealousy over the job slot didn’t strip him of any sympathy for the kid. He can’t weigh more than 140 pounds. For someone his size, that’s 20 pounds underweight and 30 or 40 pounds below a healthy average. Mr. Spill was half hoping the kid was drunk and would get fired and half hoping no one would hold it against him on his day off. It wasn’t at all kind, given the kid use to have a serious drinking problem, a disease as he put it. Still, the kid grabbed his job without even applying for it. He only got it because of his looks.

About my poetic style

     My poems are concrete in their delivery, not abstract. They tell a story, how ever short and for the moment. The lay out is disciplined with rhythm and light rhyme; rather comfortable to read for those who love poetry and for those less inclined to poetry. I select a beat measured by a certain number of syllables per line. The number might vary from eight to ten, but what ever number I begin with in generally carried out through the whole poem. There are four lines per paragraph (as I call the minor sections) and three paragraphs (or twelve lines) per major section. A poem will have one or more major sections.

Other Birch Clump Books
in the works

     Our Fourth Book, which doesn’t have a title yet, but we affectionately refer to it as the Road Kill Café is an idea dreamed up by Kathy Johnson. Our Birch Clump Book Series team, made up of Charlie Browne the editor, Kathy the illustrator and Joshua Seidl the author, met at the real life Time Out Café on the main drag in downtown Washburn, Wisconsin. They have a menu item called Road Kill Stew. (This is for real.)
     Johnson asked me if I would write another book of short stories about some of our favorite characters. She said she wanted to know more about Katrina Schuller-Fern, Flo (Thompson) Phelan, her son Dean, and others such as Trudy, Randy, John, Jacob, Job and Hazel. A number of readers have emailed or written to me expressing an interest in some of the characters also. So I agreed to write up a fourth book for what we are now calling the Birch Clump Series.
     I have a handful of stories already for that book and several draft outlines and notes for more to come. No publication date is in sight for the 4th in the series, so keep tuned into this web site or write and let me know if you want to be kept informed of our progress.
     Click: Amos, to get a glimps of one of the characters introduced in the 3rd book and who will be treated more at length in the 4th book.


Photo inspiring the poem, "Snakes in the Out House."

Part One

Page one of this introduction to The Birch Clump Portfolio