The Poetry of James

By James B. Sinclair

The Poetry of James is a collection of eighty poems written by the author with some of them a modification of unpublished poems written by Helen M. Owens, his mother. This book presents the poems in thirteen categories, making it easier for the reader to select poems to read. The index assists the reader to find a specific poem in the collection. Thirteen of the poems are accompanied by images drawn by the author. These represent the authors first attempt to drawing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524696238

James B. Sinclair

The author is ninety years old and started writing poetry in 2012 after a successful careeer as a professor of international plant pathology at the University of Illinois and several years as a docent for the Krannert Art Museum and Spurlock Culture Museum. He has traveled to over forty countries professionally. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin followed by twelve years at Louisiana State University. He has published a memoir, “ My Name Is James ” , written during the same period as the poetry. He taught, conducted research and counseled graduate students for over thirty-five years, He has over 500 professional publications to his credit. This book represents his first attempt to write poetry.

Book preview

The Poetry of

James

by

James B. Sinclair PhD

Emeritus Professor

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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© 2017 James B. Sinclair PhD. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/20/2017

ISBN: 978-1-5246-9624-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-9625-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-9623-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017909324

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Dedication

In memory of my mother

Helen (Thompson Sinclair) Owens

Acknowledgements

The first and most influencial person in my life and to whom just giving thanks is not enough was my mother, Helen M. (Thompson Sinclair) Owens. She received a Certificate In Journalism in 1925 after graduating from high school. She wanted to be a reporter. This was unusual for a woman at the time. However, she fell in love, married and started a family. She continued to practice her skills and published, with bylines, in a varietty of newspapers including the Chicago Tribune. She developed my interest in writing at an early age and I used these skills throughout my scientific and literary careers.

I modified some of my mother’s poems and included them in this collection. I decided to try my hand at creative writing in 2012 after my retirement from a career in science. I registered for noncredit courses in 2013 given at the Oshner Lifelong Learning Center (OLLI) sponsored by the University of Illinois. One course was The Writer’s Café given by Frank Chadwick and another was Writing and Performing Poetry given by John Palen. I registered for each course more than once. As a result I have published a memoir My Name Is James and seven poems. These poems are included in this collection. I thank OLLI and those men and women in the classes who helped develop my potential for these accomplishments.

My mother left a notebook of her unpublished poems. I modified and changed some of them and they are also included in this collection.

Special thanks go to Glen Hartman who helped me use a computer effectively and in preparing the photographs of the drawings.

Preface

This book of poetry is a compilation of poems written during the same period (2012 -2017) as my memoir titled My Name Is James. Some of the poems were published in various journals and some appeared for the first time in my memoir. The innate ability of writing poems was discovered after I retired from a career in science. I was over eighty years old when I began writing both the memoir and the poetry. This year I am now ninety.

I retired from the University