WOW! Really surprised by a piece of mail yesterday…letter from DOWNHOME Magazine (Newfoundland) with $500.00 in coupons. Seems I won the ”Submission of the Year for 2021” as voted by their readers for my poem “The Travel Coach” which was printed in the February 2021 edition. I was happy when they published it but much more so now, also humbled and grateful to those who voted for me; I didn’t even know I was being considered. I have been a subscriber of this great little magazine since it started many years ago, keeps me in touch with my roots. I will have fun spending this windfall with the help of my family; there are some very nice things which you can see for yourself by visiting their website shopDOWNHOME.com . Also while you’re there you may like to check out my book “UP IN THE BOTTOM…" A Newfoundlander’s Life Journey”. If you don’t already have a copy, it’s in the autobiography section. Thank you DOWNHOME and a special THANK YOU to your readers!

The Travel Coach

by Noel Edward Martin

March 20, 2020

The travel coach that is my life, the one I do not drive,

Records only the time one leaves, but not when you arrive,

Some passengers I started with, got off along the route,

Many departures I have mourned, when friend or kin got out,

Others stepped on from time to time, the bus was always full,

Newcomers were a treat to see, the ride was never dull.

The ones I came to know the best, sat nearest to my seat,

While others sitting further back, I rarely chanced to meet,

Close by, or far, there was not one, but had a part to play,

Each making my ride more interesting, all along the way,

Your company was valued and I want you all to know,

How much that I will miss you, when it is my turn to go.

I’m sorry if at certain times, I've been a little curt,

Please understand ’twas not my aim to cause you any hurt,

I understand if you, yourself, have sometimes been the same,

It’s, part of being human, I release you from all blame,

Take time to rest, some time to talk, and time to read a book,

There’s a window there beside you, be sure to take a look.

Seems the Driver has chosen, to keep me a while more,

So let’s enjoy the ride that’s left, ere we step out the door!

Some advice to new arrivals surrounding us these days,

Get to know your fellow man, is a policy that pays,

So if you can turn off that bloody phone I ask please do,

Because some lonely passenger would love to talk to you.

Doesn’t matter what you’re wearing, the colour of your skin

How much money in your purse, the social group you’re in,

Or how you choose to worship God; be nice to one another,

Look kindly on your fellow man; treat each one as your brother,

We ride this bus together, when your stop will be, can’t tell,

Be happy and trust the Driver, have faith that all is well!

UP IN THE BOTTOM...A Newfoundlander's Life Journey
by Noel Edward Martin
available on line from  newpressbooks.com

UP IN THE BOTTOM ... A Newfoundlander's Life Journey

I am so happy to announce the second printing of my book UP IN THE BOTTOM...A Newfoundlander's Life Journey is now available.

Hard at work writing my memoirs

Description:

A humorous autobiography of a native Newfoundlander growing up in Lewisporte during the 1950's.  The legacy of your childhood follows you through your life.

From small town life in pre-confederation Newfoundland to the largest city in twenty-first century Canada and beyond…one human beings’ true life journey is a series of adventures that will enchant and enthral. With scores of short stories linked together by a common thread weaving its way to a very satisfying conclusion, it is virtually Impossible to put down. Filled with side-splitting humour, heart-breaking sadness, hope, inspiration and much more; if ever a book proved you don’t have to be famous to lead an interesting and worthwhile life, it is this one. Truth truly is stranger than fiction…and a lot more fun; if one could compare a memoir to a meal this one could be classified a gourmets banquet!

To purchase on-line follow the instructions under SHOP or NEW ARRIVALS when you go to: newpressbooks.com

If you were in Lewisporte, Newfoundland, in the late forties and wanted to look our family up you would have to follow Noseworthy Street from Main Street to the end and across the narrow gauge railway track through the open gateway. There you would find yourself on the foot-worn pathway that led between my Grandfather Richard’s and my Uncle Herb’s houses.  To the right is the woodshed my grandfather and uncle shared and to the left is our well which was used by us all; it has the best tasting water in all of Newfoundland! The little house fifty-one giant steps ahead is, for me, where it all started.

Reviews:

Noel Martin has succeeded in achieving one of the goals of memoir; he reveals a way of life and experiences that are unique, significant and intriguing, while at the same time evoking a sense of camaraderie and fellow feeling in the reader. A charming, thoughtful and very readable tale.

Terry Burns

Author, the quality of light and Twelve Days: A Bestiary

2013-2015 Owen Sound Poet Laureate
Past Artistic Director & Coordinator of the Words Aloud Festival


WOW...WOW...WOW.  I honestly couldn't put it down.  The book is in my honest view a best seller on any book store shelf.  It is professional in every aspect - content, organization, structure, excitement, suspense, sincerity, humour, extremes of happiness and sadness sensitivity surprises, emotion...I could go on and on.   Even the covers (front and back) were especially appropriate and attention grabbing.  It has that distinctive grab me' look.  To me it goes well beyond being an autobiography, but full of life lessons that any family could learn from.

Harvey Layden
Ottawa 

DIGGING THROUGH OUR ARTISTIC ARCHIVES.....

Carol-Ann was going through our archives and stumbled upon the following; we had completely forgotten this one. This is a photograph of a 4foot X 8 foot plywood hoarding designed and painted by Carol-Ann and myself in 2004. It was one of many done by the Meaford Creative Arts Association, of which we were members, and used in 2004/2005 during the reconstruction of Meaford Hall. Activities depicted in the picture reflect some of the things Meaford, Ontario is best known for. Not sure, but I think these hoardings were sold in auction afterwards - wondering if any still exist.

Ted Horton poem

Here is another poem I wrote to recognize a well known and well liked lawyer here in Owen Sound. It was to be read to him at a public function here but I did not finish it. I just came across it in my files and though that since the thread of a good idea was there I should polish it up.I have never met Mr. Horton but I have spoken to him over the phone when he purchased one of my paintings.  

Ted Horton   

by Noel E. Martin

 

If a monicker like Ted Horton,                

Should set you all to snorting’,              

"Sounds like a hockey player to me,     

Purveyor of donuts, coffee and tea,”   

Well you'd be wrong about that,            

'Cause he's not that kind of cat,            

He's a gentleman, a lawyer, Q.C.        

 

And though you may think this is funny, 

Gives his time and his money                 

To others less fortunate than he,             

A more generous type there can’t be,    

Not a “sugar and spice” guy,                   

But genuinely nice guy,                           

Possessing a heart as big as the sea.    

 

I bet when he departs from this life,          

Sorrow will cut like a knife,                        

And his final reward if you please,           

Will send Old Lucifer down on his knees,

“Its bad news I’ve been given,                    

First attorney in heaven,                             

And the _______* is waiving his fees!”  

*Help compose this poem by inserting your 

choice of descriptive adjective/s here.

 R.P. - A  HERO’S BIOGRAPHY

The following took place twenty years ago when I was still working, at that time as a Q A Manager at FACELLE, the tissue paper company. Over the years of working there because of my ability to draw and flair for writing I was often asked to do miscellaneous odd jobs that were not really a part of my regular routine. I always complied, regardless of who was doing the asking. Many times the requests entailed humour, practical jokes, a retirement or out of plant transfer of someone well known and well liked, et cetera. But not always. 

This particular incident occurred when one of our employees hit upon the idea of creating a safety mascot for the Roll Product Department where he worked. Right up my alley! I very quickly came up with a cartoon character based on a roll of toilet paper whom we christened R.P. (short for Roll Product). The plan was to feature a new cartoon of R.P. monthly doing something related to our plant safety program. Each cartoon would be printed on good quality art board and hung somewhere in the manufacturing area to help keep all our associates aware of important safety issues. Nothing had higher priority than safety!

As it happens FACELLE was undergoing major changes at the time. Our plant had been bought out by another concern and they were in the process of “shaking up” the current management. By shaking up I mean they were offering generous retirement packages to older managers, if you were older than 55 you got an offer for sure. Age-wise I wasn’t quite there yet…but I was close enough to be hopeful.

We managed to have two cartoons hanging before I was finally offered the golden handshake I was looking for and which I accepted immediately. Shortly afterwards I received a request for a third cartoon by e:mail from the safety coordinator who was unaware of my decision to move on. A copy of my reply (which speaks volumes about the mood I was in at the time) follows along with one of the R.P. cartoons.

MY RESPONSE MEMO

Re your request for another R.P. cartoon.

It is with deepest regrets I must inform you that R.P. has quietly passed on. His demise, coincidentally, came shortly after I was offered an early retirement package (I will be leaving at the end of January). He lived a brief but happy life and we shouldn’t feel sad.

R.P. went the way of all good quality bathroom tissue, one sheet at a time. Although safety was always his main goal in life, it was one simple misstep that caused his downfall.

Concerned as always with the safety of his fellow workers, he was investigating a wet washroom floor safety issue when some unthinking coworker in an obvious act of desperation slipped a hand out from under an adjacent stall. The evidence suggests that he was then grabbed and overpowered, and skinned alive, so to speak. Once the outer layers were removed he was no longer recognizable, nor was he able to call for help. As the day wore own others similarly abused him, and probably totally unaware on who he was, flushed him, a piece at a time, down the john.

“Flushed with victory” we like to think, for although as humans we might considering this way to be undignified, to R.P. it meant he went the way he was intended to go, his raison d’être,  his ultimate purpose for being. His brief term as a safety mascot was, I am sure, nothing more than icing in the cake.

We found him at shift change the next day. His skeleton, the bare core of his being, was still hanging from a roll dispenser on the wall. The remains were identified immediately for, true to his unselfish nature, our little hero had used his final few minutes of life to write these last words on the inside of his own core, next to his little, (yet gargantuan) heart.

He must have been choking back tears as he wrote:

“Always remember to work safely…nothing we do is worth getting hurt! My love to you all…R.P.

Sorry R.P. can do no more, we honour his memory. R.P., R.I.P.

Noel

NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.....

And now for something completely different…my latest work…not to everyone’s taste perhaps, but this a type of work I have been experimenting with all my life. 

A departure from the realism and more traditional oil painting I have been doing in recent years, this is something I have enjoyed since I was old enough to pick up a pencil. This work cannot be called an oil painting because it is done using Triplus  Fine liner coloured pens, and the substrate is high quality acid free art paper, not canvas. Each of the individual little drawings is actually a doodle that I have done while sitting listening to music, “watching” television or just simply meditating.  They are done free hand and with no conscious intent, at least in the beginning, to draw anything other than squiggles and lines, etc.  As each drawing progresses, certain shapes are suggested and it is only then that I intentionally add some details to embellish the doodle and it begins to look like it is actually meant to be something…but what is it?

Doodling is probably the most purely creative work you can do because you are truly creating something that has never been seen before, anywhere in the universe,... not even in your imagination. It is what I would call a spontaneous creation.  It comes from the sub-conscious.  Doodling should, however, not be confused with sketching from memory.  To start drawing a few lines and end up with a sketch of a cup and saucer or a landscape is not, to my way of thinking, a true doodle.

Unlike other forms of art, there is absolutely no copying, tracing, nor borrowing of ideas from others.  It is original as you can get. In this case, the organic found in nature framing contrasts and compliments the drawings producing something truly unique that appeals to our artistic nature…art for art’s sake.  I hope you like it!

• Note:  Pens or pencils are best for doodling  because they allow for free and continuous movement.  You dont have to reload as with a brush and paint.