A Most Beautiful Space on Earth by April Jones

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Wine and Niagara Falls. Photo courtesy of The Classical Association of the Middle West and South 2017

Niagara Falls to me is home, but so much more than just home.

In my time here, I’ve come to adore it like the comfort of an old childhood blanket, yet with the wonder and enthusiasm of a new love at same time.

When I walk down Queen Street in my silent reverie, I relish in its quaintness and the beautiful architecture of new memories, mixed with memories past.

As I drink in the warm rays of the sun through my skin so present to the miraculousness of all this city has to offer, I recognize that everything here has a special sort of charm.

From the way the curb wraps upward on River Road to the gorgeous endearing character homes to the old bridge on Queen with it’s wonderous, wild overgrowth.

And nothing more awing than the immensity of the gorge with it’s swirling, playful, mesmerizing currents of every sort.

Therapy and serenity live here for me and from what I observe, many others.

Not to mention a timeless sense of community.

Imagine a place where anyone can sit at a beautifully crafted instrument and engage in their own masterful creation outdoors.

Where you can experience culinary delights of every taste and culture.

Ride or walk along one of the wonders of the world and sip wine so thoughtfully created by those dedicated to producing something enjoyed by so many from wine to icewine to jams and jellies.

Festivals and faces of every sort of interesting.

The future, full of any possibility, for me remains the present as in my mind there is an almost indescribable perfection in what is exists as now.

When I stand in my silent reverie overlooking the river while the water sparkles and dances to a natural silent melody, I know I am home, but not just home, somewhere that is so much more than just home to me and I believe so many more.

Source: April Jones, 2019

A Most Beautiful Space on Earth was originally an entry in the 2019 Niagara Falls Writer’s Festival Poetry Contest. The contest was cancelled.

April Jones is a real estate agent as well as being employed with a winery, which she feel allows for her to engage in two passions of hers, and wine is obviously something this region is well known for as well as by trade, which to her is creative and fascinating. Jones loves anything creative from reading to writing to visual art of most any media. She moved to Niagara three years prior with my three children from Toronto and fell in love with the region instantly, and she feels like her love affair with it has only deepened and will continue to. She is grateful to share her experience of a place almost indescribable to her.

Niagara Falls Writer’s Festival Update

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Andrew Porteus reads a poem from his book Niagara Mornings at the 2016 Niagara Falls Writer’s Festival

The Niagara Falls Writer’s Festival is happening this Saturday, October 19, at three of the Niagara Falls Public Library Branches.  Niagara Now wrote an article about it – Niagara Falls Writer’s Festival gets help from some NOTLersThe program can be accessed through this link.

The Screaming Tunnels by Amanda Tulk

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The Screaming Tunnel. Photo by Cathy Simpson. Courtesy of Niagara Falls Public Library

Legend says her clothes were burning bright
As she ran in the flames into the ebony night
Screaming for the heat to subside
Awakening the neighbors they couldn’t believe their eyes
For that scared little girl, years later they did cry
Many years later
The screams still heard
Some say the legend is absurd
Legend has it
When you strike a match
Blood drips from the walls
Her screams and cries from the darkness they hatch
The terror and shrill in the memories of her blazing voice
To go down there for the experience is your own critical choice

Source: Tulk, Amanda.  Can You Hear It? : Poetry by Amanda Tulk.  Niagara Falls, Ont. : Grey Borders Books, 2013

Click here to see a newspaper article about the Screaming Tunnel

Niagara Falls, NY by C.D. Onofrio

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Aerial view showing Niagara Falls, NY on the left, with refineries lining the Niagara River. Photo by Andrew Porteus, 2004

All the restaurants are named Betty’s
The water is turquoise blue, deep and cool

Niagara Falls, NY

Driving towards the falls on the scenic Parkway
The scene on the left is deep turquoise blue
Unlike water anywhere else in the world
A river as wide as a lake, forests of trees
The scene to the right is chemical factories
And rusted warehouses, and inlets or outlets of water
That sit sick in the stomach of history
Billboards saying mesothelioma
Clinging from Buffalo
To the boarded up windows
That line Niagara St.
And welcome you into
What used to be
A wonder of the world

Source: The author, June 2018

Niagara Falls by James Reaney

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James Reaney

When the bridegroom
Reaches the room
With breath bated
He approaches
The moment long awaited.
He takes off his loud cravat
And his shirt and his hat,
His trousers and his shoes,
And his undershirt and drawers.
Naked, as from his mother,
He attempts with another
To return to that sweet night of the womb.

Source:  James Reaney.  The Red Heart.  Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1949