In Hiding

Mary Weymark Goss

6 X 9 inches, 60 pages
14 b&w illustrations

THERE'S MORE TO A COUNTRY MOUSEWIFE than you might guess. As an artist at the edge of the wilds, Mary Weymark Goss invites us to see the paradoxical influences of the northern environment—the confinement of the forests, the vibrancy of their colours, their effect on the mind and imagination. It is not a romantic view; it is real, especially in its implied threat of disillusion and aberration. And in the human rituals that sustain rural dwellers—like a let-loose party evening in September as teased out in Night Egressions

A painter and illustrator, Mary Weymark Goss provides her own illustrations for this book.

You may spend all your time in the city
Maybe you think I don't know you're alive
But I've seen your face staring from your car
As you cruise by on your Sunday drive

You slow down as you come to the corner
You check out the house and the willow screen
You spot me working down in the gardens
Hiding in the weeds and ready to fly

Don't you get me confused with some others
I'm not lost—I never asked to be found
By day look for me in woods, fields and stream
By night I'm safe underground

Now, you might think that you recognize me
There's an odd, awed look in your eyes
You know I have mystery and I have charm
I'm a country mousewife in disguise