Inspired by her family, 12-year-old Hannah Brine has published a book of poetry in honour of her cousin Eva Markvoort.
Hannah, who is in Grade 6 at École Glenbrook Middle School, began writing poems when she was about seven years old. Before too long, she had amassed a large collection, she said.
But it was a gift from her aunt Janet Brine that motivated her to write a book, Hannah said.
“I had gotten some of (Eva’s) poems from her mom, and I needed a place to put all of mine because they were kind of everywhere,” she added.
Her cousin Eva is well known in New Westminster. She was featured in the award-winning Canadian documentary 65_RedRoses, which chronicled her wait for a double lung transplant. Markvoort, who blogged about her experience with cystic fibrosis under the name 65redroses, died of the disease on March 27, 2010.
Five years later, Janet died of cancer.
Janet and Eva are very much a part of Hannah’s finished work, a book titled 65: A Book of Poems. Money earned through the sale of her book will be donated to Cystic Fibrosis Canada, and some of Eva’s poems have been incorporated into the book.
“She did something really cool,” Hannah’s mother, Stacy said. “(Hannah) took one of Eva’s poems and then she added a couple of stanzas on to it so that it’s sort of done by both of them, which is really sweet.”
Hannah writes about everything from nature and seasons to family and occasions. Anything can be a poem, she said.
“It’s kind of something that just happens. I don’t really have to think a lot about it. It’s just I see something, I like it, I put my thoughts down, make it rhyme, and it’s a poem,” she said.
While Hannah doesn’t have a favourite poem, Stacy does. It’s called Ripples and it’s one of her daughter’s more recent poems.
“Most of her poems rhyme, which I think when you’re really little it’s easy to put them together like that, but there’s a few in there that don’t and for me I like those ones because they seem a little more sophisticated; they seem a little different,” she said about why Ripples is her favourite.
65: A Book of Poemsalso features original artwork by Hannah and two friends, Aimee Lever and Summer Thomas, as well as other family members, friends and students.
The book is available for purchase online at tinyurl.com/BrinePoetry.
