Here’s a terrific poem to close out the fall season and welcome in the wind and snow, composed by CC Canada’s Poet Laureate, John Hoben. Born and raised in Musgrave Harbour, a small fishing community located on the North East Coast of Newfoundland, John is currently a PhD Candidate in Education at Memorial University in St. John’s. At Close of Autumn (for Li Po) is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence.

John comes to us with a long list of achievements and accolades, including a first-place finish in the 2005 Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Competition (Poetry, Senior Division). Check out his previously blogged poem Salmon Falls here. And believe me when I say he is just getting started!

At Close of Autumn (for Li Po)
By John Hoben

At close of autumn
winter comes with
furtive steps,

walking softly on
ancient feet;

Evening settles into
my ice ringed cup,

as, with pursed lips,
I close my eyes,

and with
soft held breath,

slowly drink.

Odd Job Jack chronicles the on-the-job misadventures of the perpetually unemployed Jack Ryder, a 25-year old Sociology grad whose higher learning has gotten him nowhere but in debt. In each original episode, Jack (voiced by Don McKellar) returns to Odd Jobs Unlimited and is assigned a new position. From corpse-in-a-terrorist-drill, to royal time-keeper, to king crab fisherman, there is simply no job too odd for this working-class stiff.

Master flash files and bitmaps of every piece of art used in this season of Odd Job Jack are free to hack, use, remix under a share-friendly Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Licence. Characters, props, and backgrounds from every episode plus tutorials and other support material. Made in Canada!