Come Winter
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Category Archives: Poetry
Dead to the World
Sleeping Woman (1935) A beautiful piece of art by Tamara de Lempicka (see link below)
Eyes open.
A thought bubbles to the surface:
“I’m awake.”
Awareness skips
across my consciousness
forcing me to stir.
I resist.
12 Parts of a Summer Day
A cardinal song
is my reveille:
at rising
summer dawn
s/he serenades
me awake with
avian melodies
from a dead
tree. Continue reading
O Canada In Birthday Poetry
O Canada!
A bright red
cardinal sings
Happy Birthday
In morning mist.
Our home and native land
A multicultural mosaic.
Offers refuge.
Kindles hope.
Within and without.
True patriot love in all thy sons
(and daughters)
Command
We do love you
O Canada.
With glowing hearts
We reach out.
Beyond borders.
North, south, east, west,
In worldwide community.
We see thee rise
And sometimes fall,
A country challenged.
Nations disparate
In changing seasons.
The true north
Cold as ice
And twice as nice,
in summer than
in winter.
Strong and free
As we wish.
To be
together
in prosperity.
From far and wide
We are unbound
by shining seas
or 50 states
in a melting pot.
O Canada
A bright red
maple leaf waves
Happy Birthday
in blue skies.
We stand on guard
and lower it sometimes,
lest fear occupy
Too great a space
In our time.
For thee
For peace.
For this earth.
For humanity.
In solidarity.
god keep our land
Those within it.
And without it.
Safe, not sorry,
in security.
Glorious and free
From racism
sexism, consumerism,
and other isms that might
in prison us.
O Canada!
Be all we can be.
Now.
Today, and
in perpetuity.
Related articles
- O Canada – True North Strong & Free (terrycioni.net)
- FLASHBACK: Oh Canada, another birthday: This day in history – July 1, 1967 (sott.net)
- O Canada – Is it inclusive enough for you? (vancouversun.com)
- I drew a map of Canada (lostandfoundbooks.wordpress.com)
- Happy Birthday, Canada! (eemoxam.wordpress.com)
- 71 Reasons to Love Being Canadian Please
- O Canada: LOL rap version
- O Canada Live sung by Sarah McLachlan
White Maggot and Bumblebee Salad
Love bumblebees!
Every Monday morning for the last eight weeks, eight to 10 of us gathered from nine to noon at the Bibliotheque North Hatley Library to write.
Expertly led Carolyn Rowell, who came to the workshops equipped with all kinds of interesting exercises, prompts, thoughts, and ideas to challenge us, we put pens to paper (or fingers to keyboard), then shared the fruits of our labour between ourselves.
I also shared some of my output here (e.g. The Lost and Found, See Me?, Life is Breathtaking, An Endless Prayer, Oh Mom!, Life Breaks My Heart and more in the “Writing”category in the drop down at the bottom left of the page if you’re on the site, if not then skiddadle on over there!)
Life Breaks My Heart
Life Breaks My Heart (Image thanks to GraphicsHunt.com)
Life breaks my heart.
Life breaks my heart.
There it is land-sliding
Down my lover’s shoulders
When we discover his dog:
Dead in the backyard.
Life dissolves my heart.
Life dissolves my heart.
There it is flowing in the river
Of my mother’s tears
Because she can’t go home:
Yet. Continue reading
An Endless Prayer
This is part of an endless series of posts about my experience of Alzheimer’s disease. Some others are: I see you and me. And love. Loving Words at Sunset, Life Breaks My Heart, The Lost and Found, and See me?
Pinkie Patti prays with “her beads” (Spring 2012)
An Endless Prayer
She has fat little fingers now.
Her precious rings don’t fit them anymore.
At night, she counts her rosary:
one bead after another after another after another.
In the day, she sits and strokes the tops of her legs:
up and down up and down up and down.
Her hands, the days and the nights:
soft, gentle tides going in and out in and out in and out on a desert island.
I wonder what she feels as she comforts herself and gazes,
mindless, into the near and far.
She turns to look at me.
“Hi Punkie, I’m so glad you came to see me,” she says.
My heart is in a million pieces.
Post notes
I wrote this poem in this morning’s writing group. The prompt was “Five easy pieces,” a quick warm-up exercise in which we were asked to write five discrete sentences thus:
- describe someone’s hands
- say what they are doing
- add an exotic location
- ask the subject a question
- have them partially answer the question
Tweak if necessary when done and voila!
Related articles
- The Daily Prompt – May 20 (thepoetryquestion.com)
- Prayer for Those Suffering From Alzheimer’s (donnyprevette.wordpress.com)
