First published in 2017; tis the season to repost. Joy in the Journey* is one of the themes of Advent, which is a central part of the Catholic religion, to which my mom was faithful. For me, that thought always takes me back to a dark country road, under a green and white blanket, under…
Category: spiritual seasonal
On American Thanksgiving Day
As an Indigenous person (albeit in Canada, where we celebrate Thanksgiving in October), I hold that holiday to be an occasion of potentiality. I consider, on that day, the vision of my Indigenous ancestors, who welcomed newcomers, taught them to survive, and (contrary to the propaganda) hosted the table and laid the feast, offering of the…
At First Light
Here’s Toronto’s Exultate Choir performing a morning meditation of mine, set for choir by Mari Alice Conrad. Her setting received the Stephen Chatman Award for student composition this spring at Podium, Canada’s national choral symposium, when this video was recorded. Here’s the original post of At First Light, which I wrote in May 2020 as…
April 14: Maundy Song
Mandatum novum do vobis said the Lord, the Romans say And Empire got so cosy as to make vernacular shorthand, Maundy, a nickname for the sacramental solemnity before the Sacrifice, the heart of its religion. What might the Mandatum Novum be today? Love one another still stands a statute all-healing when wielded but let us…
30/30/2022 Day 7: Swans
Have you seen the River Goddess? I have, and She is multifarious in her splendour Her cozzies and woolly toques gliding through Oxford’s cold green April morning water, quietly She gathers her various bodies to briefly wear a swan’s disguise, and then resume domestic duties, jobs and children husbands and the entangled lines of it…
30/30/2022 Day 3: While the Sun
was stretching long ancient arms past all obstructions, to let light bathe His tenderly loved domains, I thought about winter, and a jet winked back at the morning, light skidding from wingtips As birds of other purpose skipped through limbs of elm awakening, then lifted Morning songs and I desired to tend small gardens along…
Day 19: Constant/Transient/Permanent
from the bee wing to the soul comes a thrum, at once low and above the mind line, fine and high, lime-bright tingle of song, shimmer on the lake of attention breath of trees, yellow from the pine arms to the sun a cloud rolls: that’s my love of a season, windborne marked by fragrant…
Day 4: Random Triangle, Liminal Tingle
how do they decide? trees a limb skyward just so, dance geometry of balance with limbs underground we are all of different kinds, greater and lesser, canopy and understory riverine, mountain-calming, back alley priests of the enduring divine, limbs in a tangle, a liminal tingle, their random triangle resonating their lives their own the voice…
Advent Eve Offering
A beautiful poem, written and spoken by beloved peace worker Carolyn Pogue. Galaxy image from pixabay.com
Invitation to the World
Dear friends around the world; the one good thing about launching online is that you can join in, for free, online wherever you’re online. You can order my novel for $20CAD + shipping; you can order all 5 of the novels Stonehouse is launching tomorrow. Or you can just drop in and enjoy – we’ll…
Patio Song
from my patio i watch cranes and/or snow geese rehearse overhead. lower down, sparrows on manoeuvres, the odd chickadee. small engine plane finds its level up there somewhere. it’s all one the song, the sky bright strata. earthbound, i celebrate this spring’s exuberance, building by hand and eye a brickwork patio big enough to lay…
The Grove in the Night
It was night in Kyoto. In a grove on a mountain, in July 1995, as I was preparing to leave Japan, I received one of the great gifts of my life. It began with the Kyoto Connection, an international arts gathering. Over several months, I’d taken the stage at the Connection in various guises: as…
Prairiepomes 