This morning, we headed out late for breakfast, and then rambled the streets of Casco Viejo with the thought of stopping at the ruins beside Plaza Herrera; hubby wanted to investigate the construction of these last vestiges of a time wrapped in fiery legend, for these were the remnants of the city sacked by Captain…
Category: travel
Sunrise at the Crossroads of the Americas
.. looks pearly and gorgeous. Our hotel faces Plaza de Santa Ana, a lovely little park where even now the birds are thronging the treetops. They have their work cut out if they intend to match the humans who clamoured all through the night. We are in the heart of Casco Viejo, the old town…
The Wild Keeps Quiet
Ducks write lines in water beaver testify all along shores Lakes like fingertips pressed into the living world for memory beyond our grasp And we wonder what they talked about, our ancestors, if We share tales of them all through trails pockmarked by horses, deer, dogs humans at leisure on foot and bike On our…
Reading the Writing World
I love my career as a writer. There is so much more to it than just sitting down somewhere and writing a poem, a story, a song. There’s a world of research behind the actual creative bits. Some of it is heavy, but a lot of it is joyous. Right now? I’m listening to some…
Makushin Readings: From Russia with Love (of Books)
In May, it was my distinct pleasure to attend (via Zoom) the 12th annual Makushin Readings in Novo Sibirsk/Tomsk, Russia. Recently, the presentation was posted on Youtube. Many thanks to my friend Svetlana Pavlenko for arranging this opportunity.
To Russia, with Love (of Books)
Well, today has opened with an amazing experience. I presented a talk at The Makushin Readings. http://www.spsl.nsc.ru/ Our topic: What is the role of Books as carriers of culture in our globalized, digital world? To summarize my answer: Books set down the limits of the known, and point at the possible. As well, by what…
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…
Camino Edmonton Day 5:Implicated
It is not complicated: one foot and then another, swing along find your pace, and good companions under bright sun, the stories unravel each turn in the path reminding one then another of us of some song some place, and the way the world lies river, cradled ever more gently sweeps toward her namesake land…
Camino Edmonton Day 4: depths
In their black in dark hours, grandmothers crawl up the Way of the Cross, proclaiming by this deed, the immutable glory to come above Ajijic, knees raw, backs craggy, grandmothers and mountains bathe in Easter sunrise. Where the body shivers and aches, the spirit must step in. Where language and history differ, there too, spirit….
Camino Edmonton Day 3: the long curve (Solstice)
we trace the long curve rise and fall, shuffle uphill praising kinesiology painkillers, gumption who owns these ways? those teenage magpies underwear unpreened who try out strut and the sharpening of beaks perhaps broad poplars blanketing june in white cotton of tomorrow’s promise or the new comer family renting first bikes, unsure about english signage…
Camino Edmonton Day 2: Crossing
whitemud winds down brown and peaty, and on the boardwalk through willow breaks squirrel on a handrail, happy to eat offerings but quick to leap away – there is a line. below fort edmonton, in the forest, we discuss old names, dark histories how to teach and learn past potholes slippery with falling how to…
June 19, Camino Edmonton Day 1: Soft
Today was the first day of the Camino Edmonton, a light-hearted 5-day walk through our river valley via the network of pedestrian and multi-use trails available. I’m writing more indepth about it for a forthcoming magazine article, but thought I’d endeavour to capture each day in a poem. Day 1: Soft sand underfoot cleft between…
Prairiepomes 