Thrilled to say that the score of Journey Song is now out from Cypress Choral. https://cypresschoral.com/composers/mari-alice-conrad/journey-song/ Here’s the The World Premiere recorded in Toronto by commissioning choir Babel, under the baton of Elaine Choi. I first published a version of Journey Song in my 2009 collection, Fifth World Drum. Since then, I’ve played with it…
Category: tribute
Stars
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…
On the Passing of Elizabeth the Great
She showed the world how to be a woman of worth, of dignity and of steady courage – to be clear, I place her beside and after my mom, my spirit mom and my aunties. They are the personal, she the societal image of what a woman needs to be – strong, grounded, gracious but relentlessly firm.
What a gift to live during her reign. May her soul pass through the Western Door and find its true reward for a life of service and leadership. God Rest Elizabeth the Great.
Hey. Why you going to see the Pope, if you got such a chip on your shoulder, eh? Because this chip on my shoulder has a name. Because of the damned. Because of the rammed. The raped. The beaten. The killed. The blamed for their savage natures, they all had names. Because I remain. Because…
Top Books!
April 29th, I was out with two very special women, who’ve been at my side and had my back since I was 10 years old. How fitting that they were the ones to take me to Chapters South Edmonton for a post-dinner rummage around the literary offerings there. Mark Messier’s memoir was prominently displayed in…
New Essay up at New Trails
https://www.ualberta.ca/newtrail/ideas/dogs-become-us.html Image courtesy of Seaq68 on pixabay.com
Journey Song Arrives!
After a pandemic-induced wait of about 16 months, it’s here! The World Premiere of composer Mari Alice Conrad’s SATB Choir setting of Journey Song, sung here in a live recording in Toronto by commissioning choir Babel, under the baton of Elaine Choi. I first published a version of Journey Song in my 2009 collection, Fifth…
When They Ask, I’ll Say
It’s not our fault you feel bad. You should. We should. It’s dead children. We can all do better now.
Day 22: Crayons and Other Fictions, or Metonymy of Mangoes
Those were the Tang-bright 70s, the Revello days knees grazed, skies so high and hazy with bonfire smoke – Who was that kid? the one who stuck things up his nose and roasted his wieners with the plastic skins still on just to see them shrivel. They were summer people dragged West with grandparents until…
Day 16: Dystopic Diagram
O thou dystopic diagram of shadows wherein we see the frame of us and hunt the breakage. Where wert thou hidden, method and artifact, before she birthed and named you? On the precise edge of language changing from reverent cases and declensions to scientific lists, and as if to mark that cross-road between French élan…
Day 9: His Realm Departed
Singular light of a queen’s eye soldier, tales gone down to oceanic vaults cause whales to turn in the sun for you so they will say, on deck, as they stand in the wind with their eyes well-salted. Creation of empire that thing we do, like bees intricately lacing and stamping and dancing a pattern;…
Day 5: waiting
in the trees, hung from a pine the rope and plank, above the root you kick to push, this same one causes you to tuck your feet up, if you’ve got someone behind you. the wheel rolls back here until time grants traction speak enough of you, no more push against the root, and lift….
Prairiepomes 