Whimsical

...is a nice word. Ariel used it in a comment on my occasional sonnet. It certainly applies to my approach to life. And sometimes there are consequences. And no, I'm not referring to my youtubes, or the time, maybe two years ago, when I decided to cut ringers in a soft summer fallow field with my brother's dune buggy, thinking what impressive patterns I'd leave, only to end up upside down, hanging from the shoulder harness. I'll never live that one down.

No, my latest involves a blog post and some time in the tub. Bathtubs are dreadful. Dreadful. I just can't relate to those who enjoy long soaks with bubbles and books and I shake my head every time I come across a book with tell-tale tub-rippled pages. Anyhow, I crawled in the tub with the Biblioasis post regarding the covers for Shut Up He Explained, John Metcalf's forthcoming book, and all the challenges the post put forth still fresh in mind. Anyone who knows me knows I can't resist a challenge (which is part of the reason I ended up hanging upside down). By the time I crawled out, I had an idea. I then got to work. When I emailed the result to Biblioasis, offering it for just $8.00 (a fun play on the $800 cost of the image he'd referred to in the initial post) and a one-year subscription to CNQ, I hit Send without thinking another thought. I'd tackled a challenge. I'd had my fun. That's what life is about. The next day, much to my surprise and delight, it ended up on the blog. And now look! I'm thrilled.

May Flurries (an occasional poem for today)

So. It's May 24th and it’s snowing
on what little potential for beauty
this garden holds. I doubt beauty, knowing
in my heart that such flurries are routine.

I know what you’re thinking. I know you’ll say
you saw that heart coming. Like any flake
it flutters. Melts on contact. A cliché
is all it is, you'll say. Give me a break.

And I will. Hearts break. Look at my garden,
at Jacob's ladder, at the globeflower's
ice-bound buds. It’s cold. No doubt they'll harden
like I did. Go straight from frozen to sour.

Being sour, I know these buds won’t open,
will never look better. But here’s hoping.

The work-related haiku

...entries have been posted on Bookninja. Oh my!

Update:
May 23 - 4:00 PM. The text forecast from Environment Canada:

Thursday. Snow. Amount 2 to 4 cm. High plus 2.

Nice.

Update:
May 24 - The snow is coming down, melting as it hits. The cat is sleeping in. So here I am. Before I get back to work, I think I'll write an aphorism and try to win a book. There, there.

Update:
May 24 - I just wrote an aphorism and submitted it. I might as well share it with you because I doubt if it will net me a book. Here it is:

Pride is a long ride when you need to P.

Family friendly

...appeal!?? Good grief. I really shouldn't eat while I surf. I read that after I read this. Believe it or not, I was eating asparagus at the time.

On another note, I'm happy to say the thrushes have arrived. The yard is moving with them.


There's nothing like an early morning in the forest, listening to the Hermit, Gray-cheeked and Swainson's songs. One year we watched three Swainson's battle deep in the old growth. The sound was otherworldly. It felt as if we'd fallen into a fantasy. The battle of evermore.

[Forgive me for the last link. I couldn't resist. That song is on the CD I play when I work out. The CD is a long, weird mix of songs, from classic rock to Shakira and Pink. Great for serious post-poem cardio.]

Photo by H.

I really really like

...the personal approach that the publisher Biblioasis has taken with their blog Thirsty: A Biblioasis Miscellany. This week Véhicule Press launched the The Véhicule Press Blog. Going by the initial post, I believe they plan to adopt a similar approach. Hats off to these publishers. Blogging will certainly add to their workload, but I bet the posts on the Biblioasis blog are already paying off. Because of it, I ordered one of their books, a book that I might not have bought otherwise. Cover copy isn't always enough.

Update:
May 19 - Oh my! The Sens move on! Yay! What a game.

Now back to the poem that fell out of my head this morning.

Update:
May 19 - About that poem...

Oh my

...goodness!!! Have you seen "Oh, Canada!", Charles Checketts' drawings of Canadian celebrities in the latest issue of The New Quarterly, Number 102? Hockey fans beware. I just about choked on my tea when I saw the drawing of Don Cherry. Oh my.
But that's nothing, nothing compared to the one of Joni Mitchell.
I can't stop giggling.

Northern Poetry Review

...has posted lots of new content, including Dani Couture's interview with George Murray, an essay by Zach Wells and, I'm happy to say, three poems by me.

And now a northern poet's review of a weekend well spent. As you might have gathered from Friday's video, I spent much of the weekend outside in the forest. As usual, bits of what I'd been reading came to mind as I looked around. I was on page 87 of The God Delusion before I headed out, so it was Dawkins' words that accompanied me on my wanderings. That's what I was thinking about when I saw my first Yellow-rumped Warbler of the year.


That's what I was thinking about when I saw the Spruce Grouse.


But I can assure you that's not what I was thinking about when I saw the bear.


As I watched the bear graze and dig for food, I noticed its ear. It looked like a chocolate cookie. A cookie that someone had nibbled on.

Photos by H.

A nature poet

My very short stay

...on Facebook was eye-opening. I was invited by a writer who knows lots of writers. And those writers know lots of writers. As I clicked around, looking at familiar faces and names, the sheer size of the Canlit community sunk in. Wow. At the time I had just finished my first reading of Ontological Necessities by Priscila Uppal, one of the books on the 2007 Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist. The judges' citation jives perfectly with my response to the book. It both surprised and delighted me. I couldn't put it down. When I finally finished the book, I began to wonder what surprises I'm missing out on. Even though I read everything I can get my hands on and even though Uppal has a number of books under her belt, this is the first time that I've read her work. I thought about that as I looked at the faces on Facebook, many of the faces gracing covers of books that I haven't yet read, books likely containing surprises that I'd like to experience.

Ten, yes

...ten

is

the

number

of

books

that

I

just

ordered...

Ten, yes, ten dollars is what I paid for Sealift, a CD of poems by Zachariah Wells. The layout and design is lovely. Anyhow, tonight I listened to it. Well done. It's nicely arranged. Good sound quality and variation of tone. The readings are strong. It's worth buying for the reading of "A Cargo Handler Howls" alone.

Ok. I promise not to write "ten, yes, ten" ever again.

The past few days

...just blew by. Or was it a plastic bag? I could spend the rest of my life in the trees, removing plastic shopping bags. And maybe I should. Anyhow, here's a partial list of what I've been occupied and preoccupied with over the past few days. I might add to the list as the day goes on.

• I dealt with the pile of email that had accumulated while I was away.
  
  
• I fought with occasional verse. I wrote a sonnet. Actually, it was more of a battle. I struggled with it into the early hours. I struggled with it in my sleep, slept poorly because of it, and continued the struggle early the next morning. However, the sonnet, and my trouble with it, led to a very helpful chat on occasional verse. During that chat, we talked briefly about "On Poems and Occasions," a section on occasional verse in The New Quarterly, issue 100. I mentioned that there was a sentence in the section that had left me feeling incapable of pulling off a decent occasional poem, but I couldn't locate the issue at the time of the chat. Eventually I found it. I thought the sentence was in Amanda Jernigan's essay, but it's from "Grace Notes: Notes and Poems by Peter Sanger," which rounds out the section. It's Sanger's first note: "The defining crux of a poet: whether he or she can write a poem of occasion with conviction and inspiration."
  
  
• I read a consideration of truth and science.
  
  
• I accepted a kind invitation to Facebook. I dipped my toes in for a day, enjoyed its easiness, bathed in all the faces, then pulled the plug.
  
  
• I watched Ottawa win!
  
  
• I worked on a slow growing sequence of poems.
  
  
• I learned that Dawkins will be on The Hour tomorrow night.
  
  
• I read a couple of lengthy, excellent essays in the two issues of Canadian Notes & Queries that showed up while I was away. "Somewhere Below Memory: The Poetry of Don Coles" by David O'Meara (CNQ 70) and "Jabbed With Plenty: Peter Van Toorn and the Canadian Condition" by Zachariah Wells (CNQ 69). The latter was especially engaging as I have Van Toorn's Mountain Tea, a great book, and I've read a number of the sources for the article. Thus I was able to nod, raise my eyebrows and shake my head as I read along.
  
  
• I found a great new song for my cardio workout. Perfect song for a writer.
  

Some might think I'm a tad one-dimensional

...with my constant cupcake this, cupcake that. Heck, sometimes I even think so myself. Thankfully, Tracy has gone out of her way to dispel such notions. By the way, the reason why I'm writing a poem titled "I Cut My Bangs in Cesky Krumlov" is more than apparent in the video.

Update:
May 2 - I should mention that while I did take scissors, I did not take along a computer, camera or any other digital device, so there won't be any photos or videos from the Austria-Czech Republic trip on my blog. Instead I took along a plain Moleskine notebook. My plan for the trip was to write and sketch, and write and sketch I did. I can't believe how many pages I filled. Now to see where it goes.

Update:
May 2 - There's a photo in Tracy's flickr of me waving from the castle. Who could blame me for humming the theme to The Friendly Giant the whole time I was there?