Conscious is a kind of knowing

Midafternoon sleep
brings a lyrical flow of long-stilled limb
and memory of echoing soft
footsteps from dreams;
a fastening of sandals, then
a retreat, with backward glances
as the sun, through a southern window,
kisses my cold eyelids
awake again.

Sleep must have been waiting
to throw its black silk
over my head
before whisking me to an Orient, the Eastern Coast
of that-which-never-was

-      -     -     -     -    -    -    -    -

– thus have I returned,
(not a little touched) from visions that arched my spine
and took my voice away

and changed it.
Is this it?

A wry set of symbols,
documenting the consternation of being
halfway there.

Say It Again, Sam

From the uncompromisingly intelligent Dana at http://reasoningwithdana.tumblr.com/ – boy, have I often wished I had the guts to impart this very frustration to people (read: my ex-boyfriend). I could not resist reblogging. Thank you, Dana.

A girl in need of rain

Now, there is a girl in need of rain
- dirt in her fingernails, spray in her hair,
a basement-creature in wait,
an interminable twitching of clock hands and human feet.
- watching dustmotes
as though trainspotting,
learning Italian at night
and tearing chunks off discounted loaves.

- her windows are unwashed;
tomorrows tend to be hazy, retreating humbly
into the sink-ful of coffeespoons.
- she turns a page, not quite understanding
in the flickering incandescence - the rain
speaks louder than she does, and it is a dim light indeed
which slowly blurs her into the room.

When I didn't

– because 
it was rutted gravel
danger-ish with potholes

and because Mom was
walking
watching behind
my own impatient and 
fore-going figure

and also 
there was a car
(possibly tourists, probably sane)
coming up that road
headlights putting me
the nineteen-year-old kid
on the spot – 

when I didn't,
because of all this
gravel in my shoes, 

give in and
jump-twirl
foot-to-foot jazz-handed flinging joy
across the parking lot,
something in me
cracked.

I hope it will heal with tomorrow's sunrise. 


(Gros Morne, summer 2010)

A few musings on Calvin & Hobbes

The Essential Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another review I just saw (almost totally unrelated ... oh well) reminded me I should give this five stars. I have loved C&H for years. One of my greatest disgusts with generally-sad newspaper comics is that Calvin and Hobbes are not there.


Chronicling the practically endless exploits of fine young Calvin, his stuffed (?!) tiger Hobbes, and occasionally others: Calvin's wartorn parents (especially his fabulously sardonic dad), the ever-sappy neighbourhood kid Susie, and  long-suffering teacher Miss Wormwood. I can't properly describe these comics. Seriously, just go try them. Or retry them. Alternately wry, uproariously funny and heartwarming, they will capture the heart of anyone who's ever had – anyone who's ever been a child. Watterson's illustrations and his dialogues are equally brilliant. There is not one strip that won't have you smiling, at the very least. The very stuff to read when you're at all pressed by negative feelings. Laughter is good for the soul, as hereby proven.


However. One minor cautionary note, potential readers:


Calvin is a freaky kid. Damn realistic, though - nicely caricatured but realistic, hence artistic. Did I mention sadistic? (Apologies.) Reminds me of myself, not too far beyond his age. If he'd owned Barbie dolls, he would totally have played out his unconscious fascination with violence and its emotional ramifications through WWIII pseudo-Holocaust Barbie games.


One of my current book-related sorrows is that I left my copy of this collection at home when I came to university. I just had to pick and choose. This is coming back with me next time I travel home, though.





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A Doll's House - my initial reaction

A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fantastic, awe-inspiring character creation. I want to explore all the nuances of Christine Linde, and Dr. Rank, and Krogstad, and especially Nora. Anyone who essays to interpret this merely as some sort of feminist power-politics commentary is seriously shortchanging themselves, and misusing the play. I'm itching already to reread it, multiple times, as well as to actually see it. (Maybe I'll start with the Christopher Plummer & Julie Harris version, I think it's all on YouTube.)

Yep, I am officially an Ibsen admirer.


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I Write Because (1)

This is an 'experiment' I like to do on my own, as well as with my creative writing group. You come up with different answers every time. It is a continual source of self-discovery. I share these against my better judgement. After all, I have a weird sense of humour. 


- i sometimes have the notion of a green sky and bright orange trees, and it's only right that i should document such phenomena.
- it's my duty. my mother had lost her soul to a minor demon and could only get it back if she promised her first-born child to the services of apollo.
- coffee makes me high, and in that state one can get really entertaining poetry.
- as my pen scrawls i feel like i'm dancing as my feet cannot
- i was seven when i declared i'd be a writer, and nigh-on-thirteen years later my pride has not allowed me to repeal the vow.
- yes, i apparently did make a vow. to whom? i write to find out, hoping that i can catch him peeking over my shoulder.
- it's better (i stubbornly believe) than having a love life
- imagination's the only method i might ever get of having a love life
- i like putting my secrets at risk of discovery when i commit them to paper. a thrill-seeker, me.
- in stubborn denial of reason.
 the sound of scribbles can be grounding. or titillating.
- i am a hypocritical environmentalist. i enjoy working with paper. a lot.
- the soul needs to pour itself somewhere when it gets too unruly to contain.
- i need to feel i have the licence to change everything by twisting my mind into knots and then unraveling them into a golden-thread cat's cradle