smirked

stumped

All images Assiniboine Forest, Winnipeg, MB. December 29, 2011.

* * *

Fresh snow on deer paths. A single squirrel, some birdsong, and an empty parking lot.

(I picked up The Hidden Life of Deer: Lessons from the Natural World by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas at McNally Robinson on the way home. It's about a shortage of acorns...)

How to Keep a Relationship Fresh

“New relationships are exciting and invigorating. How can you keep that spunk and vitality in a long term relationship?” – How to Keep a Relationship Fresh, wikiHow.

The yellowing couples massage manual I picked up
at a garage sale says you should
be able to bring me
to orgasm with your big toe
while we sit across from each other at a table.
I try to imagine your waxen toe working
its way out of its tired salty boot
while we wait for crispy ginger beef, clacking
our chopsticks like beaks
or battered plastic chopsticks: all the soft
creases between thumb & forefinger, all the grateful
but not entirely needy mouths
they have been raised to.

I try to imagine your callused toe
lifting from its dusty sandal some Saturday
morning as we look for
& find pleasure
at the bottom of diner mugs.
It has all somehow been many years
of the same Saturday, our daughter coloring at your elbow,
hoping her pancakes will be poured out
with ears, that the cook at the grill has looked out
& seen her bowed head.

I try to imagine your hairy feet planted
on the lino at your parents’ as I pass the roast
& the potatoes, all of it seasoned
by your resemblance
to your uncle, our daughter’s resemblance
to your mother. The long exhale of these years?
Peppery kisses on my forehead as you go by
but also: small piles
of toenail clippings
forgotten on the bedside table.

Words Aloud vids!

So Words Aloud, the nifty little poetry and spoken word festival in Durham, ON, takes/posts videos from the performances.

In addition to the introduction by comedian/MC Steve Morel, there are three videos of me performing poems from Hump and How to Prepare for Flooding.



And it should go without saying, but it was really REALLY really the most fun I've ever had on stage.

And I can't wait to get up on a stage again somewhere else, though I suspect Words Aloud has ruined me forever...

So lemme know what you think, hmm?

Overheard

Overwintered

Left-over

Melted

All photos Assiniboine Forest, Winnipeg, MB. December 26, 2011.

* * *

We've had very little snow this winter so far. And today, what little snow we'd accumulated started to melt.

After the hoopla of the Xmas season, it was a relief to pull into the parking lot at Assiniboine Forest, except that it was chock full. I suppose it's mean-spirited to resent people for having the same idea you do, but still...

So I cursed but walked anyways, cup of tea in hand.

And even though there were people everywhere, they kept sufficient distance between us to keep me happy. And there were small but distinctly satisfying patches of mushrooms and lichen.

AND I was walking with my friend Ed, an expat Winnipegger who I knew from my student press days. He's now a visual artist living in Montreal.

So, it was warm, we walked and mocked and took pictures. And then it started to hail/rail.

To sum: FOREST+TEA+MUSHROOMS+CHIT-CHAT=FUN!

mailbox mushrooming

So M went to get the paper this morning and came back with an unlabeled jewelry box with a bow on it.

Inside, there was a bubble-wrapped lump. But the bubble wrap parted to reveal a metallic mushroom ornament...

It's the most recognizable of mushrooms, the poisonous Amanita muscaria. Which isn't something I've seen in my forest, but it's a mushroom...and mushrooms make me happy.

I still haven't figured out who stuck it in my mailbox, but it almost doesn't matter. The fact that I know someone that would do something like that makes me stupidly happy.

Which reminds me, given the relative lack of snow this winter, I should go check out the forest. Except the dry summer that preceded this dry winter means that that there weren't any mushrooms to begin with...

Oh! Also: happy goddamn Xmas to my secret admirer! And also the rest of you!

these days

So these days I've been actually writing. Which is not all that eventful, even if it feels just as exciting to me as traveling around with How to Prepare for Flooding or doing residual readings from Hump.

(Hump is almost two years old. Zowie!)

Though I would never give up touring - and people were SO kind this time out, showering me with frogs' legs and assorted cheeses - I hafta admit that writing is my favourite bit.

The rest of the winter is commitment-free. Strictly speaking, I haven't anything scheduled, but really I know exactly where I'll be, most Wednesdays and Fridays and possibly some evenings. In this goddamn chair, trying to make the Edison ms. speak again.

Or, more appropriately for this ms. in particular, trying to see if I can hear it anymore. (Speak up, you!)

Saskatoon: JackPine launch, pt. 2

* * *

After a left-luggage incident that involved my small foolish top hat and some judicious show-and-tell of How to Prepare for Flooding, the Delta Bessborough in Saskatoon sent THIS up with a note that said: "Have a good launch!"

To my mind, there's nothing much wrong with a person that can't be solved with wedges of buttery cheese and a nice sipping red.

Bessborough staff were also kind enough to give us access to their Signature lounge, which kept us in tea and coffee while we whiled away the hour or so between finishing brunch and leaving for the airport on Sunday.