October

-



breathe in the woods
and leave the world behind

something stings, organic blessings
of life turning inward, the slow rapture

that begs you to thrust your hands
deep into the belly of a thousand years

know that you are nothing in such certainty
but falling leaves and dreams

catch yourself worrying about a future
that can never arrive

bury yourself in the sweet decay,
roll about like a child unwed to time

get up and dance with the rules and drama,
spin them off into space

take a bow with your dirty knees
praise the scabs when you were alive

breathe in the what you lost
and shout at the moon that never left you



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dominion of Mercy - The Voice

-
Image
  The world needs strong feminine voices. My mother was a strong woman, as was her mother, my grandmother. As three of my grandparents were from Scotland, it is the only immigrant story that I can tell with some certainty. There my story begins, Edinburgh - 1917, and Mary Stewart, a force of nature, embarks on epic journey that will take all her courage, strength and wit. And the destination, something I know as well. The town of Anyox, British Columbia, the perfect setting. I remember as a boy, my father telling me that his father was sent to Anyox to work in the copper smelter in 1916. Anyox was located on the north coast near the BC/Alaskan border deep down Observatory Inlet. Nothing is left of the town now except an emerging forest and towering stacks from the smelter. I wanted to bring it back to life. That was exciting, to breathe new life into the plank streets. It was a short-lived company town of 3000 residents. A robust community that enjoyed a certain affluence from 1914...
Read more

Understanding the title of my new novel - The Sum of One Man's Pleasure

-
Image
 In my interview with Sheila Pratt, I was asked what The Sum of One Man's Pleasure meant, what informed me to create such a title. As a book title has great weight, and a certain mystery behind it, I wanted something compelling, and provocative. But I found the title in an unlikely spot, in one of Roderick Haig-Brown's celebrated books, A River Never Sleeps. Haig-Brown was a magistrate in Campbell River BC., but more recognized for his books on fishing, and for his views on conservation and environmental protection. His writing was one of my greatest early influences. Haig-Brown wrote eloquently of the rivers he fished, the mood, such as the heavy water of November. The feel of water against his legs, the power of it, the companionship of fellow fishermen, a bright fish, and life along the river. It's smells, and the texture of the woods, the earthy aromas. He called such things fishermen's pleasures. They are sensory pleasures, something the romantic in me can identify...
Read more

The Fuse of Fiction

-
Image
 An idea arises, perhaps from a sketchbook of ideas in your head, yes, snippets of thought, inspiration from an article you read, a television news story, real life experiences that includes your own, historical records, and, of course,  information from the  creative Universe.   So, ideas come from many sources. There is never one way to create a story. It is an intimately personal affair. I can only give one view of it all - from my own writing journey, what I have learned after more than twenty novels. A great catologue, you might think, but only six have been published. The other novels, I can reflect now, are where I learned to write well. I am always open to where the next novel comes from. I ask the Universe for a story, something important, what the world  needs to hear. Sounds a bit self-righteous, I know, but I want my 900 hours of work to be worthwhile, that I learned something important, that it contributes to a better understanding of human end...
Read more