The Tour Guide

March 6, 2024.Reading time less than 1 minute.

A few years back, I took a fictional writing course. The featured image is an excerpt from my final piece. Clicking on the link should take you to the original for the whole story. Thanks for reading!

Stop War

February 28, 2024.Reading time 2 minutes.

You can’t tell from the photograph, but one woman’s cousin has been missing for 20 days. He is in the military, and all they know is 22 from his regiment are dead. Another’s brother just turned 16. She wants to bring him to Canada before the war makes a statistic out of him, but their […]

Shoo, Pity

February 21, 2024.Reading time less than 1 minute.

February tests us with her gloom. I am tempted to hole away. Feel sorry for myself. Let others feel sorry for me. It’s not sustainable, however. The month is practically through, and pity is more smothering than the greyest winter’s day. I will wander down to the art room and punch a hole in the […]

Trickster

February 14, 2024.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Without resources to deal with the trauma of my youth, I buried it. It would surface again, when as a young mother, I sought for a deeper understanding of life. I searched for the light and found only darkness – the truth of my own victimhood. I did not see how my obsession with healing – the […]

Trauma (tanka)

February 7, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

Took some time to re-evaluate where my energy goes, as my health has been deteriorating lately. The one thing Myalgic Encephalomyelitis teaches is that energy for anything (be it mental, emotional, or physical exertion) is limited. Trying on a stripped back existence in order to reset. That has meant limited screen time. “The idle mind is the devil’s […]

Walls and Boundaries

January 24, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

I wasn’t taught about boundaries as a child, in fact, I was encouraged not to have any. No one said so, specifically, but in the drive to please, I came to this interpretation. Walls, however, grew organically. I remember many a time, curled up on my childhood bed, raging and in tears, repeating over and over: ”I need nothing; […]

Seasonal Defiance

January 22, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

Cast my shadow over white banks/ assert presence: proud, defiant Will find beauty in deserted places / and colour in the monochrome Haunted by a winter state of mind / resolved to stretch despite chill. For Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: illustrate a favourite quote or poem. Of course, I chose a poem of my own: Seasonal Defiance, originally published […]

Words Worthy of Our Attention…

January 18, 2024.Reading time less than 1 minute.

What Lies Ahead

January 17, 2024.Reading time less than 1 minute.

What lies ahead,when pain has clouded the past,and fear is choking the present? Is it possible to glimpse the futurewithout projection, without prejudice;or do we need we need to clear the heartbefore we can be guided by hope?

Dramatic

January 14, 2024.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Outside of the city limits, where trees claim honour as the tallest structures, the sky is always dramatic. No matter my mood, the dramatic contrast of a red cardinal against a tangle of branches always makes me catch my breath. So beautiful. The eldest granddaughter, intent on photo bombing my family shots, helped create this dramatic […]

Expectations

Expectations artificialliving in an urban junglelonging for nature’s calm – time moves too swiftlybarely registerlet alone participate We are guests in our ownexpectation’s dysfunctionlicensed for depression a smorgasbord for abuseintentions mislaid,disappointment unavoidable The ego pretends to be openbut she’s an actress off cueplaying out a sentence – condemned to basicspraying to escapethis dystopian malfunction. (Image […]

Overcast

Water mimics sky,withholds resplendent blue,dons grey overcoat. (Image my own, created from a photograph)

A Mother’s Grief

(Art my own. The drawing and the poem were in response to a documentary featuring a mother’s loss of her child by suicide. Please listen with care.) Sorrow lines her edgesin blue-hued shadowsgrief’s moss overpowering light Lines etched erasableshe is fragmented, hauntedpain a persistent noose She will rally to find orderlend her voice to causespeak […]