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 […]

Words Worthy of Our Attention…

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

War Continues

January 7, 2024.Reading time 2 minutes.

I survived Covid, and Christmas, and was preparing to take a breather – maybe work on my memoir, or get re-inspired in the art room – when the first call came: “VJ, there is a situation I need your help with!” The caller lived in a nearby town, and was leaving the country the following […]

War – Not War

July 7, 2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

Somedays, words elude me. I want to say the war continues in Ukraine, but ‘war’ is not the right word. It suggests two-sided, as in a dispute that has escalated and come to blows. What happened in Ukraine is not that. It is an act of terrorism and greed at its most heinous. Ric and […]

For Ukraine

June 28, 2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

War Stories

June 3, 2022.Reading time 1 minute.

The stories dwell inside me now, a gift I suppose, for a writer. The young woman, having escaped Russian occupation, who wails for her mother and eleven-year-old sister, left behind. The mother of three, who confesses that the darkness of war has all but consumed her. “My brother’s home was bombed this morning,” she writes. […]

Plus Five

May 20, 2022.Reading time 2 minutes.

Arrogant of me to ask you to stop and read while I have been so absent, yet I have much to share. How did this broken woman, debilitated by disease, find herself deeply entrenched in the humanitarian side of war? I ask myself this question daily. It is a lesson for all us, I believe. […]

Everyday Miracles

April 29, 2022.Reading time 3 minutes.

Can you help my friend, please? She is 32 weeks pregnant. The text came in mid-morning. I said I’d look into it. Mom, husband, 10-year-old, and baby on the way. Afraid of the encroaching war, they gambled their money on tickets to Canada. I thought of my own daughter-in-law, happily registering for an upcoming baby […]

Wheels of Kindness

April 22, 2022.Reading time 2 minutes.

Today is the day to leave, the 2:30 am text read; I’m letting my son sleep in, last day in our home. The message came from Kyiv. I had connected with the mom the day before. Bombing around them had finally convinced her to flee. Stay safe and keep in touch when you can. I’m […]

A Soldier’s Farewell

November 11, 2021.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Written and performed by my brother, Laurie Moody. Today is Remembrance Day

Relationship Shuffle

Yearning for renewalwe wrestle dragons –unsuspected passages,like time machinesscattering ticket stubs We distractseek nourishmentpercolate meaning Nostalgic nuancessuccumb tojagged memories –Cubism in motion. (Art mine)

Spring’s Antics (tanka)

Oh that Spring gale,she’s such a storyteller –awakens the landfiddles with expectations –Welcome post-Winter trickster. (Image my own)

Discourse on Love

Gathered up all the loveI’d previously rejectedpulled it to melike a well-worn cloakImagined the comfortsuch a vibration would bringoblivion amounting to bliss But love –my interpretation of it –does not nullify painAnd I writhed in its intensitypain physically ingrainedburdened by memories How can this be? I criedIn darkness I turned to loveprojected nirvanauncovered such an […]