Open to the irritation, grit forms a pearl it’s been said. Fish for mermaids, dive for pearls . .|creativity@maryannmoore.ca

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So far Mary Ann Moore has created 201 entries.

Black Bears in the Carrot Field

Isn’t that a great title for a poetry collection? Black Bears in the Carrot Field is Linda K. Thompson’s debut poetry collection, published in July 2021 by Mother Tongue Publishing on Salt Spring Island B.C.

The title comes from Linda’s poem “Saying Goodbye”:

My family back on the mainland are sleeping 
tight beside tall rocks. Dreaming about black bears 
in the carrot field, and the Eiffel Tower 
that has appeared in the middle of the barnyard.

Yes, a blend of the practical and the imagined or rather, the metaphorical.

Linda includes some notes in the back of the book so we learn that Linda’s brother, Bruce Miller, told her that “his friend and fellow farmer, David Hellevang, told him the story of the black bears in the carrot field. David and his crew were in the front field digging potatoes and, unbeknownst to them, the bears were in the back field ripping through and chewing up his field of carrots. Such a metaphor for life, don’t you think? Sometimes you just can’t win for losing. But you keep on keeping on.” There’s Linda K. Thompson’s philosophy of life in a nutshell, or rather in a potato skin.

Linda  kept on keeping on learning from various (and famous) poets, being encouraged by friends and family along the way and published her poems in several publications including her own chapbook entitled Four Small People in Sturdy Shoes (Hot Tomato Studios, 2013). Her work has recently appeared in Prairie Fire and Release Any Words Stuck Inside of You: Canadian Flash Fiction and Prose Poetry.

Among the teachers Linda makes note of is Susan Musgrave, another B.C. poet who spends most of her time on Haida Gwaii. In recent years, both Linda and I […]

By |August 2nd, 2021|A Poet's Nanaimo|3 Comments|
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The Writing Life

I wonder if it’s “the” writing life or “a” writing life?  I suppose it’s “my” writing life I’m about to describe as while all writers write, each of us approaches our practice differently.

Annie Dillard called her book The Writing Life and I rather like that title so used it for this blog. There are obvious similarities among writers’ lives: we all write whether for publication or to record and explore life’s journey. Sometimes we don’t write but it’s writing that sustains us, nourishes us, keeps us connected to all that was, that is and that will be.

When writers say they’re writing, they could be creating new work or attending to the myriad of other aspects of their writing life. I like to call my “to do” list:
Passions + Possibilities.
Ideas

There are always ideas and one of those good ideas is to capture them in a notebook that can include questions and thoughts about future possibilities. Sometimes those ideas don’t take too long to become reality. I once created a small collage with a door and thought of a title for a poetry workshop: “Poetry as a Doorway In . . . and a Welcome Home.” Not too long after, I began offering writing circles at Bethlehem Centre in Nanaimo with that title and am now leading a Writing Life women’s writing circle with the same theme. The mandala shown at the left is titled “Come to Centre” and is by Sarah Clark. It’s the symbol I use for the “Poetry as a Doorway In” writing circles.

The “ideas” notebook could be a place to keep lists so they’re all in one place. I have a list for blog ideas, book review ideas, and ideas for future […]

By |July 25th, 2021|A Poet's Nanaimo|3 Comments|
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The Poetry of Presence

I begin my day by journaling about my dreams and whatever those reflections lead to. Poems can begin that way too. It’s a beautiful threshold space, in between dreaming and waking.

When I offer a writing circle via Zoom on Thursday, June 3rd we’ll begin with a poem by Lorna Crozier: “A Good Day to Start a Journal.”  From there we’ll write a journal entry about our day and move onto reading poems to inspire our own practice of “The Poetry of Presence.”

The writing circle is from 10 a.m. to 12 noon Pacific time on Zoom. I’m used to offering writing circles in the summer and this way, via Zoom, you can join wherever you may be. The fee is $45 payable by e-transfer or cheque. You can get in touch with me at creativity@maryannmoore.ca for further information and to register. Or have a look under “Poetry Circles.”

Recently, I began reading a book called In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova translated from the Russian by Sasha Dugdale (Book*hug Press, 2021) in which Stepanova writes of her  late Aunt Galya who kept “countless used notebooks and diaries. She’d kept a diary for years; not a day passed without her scribbling a note, as much a part of her routine as getting out of bed or washing.”

A diary can be kept as a “working tool” as Stepanova notes in relation to writer Susan Sontag. “Notebooks are an essential daily activity for a certain type of person, loose-woven mesh on which they hang their clinging faith in reality and its continuing nature. . . a notebook is a series of proofs that life has continuity and history, and (this is most important) that any point in your […]

By |June 1st, 2021|A Poet's Nanaimo|2 Comments|
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Gold in the Shadow

Diana Hayes new book of poetry, GOLD IN THE SHADOW: TWENTY-TWO GHAZALS AND A CENTO for Phyllis Webb (Rainbow Publishing, 2021), is exquisite in every detail: the design by Pat Walker Design and the papers used;  the purple and gold of the cover; the size of the book; and the finely-rendered poetry written as a tribute to a beloved poet. Phyllis Webb will be 94 on April 8, 2021.

Diana Hayes and Phyllis Webb first met in 1980 and Phyllis “has been a mentor, friend, and a listening ear” to Diana. They both live on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. Lorraine Gane, Diana’s editor, also lives on Salt Spring. Diana appreciates “walkabouts” she took with Lorraine as well as “the many insights and the courage to dive deeper into the work.”

The image that distinguishes the book’s cover is from an oil on canvas by Joe Plaskett entitled “Double Portrait of Phyllis Webb.” The frontispiece features both aspects of the double portrait, one of them a profile of Phyllis. Joe Plaskett’s studio in Paris was full of mirrors, Phyllis told Diana, and this may have led to the spontaneity of painting the two images. At first I thought the profile was of the aging poet looking to the youthful version of herself but as it turns out, Phyllis is the same age in both: 32 in 1959 when the painting was done.

As Diana describes them, the poems she has written are a personal expedition into Phyllis’s visual art and poetry. Diana began working on a “catalogue project” in 2017 to photograph Phyllis’s paintings and many of them opened the doors into the ghazals.

Diana’s introduction to the book of poetry, entitled “Night Journeys,” describes becoming intrigued by […]

By |March 21st, 2021|A Poet's Nanaimo|2 Comments|
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The Listening Path

Julia Cameron has written a new book, The Listening Path: The Creative Art of Attention (St. Martin’s Essentials, 2021), which she describes as a 6-week Artist’s Way Program. Do you remember reading The Artist’s Way which helped many of us enter a “creative recovery” program for six weeks? It was first published in  1991.  A 25th Anniversary edition came out in 2016.

In her new book, Julia reminds readers of “the basic tools” from The Artist’s Way: Morning Pages, Artist Dates and Walks.

Morning Pages are a way to listen to ourselves each morning “thus clearing the way for further listening through the day.”  To write “morning pages” is a daily practice of writing three pages in a stream-of-consciousness way, when first waking up. As Julia says: “We learn to trust that each word is perfect – good enough and even better than that.”

Anything and everything that crosses your mind is what goes into Morning Pages.

With Artist Dates “we listen to the youthful part of ourselves who craves adventure and is full of interesting ideas,” Julia says.

With Morning Pages, we focus “our attention on the problem at hand. With Artist Dates, we practice release, and our minds fill with new ideas. It takes the ‘letting go’ for the process to work.”

The Artist Date is a way to woo your artist self and is something you do on your own each week. While there are restrictions these days when it comes to art galleries, bookstores and the like, in our area we can visit bookstores while masked. Visiting the children’s section of a bookstore would be a fun Artist Date. There are amazing children’s books full of colour and stories to lift your spirits.

In downtown Nanaimo, there’s […]

By |March 10th, 2021|A Poet's Nanaimo|2 Comments|
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Memories of the Mother Goddess

Today, as I  begin to write this post, is the anniversary of my mother’s death. She died in palliative care at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto on February 18, 1995 at the age of 67. Mum was named Wilhelmina by her parents Mary Ann (Mayme) and Frank Dobberman in North Bay, Ontario and came to be known as Billie.

Mum married three times including my father Bob  Moore when she was 18. Their marriage didn’t last very long, four years I think, before she left North Bay to carve out a life for herself.

Mum’s spirit continues to be with me. I still write poems about her, remember her many gifts to me and my children, and expressions she used that she would have learned from her mother make their way into conversations. Sarah and I still use her cutlery every day (wow that’s a long time) and her crewel work hangs on the wall. The image to the left is a detail of a bell pull done in crewel work.

In the fall of 1995, the year Mum died, I went on a goddess pilgrimage to the Greek island of Crete led by Carol Christ. I had read Carol’s books and was intrigued by the idea of travelling in a circle of women; taking part in rituals to celebrate women; and learning about the ancient earth-based cultures that worshipped a Mother Goddess. Carol, known as Karolina during our travels, wrote Odyssey with the Goddess: A Spiritual Quest in Crete which came out in 1995.

We found the goddess in trees and caves, mountains and ocean, in the stories of my fellow pilgrims (there were thirteen of us), and in the various physical forms the people of long […]

By |February 20th, 2021|A Poet's Nanaimo|3 Comments|
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The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

I’ve read Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Ten Speed Press, 2014) and like her approach to keeping what sparks joy. I know we’re meant to do that with our book collections as well as our clothing and other belongings but I haven’t removed every book off every shelf to see if it gives me the “thrill of pleasure.”

Marie has whittled her collection of books down to thirty. That’s not going to happen for me! I keep many books for reference purposes although I do try to keep books moving such as to friends, little neighbourhood libraries, and to Well Read Books in downtown Nanaimo. Their bookstore supports all their literacy programs. I’m looking forward to the Writing Life women’s writing circles meeting in person again as I like to have book draws to pass books along.

Tisha Morris is someone else whose work attracted me and I read her book Clutter Intervention: How Your Stuff is Keeping You Stuck (Llewellyn Publications, 2018). I like what Tisha says: “In all art forms, the beauty lies in the empty space.”

While an empty space breeds fear Tisha says, “the void is also where creation is born.” Keeping unused art supplies for instance can “end up stagnating the creative process.” Tisha is right when she says: “Inspiration happens in a flash, in peak moments of life, not in piles from yesteryear.”

“Which items are relevant to you now and to where you want to go? Tisha asks. When I was writing, in my last blog, about notebooks and journals that people keep, some said they like to look back to help them write their memoir or to see how well they survived, reminding themselves of their courage […]

By |February 13th, 2021|A Poet's Nanaimo|7 Comments|
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Notebooks to Remember and to Let Go

I wonder if anyone reads this blog? (I think people do, they just don’t always leave comments!) A blog is like a notebook or journal but in a public form unlike the many notebooks I’ve kept through the years that no one else sees. The writing is different here as there is the expectation of readers whereas all those notebooks and journals I’ve filled are written with no one else in mind but me. I’m not planning to donate them to a university archives or leave them to my partner or children.

Among the notebooks are daily journals, travel diaries, many notebooks of reviews (for myself) of books I’ve read, notebooks that list books I’d like to read, visual journals with collages. I’ve got a perfect bound journal given to me by a friend in 1988 in which I describe things I’ve let go of.  You’d think the book would be full as I’ve let go of many belongings since 1988 but alas, I didn’t always write about them. I think it’s a good idea though: writing about the importance of any object before letting it go. Really, it’s the memories of an object that are important rather than the object itself.

This blog may become that sort of letting-go type of journal in the weeks to come as the Chinese Year of the Ox which begins on February 11th is a Metal year. A Metal year is one that “represents a clean, pristine, even shiny environment in feng shui.” It’s time to “clear out, pare down, and simplify,” my We’Moon 2021 calendar says. I’m feeling in need of paring down. Among the things to clear out will be many handwritten notebooks and journals.

Notebooks and journals […]

By |February 9th, 2021|A Poet's Nanaimo|23 Comments|
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The Circle is Open

“Nothing’s changed. Everything is different,” said Linda, Sarah’s hair stylist when she came to cut Sarah’s hair in our courtyard garden one day when the weather was milder. She meant things continued to be different and in that way nothing had changed. (Or it could have been when she came inside; our only human visitor in many months.)

“Different” became our way of life in 2020 and has continued to be so. I continued to write and to do that in community. While we had to stop meeting in my living room in the spring of 2020, the Writing Life women’s writing circle continued via email. It was a practice that sustained us through the toughest days and continues to do so. While we acknowledge and honour losses of people and ways of life, we also honour the emotions surrounding those losses.

In the spring of 2020, a Nanaimo circle of women as well as women in a circle “from away,” thirteen in all, wrote on their own at home and shared their writing with the group via email. I responded to all of them and felt busier than usual.

“Calling Your Spirit Back” was the theme of the Writing Life circle based on a poem of Joy Harjo’s entitled “Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet” (from Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, W. W. Norton, 2015).

On Facebook I saw someone post a message that was something like “Hey you introverts, put down that book and tell we extroverts what to do . . .” It felt that even though my connections were via email, it was an extroverted sort of activity to connect to the women in that way. I would […]

By |January 31st, 2021|A Poet's Nanaimo|0 Comments|
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2020 In Review – Books

When I saw on Facebook that my poet, writer and writing mentor friend Susan Olding keeps a running list of books she’s read, I figured I could admit that I do the same. She categorized her 2020 reading list and has been posting the lists separately.  Thank you for the inspiration Susan! Susan credits poet and professor Tanis MacDonald with her inspiration – a poet I haven’t seen since my Toronto days but I’m glad we remain connected through various poetic threads.

Last year, I was happy to support local bookstores including Windowseat Books in Nanaimo; Fireside Books in Parksville; and Salamander Books in Ladysmith. There are several more to support including Well Read Books in Nanaimo (where I donated books) and when it’s okay to travel out of our area again, it will be worth the trip north and south to check out independent bookstores.

Sarah ordered books from Russell Books in Victoria and it is possible to order online from other independent bookstores. In some cases, you can order directly from the publisher such as House of Anansi where I ordered their Heartfelt-Reads Bundle including Emily Urquhart’s memoir which I’ve noted below in the “memoir” category.

I was glad to continue to support fellow writers and publishers through several reviews I wrote. You’ll find the links below.

And there was our local library open again following the spring closure so we could request books online or have a gaze along the one aisle of books that are available.

I usually have a few books on the go at the same time as I read different things at different times of the day. Poetry is usually for the morning. While I continue to read individual poems, these are […]

By |January 6th, 2021|A Poet's Nanaimo|0 Comments|
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