A Poet’s Nanaimo

Beyond Forgetting is an anthology of poems celebrating the one hundredth birthday, on December 30th, of “Canada’s unofficial poet laureate” Al Purdy (1918 – 2000), edited by Howard White and Emma Skagen (Harbour Publishing, 2018). Emma Skagen is a former bookseller at Munro’s in Victoria, B.C. and now lives in Kentville, Nova Scotia. She has added her editorial expertise to many bestselling books and has worked on a number of poetry collections including Cornelia Hoogland’s, Trailer Park Elegy. Many of the poems in the anthology describe encounters with Al Purdy by some of our best known Canadian poets including Earle Birney, Milton Acorn, Brian Brett, Tom Wayman, George Bowering, Susan Musgrave, Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane.

Some poems are dedicated to Purdy by younger writers such as Rachel Rose, Vancouver’s poet laureate, and Steven Heighton who wrote the foreword to the anthology. Heighton first met Purdy in the early eighties when Al Purdy and Earle Birney gave a reading in Heighton’s Canadian Literature class at Queen’s University. He last saw him “dying at home in Sidney, BC.”

Tom Wayman was an “emerging Canadian poet” in 1971 when he was published in Purdy’s anthology, Storm Warning. “Tom did more than offer sage advice;” he got the project [Beyond Forgetting] off to a flying start by preparing a work plan and roughing in much of the selections” the editors say in their introduction.

George Bowering’s contribution is “At the Cecil Hotel” described as a “translation of Al Purdy’s ‘At the Quinte Hotel’.” Rather than “I am drinking,” Bowering’s poem begins: “I am writing.” It makes reference to several poets: Milton Acorn, Pat Lane, [John] Newlove, Dorothy Livesay, and Alden Nowlan.

Bowering’s statement in the back of the book says: “He […]

Bill Stenson took many risks in his novel, Ordinary Strangers, and what is so miraculous about the book is the lack of judgment I felt towards the characters no matter what their behaviour. Well, there many have been a couple of instances when I was riled by a character’s tendencies but what good novelists can do is help lead their characters, and their readers, towards understanding and even forgiveness.

Ordinary Strangers by Bill Stenson is the winner of the 4th Great BC Novel Contest with Mother Tongue Publishing on Salt Spring Island. While the book may be described as being about a child abduction, Della and Sage Howard weren’t looking to take someone’s child on their way to Fernie, B.C. in 1971. The little girl, about two years old, was lost in the forest near a fair on a hot August day in Hope, B.C. Della and Sage stopped for a break, lost their dog, and found the crying toddler.

They named her Stacey Emerald Howard and the continuing story is not about a search for a lost child or hiding from authorities. Della thought about calling the authorities but not for long. She liked thinking of herself as Mommy. “Once the Howards invested in a winter coat, they no longer mentioned finding the authorities and returning the little girl to wherever she had come from – wherever the word they both used consistently instead of whoever.”

Sage worked for a mine and smoked dope. In fact, “others in Fernie liked to hang around the Howard house on weekends because they knew Sage was always well-supplied.”

Della began babysitting children in their home and as she kept a journal and records of everything that happened, “she documented every […]

The Golden Chain Tree in full bloom looks like a giant Christmas tree lit up with candles. It reminds me of a celebration, a ceremony, and like special celebrations, it’s very special for a time and then it’s gone. The Golden Chain Tree flowers in late spring/early summer: a reminder to enjoy the moment. In the midst of grandeur, it’s also a reminder to enjoy the small moments. That’s the message from the Golden Chain Tree one day after the New Moon in May 2018.

I’ve made flower essences from our garden before and I had wanted to make a Golden Chain Tree flower essence for a few years. A flower has a blueprint or energetic template. By placing flower petals (sometimes with their leaves) in water, we can benefit from the healing properties of that particular flower as the lifeforce or energetic template of it is transferred to the water. (This water when combined with brandy becomes the mother tincture from which solution bottles are made. Solution bottles are a combination of the mother tincture, brandy and spring water.)

For a few years, the timing wasn’t right for making the Golden Chain Tree flower essence for various reasons, either for the Golden Chain Tree or in terms of my energy. One needs to get permission from the deva of a particular flower or plant and be up early to harvest the flowers for a flower essence. And a sunny day is required in order for the petals to sit in water in the garden, infusing the water with its energy, for several hours. The Golden Chain tree just lasts for two weeks so the opportunity for harvesting can pass quickly.

Another issue is busyness – I’d […]

My birthday is coming up next month and when I realized that, I thought, didn’t I just have a birthday? It was my 70th birthday on July 3rd last year and I’ve been contemplating this new age and new era ever since.

One week in the Writing Life women’s writing circle, we had a look at the Celtic Medicine Wheel to inspire our writing. Each direction is related to a season, a moon phase, a life stage. In an email exchange recently with MJ Burrows, one of the circle members, she recalled looking at the description for the South and said (sharing from her circle notes): “Two things clicked: the notion of manifesting, full bloom and the trickster. With my birthday coming, I connected the South as a metaphor for this age and stage. We are full of wisdom and ready to manifest what we once lacked confidence to do; and yet the trickster nature betrays us in our body, and sinew and muscle.”

Most of us could relate to the poem MJ wrote, approaching her 65th birthday. Although I’m five years older, I can definitely relate to being “at peace more than ever / and restless more than I have ever been.” Have a look at MJ Burrows’ poem:

At 65 what I know

I am at peace more than ever
and restless more than I have ever been
I know more
and understand less
I long to run
and groan as I leave the chair
I crave colour
and wear shades of black
I have unlimited time
and 4 o’clock comes too quickly
I desire to paint
and have found I don’t know how
I am blooming
and dropping petals
I wake up energetic
and fizzle like a spent match by mid day
I like to travel
and anxious when I leave home

I […]