Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Words

I will try on writing styles
Like I try on shoes
Slip them on
In silky comfort
Ease of mind
Like it's natural
Every time 
I lift a pen
Words will blossom
Like a new spring
Writing me into
My summer
Integrity

Saturday, November 16, 2013

The Dream

At night I go to sleep
And dream of a black-faced beaming woman
Who is better than me in every way

And in my dream I post a picture of me holding an eagle feather
To cheer up a good friend
And I get called a racist
But then I go to my friend and both of us wrap ourselves up in a star blanket
To dance under the northern lights

Meanwhile, all is not well in Gotham city
A villain has plans to ruin some political bigwig's media circus
By wiring the area with a dangerous electrified explosive
Luckily I have done some fancy legwork
And the authorities were called
Just in time to "diffuse" the situation
And I wonder why I am a teacher when clearly I should be
A private eye

I also have a dark secret
I steal away to public washrooms
To try things I've seen on YouTube videos
Like putting water on ultra absorbent disposable diapers
To see if they really swell to 4 times their regular size!

And then I wake up
And my mouth is dry
To a darkened sky
And I wonder why
And my thoughts drift
To the black-faced beaming woman
Who is better than me in every way that counts

And I wonder if I could ever post a picture holding an eagle feather
And not be called a racist
Or is that not something a Métis should do?
And I wonder if anyone else at 2am
Is wondering about fantastical things from dreams
And wishing they could be wrapped up in a star blanket
Dancing beneath the northern lights

Because crime doesn't pay
We need to learn to build peace
And do what makes us happy
Even if it is diaper experiments
In public washrooms 
Or making someone smile
At the cost of your reputation

If we cannot dance in star blankets
Perhaps we can weave a hammock out of starlight
To rock us back to sleep
So we can dream fantastical things
Until the morning's rays come to warm our face 

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Ghost Eyes

White man wanders over the land and seas like a pale ghost
So why
Do I look into the eyes of children
And see that they are ghosts too
Lost like me on the winds of change
Stuck in a time almost forgotten
Wild hair
Soulful eyes
So wide
So troubled
Wandering with the wind
Ghosts of a place long forgotten
Thrown away
Like a tattered kite
Left to the devices
Of the harsh North Wind

There are no secrets here
Where big brown eyes
Tell no lies
Burn with insatiable hunger
Search for a cure
And all I have is this tattered broom
Trying to sweep away
The scars of history
Which re-tracks mud
Faster than I can sweep
Ripping dust from the Earth, herself
Plastering it on floors, and walls, and windows
Under the cloudy sky

There is nothing here
Except ghosts
They plague my dreams
Waken me each morning
Moaning
Things I'm not ready to understand
Lashing out with tongues
As harsh
As the North Wind
Plastering my face with frozen tears
There are no secrets here
Only
Ghost eyes
Haunting me

Monday, June 17, 2013

Size

When the problems of the world seem to large
Just remember we are like specks of sand in the solar system
We are like electrons in the galaxy
But so are our the trials each day
And even a mosquito can annoy a deer
And even a mouse can scare an elephant
And even a virus can affect millions
And even a child can change the world

When we feel like we need more recognition
Just remember we are like giants to rabbits
We are like mountains to ants
We are like the galaxy to mitochondria
The universe to quarks
But even mold can make us sick
But even bees can make us cry
But even molecules can poison us
But even a child can change our world

Perspective

A quiet Monday
Watching ants amid seeds and grass
Feeling warm sun
And cooling wind
Hearing rustling trees
And distant traffic
Songbirds and crows
Smelling the sweet freshness of Spring
Tasting growth and stagnance
Birth and death
Upon the air
And pondering silently

I could just fade away
Bridge time
Sitting here
With bare feet among the dandelions
Every worry and concern
Could fade away
I can dream under the same sky
Where dreamers sat for centuries
Until pulled back into this moment

Upon the air
Birth and death
Tasting growth and stagnance
Smelling the freshness of Spring
Songbirds and crows
And distant traffic
Hearing rustling trees
And cooling wind
Feeling warm sun
Watching ants amid seeds and grass
My world goes topsy-turvy
Once again
Just another quiet Monday.

Timeless

Grandmother
Here I am back on this land
Bones strewn beneath the earth
Where the wind speaks in whispers
Stories of long ago

It can be hard to imagine
How things once were
While we live in carefully constructed
Straight rows

But I know our feet touched the same earth
Our faces felt the same sun
We listened to the same wind
And looked skywards
With dreams spanning generations

Our hearts drum the same beat
And someday I too
Will be just bone and wind

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Go Beyond

I'm sorry 
He said
But she frowned in response
Why are you sorry?
It doesn't mean much to your life
And why do people
Always compartmentalize
Each other?
We are sorted by our circumstance
Given over to the expectations
That one part of our lives
Will determine the whole. 
We dish out sympathy
But do we have empathy
Enough to just be there
With an outstretched hand
To help each other?
The best people are the ones
Who don't say a word
As they watch us fall
But help us climb again
When we are ready,
Soar to new heights
Release our own shackles
Because circumstance
Never should determine our possibilities.
We aren't limited by our lot in life,
We are limited by sympathies
Eating in on us at every turn
Squashing us like a bug
Because there is no time to forget
If people serve as reminders of our shortcomings
Every moment
Of everyday.
Don't be sorry.
Just smile.
Be the shoulder to cry on,
The helping hand,
The light in a dark place.
We'll both benefit
If you chose to live
Beyond the norm.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

A Warning from the Wind



The wind has always whispered to me
In dreams and visions,
Voices guiding my path,
Lighting the way,
Securing my destiny.
And I have always followed,
Sometimes joyfully,
Others with dragging feet
Like a stubborn child.
It blew across fields,
Heads of golden wheat bowed,
Scaled towering mountains,
Crossed choppy seas
To tell me stories of time tangled prairie towns,
Exotic towers of steel,
Smiling lovers,
And now I must learn how to make 2 into 1,
And still the wind whispers urgently
Of desolate northern places,
Children forlorn,
And how can I make 2 into 1,
And still follow the wind with the same gypsy cadence
I once had?
But when I consider making compromises,
Deviating from the destined path,
My dreams become nightmares,
And how can I sleep?
I perched high in the pines,
And below an old woman with hair braided,
Silver with the wisdom of years gone by,
Carefully treading a familiar path,
Wrapped in a shawl, and in her hand
A raven feather held up in reverence,
And me in my foolishness of defying the fates,
I squat unceremoniously
And defecate on her from my sky-view branch,
And she looks up at me with eyes that have seen the ages,
Sad eyes, disapproving,
Never speaking a word,
And in that instant
I awake in a sweat,
Wondering how I can make 2 into 1
And still follow the wind.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

The Song of the Once Winged

I am the bird with the broken wing
Wishing to be free
But it's more than just a cage that stops me

Flutter, flitter
Flight turns to falling
Down, down
Each time I try

Sing a sorrowful song
Of flightless days
Restless nights
This is the song of the once winged

I am the bird with the broken wing
Wishing to be free
But it's more than just a cage that stops me

Saturday, June 1, 2013

News

Green screen
Blinking
Emotionless
It's news
Or acting
"Words cannot express our grief"
I can sure see
How you grieve
People you never met

I find myself sometimes
This dispassionate
So numb from bombardment
Of bad news
The stress is so much
We are all ticking time bombs

We were never meant
To do more than live in small communities
This is the disease of living beyond our means
Technology making the world too small

We are all Atlas
But being still human
Have an Achilles heel

Observation

I howl to the moon
In sacred feminine energy
Yet I am bound by this world
This patriarchy

I found myself watching The Hobbit
And wondering
Where are all the woman goblins?
There are so many goblins
Thousands
But you never see a female

Such is life still
That women fall through the cracks everyday
Still living in the shadows of men

I don't have answers
Only questions

How can this keep going on?

We cast the same blind eye on war and famine
What world will we leave our children?

I can mutter the dark tongue of Mordor
Or Old English, cast it out in Norse runes
It doesn't matter

I could speak plainly in modern English
And the response would be equally as uninspiring
We are a society lacking passion
And worse, we look down on the passionate

We throw artists, scientists, astronauts, philosophers
Into the flames of a heartless
Dispassionate furnace
Leave for dead our true leaders
Raise up instead the foolish and uninspired

And as we slowly poison ourselves,
Bathe in the rot of a crumbling society,
We cry out "why me?!"
As if we were unaware we are responsible
For our own demise

In Limbo


It is this terrifying experience
Knowing I'm delirious
And yet these emotions run amok 

There is nothing to do
But out wait the torrent

So sorry
I really realize that I'm crazy
But I'm too big for my shoes
I'm trying so hard to fit
But I know the stitching is coming loose
A toe is sticking out and given time
Much more might make itself known

I understand just how frustrating it is
I can see it all from outside myself
But I feel very much like a bystander as it all unfolds

There is a hole in this bucket
I'm trying to plug if with my finger
But the water continues to trickle out
Still I am afraid to give up and just let it all go

The bucket is filled with blue paint
Could I look down I would see
It spills out below me, colouring the sky
And if I were aware
I could spread my wings and fly
But instead I am falling flailing
As though in some outlandish dream

Larger Than Life

I feel like a strangled cat
I know
You don't want to hear that
But here I am

I find a lot of times
I am too big for my own skin
Quite bursting at the seams
With exuberant energy

I need to be creative 
But there's no space for creativity
In this claustrophobic lifestyle
Stifled
Dripping taunting irony in this ceaseless rain

And I know you say I should be myself
But sometimes MYSELF is too big for this mould
And with no room to grow
I am like a plant in desperate need of a new pot

The ghosts of my now shadow self
Keep me up at night
Shrieking and wailing the dirges of a hollow shell
Passion is gone
Broken
Suffocated

But there's no one to blame
Because this is how adults live
And while you still drag me around like a distracted child
These eyes are dulled already with the unmovable weight of helplessness

The world keeps turning
And we keep loving in that constricted space allotted by a broken system
But each night I am haunted and each day I am praying for any kind of alchemy
 Rescue me from this icy pool of shattered dreams

It's unfair because you and I are both porcelain dolls
Cast together with faults
Faces cracked
Fragments fallen away

And while I crave space
And intimacy
And purpose
And freedom
I feel the crushing weight of destiny

Cry out in the night when I alone can hear
I am still tormented by devils of my own making
I hope somehow I seem less broken 
Cradle you in my love
Shine outwardly with more light than I feel within

None of this is of your making
Little of it wrought by me
But both of us are puppets
The strings not cut away
Willing we dance together entangled
And like Pinocchio, the strings fall away

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Possibilities

I like to think and question
I love to ponder and explore.

It may seem
I am
irRATioNal,

But the truth is
I am just

OPEN

in a closed world,

a CIRCLE

in a square world,

a PEG
that doesn't fit the hole...

But I am whole
And I embrace HOLISTIC
because it is pure,

And I may not be HOLY
but I'm DIVINE

and that's just fine!

I am open
But I question
and I change.
Grow.
TRANSFORM.

like a butterfly
I take flight,

Because I embraced
POSSIBILITY
in my quest for light.

I want truth.
I am a scientist;
I cast off what I disprove!

I am an alchemist;
I transform my reality,

And you may think I'm crazy
But that is to me
DIVINE COMEDY.

the secret is

all this time you were a square peg
Thinking it fit in a round hole,

And all that empty space
is just
missed POSSIBILITIES.



Conspiracy Theorist

Don't be such a conspiracy theorist!

In the magazine I read
A person who believes in one conspiracy
Is more likely to believe many

This is a serious illness
Of the Mind,
You should seek treatment!

But as a subtext...
It reads
That this mindset would not exist
In a world without real conspiracies

Now that is a conspiracy!

Forgive me while I put on my foil hat
Cover my face from the cameras
Question
Ponder
Explore

These conspiracies exist
Because we are still not free
To be
Who and what we desire
Always bombarded with images
Of what we should become

Never satisfied
We eat and don't feel full
We do and still feel bored
We live in instant gratification
But when was the last time you truly felt gratified?

Deep inside
There are hollow places, never filled

So yes, I'm ill

I am so sick and tired
Of feeling disconnected
Feeling isolated
Overstimulated
But still not gratified

I need to simplify

Go back to my roots
Stick up new shoots
Question
Ponder
Explore

That is what life is for
We are constantly shifting
Learning
Changing

If that makes us conspiracy theorists
I wish there were more

No Small Feats

As a child I was never amazed by feats of skill,
Because I knew we all are capable of these and so much more.
We are boundless energy in human form.
Now what impresses me are feats of human will,
How we dare to press through life's great storms,
The fiery light that shines out from our core.
Let go of doubt to figure out
We are all spirit,
And spirit has no limit.
Reach for Mars!
Reach for the stars,
And soar!

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Being Divine

People think strange things about their gods

Jehovah created the world in 7 days
He let his only son die on the cross to forgive our sins
You know Bumba vomited out the Universe
And all his son did was create ants

Ra was the sun,
I know bad pun,
But it's true
And Apollo drove the sun across the sky in a chariot
Raven stole the sun and threw it into the heavens

If you look down the throat of Krishna you would see the Universe

People follow all sorts of rules to appease their gods,
Give up certain meats
Go on pilgrimages
Remain chaste
Wear certain clothes
Self-mutilate
Give money
Pray or meditate daily
Shave their heads
Climb mountains
Build pyramids
Make sacrifices

Perhaps our gods are just that amazing
So worthy of our love and adoration

Forget for a moment
That they
Send plagues of locusts
Start floods
Allow plagues
Allow killing in their names
Let the poor remain poor
Let people live in the belly of whales
Watch women get stoned
And burned at the stake

Just because someone questioned their love of a god, their intentions, their heresy

When faced with all this most of us still bow our heads
Our gods are divine
This is all part of their plan
We believe, we trust, we pray

Others are more skeptical
They realize that just maybe
Gods are much like men
They are capable of good and evil
Love and hate
Joy, serenity, anger, jealousy
Chastity, lust

And in our gods we trust

But perhaps
We are divine too
Capable of amazing feats
Of fear and adoration
Like the Virgin Mary
Round with the idea of perfect love
Like Hercules
Able to walk on Earth and in Heaven
Like Buddha
Capable of right speech

A Matter of Taste

I always expected to experience the world with words
Document each adventure with the scrawl of black ink
But as I was fated, instead I experience with taste
The fresh smooth flavour of uncooked salmon
The savoury delight of spice in the afternoon market
The pungent bite of sewer, or durian, I never quite know,
The dull catching flavour of early morning smog. 
So many variations to dance across my taste buds,
Startling, disgusting, delighting!
The world is just delicious!