Reminding me of why I fear the tomb: Fall 2024 Lac Saint-Joseph Quebec Photo Lac Saint-Joseph Quebec Taken by Lorne Coughlin Nothing Gold Can Stay Robert Frost 1874 –1963 Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So..
Armageddon revisited …The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962 “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” – Hindu Scripture My parents began hoarding industrial quantities of tinned food and cumbersome sacks of powdered milk in October 1962. They spoke in hushed tones about our imminent demise. Nuclear war was all but inevitable. At 10..
Turning into a pumpkin: Canadian Thanksgiving 2024 Awakening from a turbulent dream within a dream, So dreaming still, I found myself for a brief shining moment In a glowing paradise of pumpkins. A disembodied voice whispered portentously, “ Weary pilgrim, you are about to turn into a pumpkin… Eternally.” Meaning and origin of..
Ode to the Zamboni: in honour of the new hockey season For my friend, the writer and Zamboni expert Mark Oshinskie By the time our first son was a pre-school tot, he was a rabid hockey fan. Growing up in Quebec City, he lived in a hotbed of hockey frenzy where the local media blared..
Let me tell you about the birds and the bees (photo of my mom circa 1950) I was born in 1952, the year that Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president of the United States. Growing up absurd in a small southern Ontario town in the 1950s and 1960s meant being fed a steady diet of..
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known- Carl Sagan Triangulum Galaxy: A Tanka Poem Magnified, a flash, Blue cosmic reproduction, Long consummated. Our end also resides in The creative overture. The astrophotographer Terry Maurice has kindly given his permission to share the brilliant photo that accompanies this posting. For more images..
Mary Oliver Revisted “I wonder a lot about whether or not you can separate an artist from their art. On the one hand it seems obvious that you can – we often fall in love with music or poems or paintings without knowing a thing about their creator. On the other hand, all art is..
Old enough I’m old enough to have looked like this; It pains me to say it, But not amiss: The sands of time Don’t lead to bliss. I’m old enough to have looked like this. I can hardly believe that I won a plaque; But there’s no denying, No turning back. No twisting,..
Le temps passé avec vous fut bref mais tordant L’Antenne, le bulletin mensuel de l’Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues et interprètes agréés du Québec (OTTIAQ), a publié un article sur mon dernier livre. L’antenne – 16 janvier 2024 (mailchi.mp) L’Ordre se donne pour mission d’assurer et de promouvoir la compétence et le professionnalisme de ses membres..
Joy Comes Back When you finally realise that joy is less fireworks more firefly less orchestra more birdsong she will come back much more often for joy will not fight with the fast pace of this life she is not in the shiny or the new she breathes in the basic shimmers in the..