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..
August 30,2024 Today is our 44th wedding anniversary/ Nous fêtons aujourd’hui notre 44e anniversaire de marriage. Ce qui suit est une histoire vraie. Les noms n’ont pas été changés pour protéger les coupables. What follows is a true story. The names have not been changed to protect the guilty. Scènes de notre marriage / Scenes..
The Russians are coming/ Les Russes sont à nos portes August 22, 1968 The English version of this text in honour of my wife’s birthday immediately follows the French. Aujourd’hui, c’est le 66e anniversaire de mon épouse Anne. Le 22 août marque également le 56e anniversaire de l’invasion de son pays, alors connu..
This porcelain heart This porcelain heart May crack with the weight of time Or shatter through mishap But it will live in my heart Until stern death do us part. Tanka poems follow a set of rules. They all have five lines and each line follows a pattern: the first line has five syllables,..
The Bear Essentials June 1972 I have never been a happy camper. When I was a small child, my parents forced me to go to a portentously named “cub camp” in Drumbo, Ontario, located on the Nith River. Even today, some sixty-five years later, repeating these diabolical names makes me quake with wretched..
Avian and human grief …a cinquain poem Owl grieves… A loss of mate; We mourn, anticipate A certain fate … Bereavement is To come. https://chirpforbirds.com/bird-brain/do-birds-have-feelings/ “There are many instances of birds expressing grief and even engaging in mourning rituals, showing that sadness isn’t just a human state. It’s interesting to note that birds exhibit..
The Incomparable Alice Munro 1931-2024 Memory is the way we keep telling ourselves our stories — and telling other people a somewhat different version of our stories. – Alice Munro The incomparable literary titan Alice Munro passed away yesterday at the age of 92. This renowned Canadian author created groundbreaking literary works of the..
Spring morning haiku Spring birds arrive in pairs; Some linked together for life; Then forever severed. Monogamous Birds There are a few species of birds that meet, court and form pair bonds that result in many offspring, year after year, until one of the pair dies. For nearly all swans, geese, ducks, cranes,..
The poem below is a villanelle I wrote based on Elizabeth Bishop’s sublime work “One Art.” It is dedicated to my wife Anne to mark 45 years of our living together, beginning April 30, 1979. We are those strange characters in the picture included here. The Art of Loving The art..
The real reason that we returned to Canada: My wife Anne missed Simons too much to remain in France. Here is an excerpt from the story “Excuse My French” from the book entitled My Time with You Has Been Short but Very Funny. Simons, a clothing and department store, is a Quebec and even..