Jul
6
For the first time in our events five year history, we are making all of the lyrics to Bridge Songs: ?rogress available. They are downloadable for free, just below, in a beautiful little booklet that includes original photos by Aaron Maxwell Vanimere and Dave Von Bieker. We hope you enjoy this companion to the album, “Bridge Songs: ?rogress”. If you have yet to get your copy, drop me an email at info@iloveartists.ca.
Bridge Songs ?rogress Lyrics Booklet (click do download the PDF)
PS >> This is the first of a few Bridge Songs: ?rogress goodies coming over the next few days. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for more.
Tags: Bridge Songs, bridge songs progress, download, lyrics, Songwriters Group
Posted in Bridge Songs: Progress, Music, Poetry, Writing | Comments Off
Sep
30
The following is a poem that I wrote while on a 2 day trip to Calgary with my wife, to accompany a photo taken for The Art of Waiting project. Reading it again in hindsight, it is a hopeful expression of thankfulness. As I get ready to travel again with my wife, I’m preparing for more moments of majesty and thanksgiving. I’m thankful today for the many journeys we’ve already taken together, and the many we have still to take, both literal and otherwise.
Morning majesty
I wait at the window
our hotel room perched 11 stories high
spying on streets alive with morning
a bright girl grabs my glance
she is maybe 5 and running on the rooftop
dressed in yellow, traversing the tarmac like morning sunrise
she is joy and discovery and release
the promise of the morning for a new and good day
around her gather more children
having discovered some secret playground
some place they should not be permitted to play
but are
they spill across its canvas
splattering corporate Calgary in
abstract expressionism
mess
joy
I wait at the window for my wife
readying herself
making herself even more beautiful
if that could be
and there is praise playing
through the iPod alarm clock
heralding a moment
making it even more beautiful
if that could be
Morning majesty
I wait at the window
ready when you are
So, this majestic Thursday morning bathed in September sunshine, what are you thankful for?
Tags: Hope, morning, optimism, poem, Thank You Thursday, thankfulness, the art of waiting
Posted in Poetry, Thank You Thursday, The Art of Living | Comments Off
Jun
4
A lot of thinking on Faerie comes from JRR Tolkein. Another concept, similar if not interchangeable to Faerie, is traced directly to the author of the Middle Earth stories. The idea, in fact an entire literary genre, is mythopoeia.
According to Wikipedia, mythopoeia,
is a narrative genre in modern literature and film where a fictional mythology is created by the writer of prose or other fiction.
It’s not as a genre that I first learned of the word, though. I heard it first as the title of Tolkein’s poem, essentially defending Faerie to CS Lewis.
It is an incredible piece of poetry and you can read it in full online here.
There’s no better way I can think of to prepare for tomorrow night’s Bridge Songs event.
Tags: Bridge Songs: Faerie, CS Lewis, Faerie, JRR Tolkein, myth, Mythopoeia
Posted in Bridge Songs: Faerie, Poetry | Comments Off
Feb
19
I’ve been to the new Art Gallery of Alberta, and I have not been disappointed. But how to sum up the experience? I could shout at you to simply GO! My descriptions will, I fear, make it smaller and not larger in your mind. There is so much lost between words. There is so much my soul saw that speech cannot satisfy. I could tell you about each exhibit and what I learned there and how each has inspired me. Perhaps one day I will. But for today, what seems right is to “criticize by creating”, as Michelangelo has entreated. I will respond to art with art. My own poem. My son’s drawing. My daughter’s photograph. For what is a gallery if not a place that inspires more creation, pouring forth beyond it’s own walls into the waiting world?
TO SAY I WAS THERE
to say I was there
climbing moonlight stairs
blue illumination of
name after name
builders and blocks
delighted by details
My son Jack's drawing of the Art Gallery of Alberta (click to view full size)
to say I was there
stealing the children from school
playing hookey and playing
ascending secret stairs in long lines
all of us waiting as
years’ worth of waiting boil down to
one more line
all of us waiting
as young as my two children
mouths and eyes agape,
looking up
taking this in for the very first time
seeing
My daughter and I attempt a Karsh potrait
this new thing that will be that old thing
this one moment that will settle back into flat timelines
this loud and boisterous “yop!” waiting to fade
and echo
and fade
but not today
not yet today
to say I was there today
somehow different than tomorrow will be
somehow other than yesterday was
today was
carbonated anticipation
and we all drank deep
to say I was there
beneath the borealis
swooping and diving like a whooping crane
a ski slope past gliding through present
on towards future
we were
in the belly of a burgeoning behemoth
in the laugh of a generous giant
in the glimmer of a city’s hopeful eyes
widening
reflecting on glass
held up on steel
skyward
reaching
to say I was there
and it was different than I thought
and it is really something
and I can keep the memory
a gift
Tags: Art Gallery of Alberta, Poetry
Posted in Art, Art Shows, Creativity & Inspiration, Event Reviews, Friday Feature, Poetry | 7 Comments »
Dec
7
Portraits of Edmonton’s Inner City by Pieter de Vos
This is a really beautiful piece on homelessness and the inner city of Edmonton – the “land of plenty”. Turn the captions on after you watch it once, then go through it again to read all of the poetry and musings of street people. It is a very powerful piece of art.
Posted in Photography, Poetry | Comments Off
Sep
8
From the official website …
The Edmonton Poetry Festival makes its second annual connection September 17-23, 2007. From the moment Edmonton Poetry Week is declared at City Hall, people will be plugging into poems all across the city – and especially downtown.
http://www.edmontonpoetryfestival.com/
Posted in Events, Poetry | Comments Off
