Thursday 25 December 2008

Wallowing in Love and Capitalism

So you know that monkey in Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium that kept on reaching for Jason Bateman. Well I got that monkey for Christmas. And it really is a love-monkey. A solidly constructed sock monkey that has arms perfectly shaped for hugging. And I mean perfectly shaped, ergonomically designed, the perfect hug formula, with just the right amount of all factors to make it a hug-monkey. On our way home from Kelowna the Volvo broke down outside Agassiz so we had to tow it into Burnaby. Unfortunately that means that Mindy (my Firefly) is stuck out in Aldergrove and I have too much stuff (including hug-monkey and an awesome old portable typewriter) to take on the bus so I'm kindof stuck in Burnaby for a while. It's not that great because I have to move into Langley on the 1st or before and I need to start work on maybe the 2nd and school on like the 4th or something. But hey, I'll get there eventually. In the meantime I'm going to do some typing on the typewriter, maybe spit out some masterpieces. Merry Christmas all!!

pipesmokingprofessor

Sunday 21 December 2008

Dawn to Darkness

It's hard to believe that a Christmas could ever be spent away from home. Ever since we actually started celebrating Christmas (only about five years ago I guess) I've always been there, no matter where I'm at, I'll always show up for Christmas. This year I've been up in the Okanagan for the last week, seeing my incredibly cute new nephew Jonas and visiting all my friends and family up here, but with the weather conditions the way they are, driving home come Monday may not be a possibility. The roads are supposed to be a bit better tommorow, but there's that possibility that just looms over my head that we might not be able to make the trip. Then this morning I was reading Christoph's most excellent travel blog and I realized that he's going to be spending his Christmas in Liberia. I mean he doesn't even have snow, but the place of contentment that he has over there, because it's where God wants him to be, makes his blog entries so joyful. That's the kind of peace that I want, that's the kind of contentment that only God can give. I was reading my bible this morning and I came across this verse in Amos:

Amos 4:13
He who forms the mountains,
creates the wind,
and reveals his thoughts to man,
He who turns dawn to darkness,
and treads the high places of the earth-
the Lord God Almighty is his name.

God is in control.

Monday 1 December 2008

Powder

I believe this is the last poem that I wrote for my creative writing class that I actually edited and handed in. On Thursday, when I read three of my poems to the class, I had a sudden realization that most of my poems are really dark. Most of them seem to focus on the down and outs, the druggies, the prostitutes, "White Trash" and "Beardo". In fact this made me realize that there is a definate distinction between what I write and emo. To be certain, some of my stuff has been fairly introspective, but most of it is about other people or things. When it gets as dark as some of my stuff it's a small line, but it's a big deal. On that note here's the poem.

Powder
down the front steps
white sneakers left behind to bake in the sunshine
and far out in the field you lie
mesmerized by the white rabbit
white whale
albino everything in the sky

beneath you is a world of dark
you dig in black loam and find
oily white tuber roots
remember one time back home
dog's ear sitting in the trash can
maggots like ants, milling

your whole world turned around
and from then on
it was all ash from a chimney fire
or snow by the late night light of the streetlamp
the universe glimpsed from your bedside
white powder, illuminated dark

snorted in a downtown hotel
beauty takes its time
and then its toll
heads banging on a short carpet
think of nothing else
you don't remember anymore

awake to white walls and watching rerun tv
you OD'd and hit the floor
buck stops at the bottom
watching Charlie Chaplin faded Buster Keaton
pratfalls in a nearby hurricane
nothing fades to grey in film reels
just shades of black and white

so one day you'll walk out
put on a clean cotton shirt
good to the skin
ready for dirt stains
find a field
leave your shoes behind

Zen Master