To thine own self be true

Has both authors’ signatures (next to impossible to find).

Just in time for another impeachment.

with the actual dust jacket, not a facsimile dj.

in a copy of a rare Legends of Vancouver.

in a copy of The Desperate People, one of his early books.

in A Voice from the Attic when he was starting out as a newspaper man and author.

Includes Sonata No. 1 in B Minor, Sonata No. 2 in A, and Sonata No. 3 in E, played by Baroque violin and harpsichord (as Bach played all keyboards on)

The ugliest American
crashes his way thru
the summits and china shops
of the world, on his way
to bully Rocket Man.

Overnight here,
a motorcyclist meets
his deer finale
on the vacant Henday.

And Sunday waking up
to a rapturous robin
interrupted once
by a brief siren
heading to another
pointless death.

Screwball Central
and Nature’s last word.
“The rains have come, all.
And there are other ways
too beautiful for you.
Why are you still asleep?”

(*Henday: a ring road around Edmonton)

And they aren’t fiction or poetry.

I’m thinking of the best book ever written on Canadian Literature called Survival and another called Negotiating with the Dead which presents her conclusions about writing and being a writer.

I revisited the latter yesterday and found many astute, unique, and intelligent observations on many topics. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is or wants to be a serious writer in Canada today. And for any Atwood fans looking for some well-done thoughtful nonfictional prose and critical writing.

I also quite enjoyed the anecdotes about growing up in Canada and becoming a writer in the ’60s. These are insights given nowhere else and provide insight into the past cultural life in Canada. Way to go, Peg!

THOM-THOM-THOM
steady, unrelenting from the car
beside me at the light.

And suddenly
I want to tell him about
Beethoven’s “Fifth” or
Glenn Gould’s “Goldberg”

that there are other beats
and rhythms than monotone,
other tones, sounds and voices
than THOM-THOM-THOM.

I recall Brubeck’s “Time Out”
with its various time signatures
and even the tempo shift in
“MacArthur Park”.

You can go faster or slower
than THOM-THOM-THOM
I want to say to him.
There are many myriad styles,
genres and voicings.

You can play cool, hot, hard,
and sweet, even acoustically,
or in analogue,
using natural sounds
with voices, instruments,
and no tech.

Why there are Bach’s organ solos,
Stan Getz’s sax,
Lenny Breau’s guitar,
Ravi Shankar’s sitar,
Ravel’s “Bolero”,
Tchaikovsky’s “1812”,
Satie’s “Gymnopedies”,
The Beatles experiments,
and Sinatra’s voice.

So many possibilities
so many sounds beyond your
deadening, primitive
THOM-THOM-THOM.

But the moment passes
and the light changes.
He leaves my notions and van
in the dust forever
and drives off
happily limited and very certain
with his meaningful
THOM-THOM-THOM.

(why I travel to Butchart Gardens near Victoria as often as I can)

“Flowers…are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

“How many undervalue the power of simplicity! But it is the real key to the heart.”
–William Wordsworth

“I love my past. I love my present. I’m not ashamed of what I’ve had, and I’m not sad because I have it no longer.”
–Colette

“Gratitude is a soil on which joy thrives.”
–Berthold Auerbach

“The quieter you become, the more you can hear.”
–Ram Dass

“There is enchantment right in front of you, waiting for you to notice.”
–Janet Luhrs