Us

(a prose poem for poets)

Brothers and sisters, voices of the Word. We dare to care and practise language magic. Respect and appreciate its subtle ways of senses, mind, heart, and spirit. A natural expression from within of every possibility. Words matter to us more than mammon. More than the limits of half-life, mute and inarticulate. It is thus we accept, open up and let go of all that we each are as wordsmiths and individuals. Our poems are honestly earned and shared with other poems listening. We are each of us entitled, no longer alone in skin-encapsulated egos or distorted noise that limits and distracts to no particular end. It is thus we become who we are in craft and by nature: free and connected. We have much to say regardless of difference or experience. Listen to our sounds and images, music and art. Hear again our deep inner sea of the great human soul.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Reading Sunday at L’Espresso

Last day of 13th Edmonton Poetry Festival. Should be fun. Some family and friends in attendance. Will be reading the following new poem.

Default by Techno

No bot could ever
replace a sky.
No phone will ever
stop the tides.
Nor any hack nullify
our limitless love.
No avatar could
supplant you
in any case.
Nor any cloud
clone Monet
nor any bug
take down Beethoven.

The variables in the
Internet of Things
are this limited.
Touchscreens will never
supercede skin,
mind or soul.
All the brave new whims
are merely greyscale
and deletable.
And a user world is just that.
Egoic diminishments
in virtual domains.
More or less.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Re. David Suzuki

He may have wanted to hinder the oil industry, but he is Canada’s best-known scientist who has greatly enhanced the consciousness of people everywhere about Nature, the planet, and the environment. Early on, he started his career at U of A with his studies on fruit flies and it is apropos that the university give thanks and pay homage to this great Canadian. I featured a number of articles by and about him in my high school English textbooks of the 1980s and ’90s and would still stand by those pieces and, ultimately, his accomplishments on behalf of people and the planet.

The oil industry stuff strikes home for many Albertans and politically, but Suzuki is not solely responsible for the pro-environment activity going on in B.C. People need to take a broader, wider view of who he is and the much good he has done, to say nothing of the many truths he has told against pressure from naysayers and unbelievers. He is one of the top individuals associated with U of A and they are entitled to give him his dues and recognition same as any other educational institution. No, it’s appreciation time, critics and other agendas aside.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Like Something Out of “The Birds” Here a Couple of Mornings Ago

About 25 frenetic crows circling the neighbor’s tall spruce in the backyard. I started clapping as usual to create a change. What were they harassing and attacking repeatedly? I was stunned when an owl flew out the tree chased by the entire flock toward the western sky.
The crows probably have some nests there the owl tried to access to get at the babies. the ganging-up was quite startling and impressive. Crows are pretty bright as Candace Savage pointed out and have to have reasons for what they do. Anyway, yeah, it was disturbing like Hitchcock’s classic.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Re. Bill Cosby Verdict

Well, finally a major step forward for women everywhere and long overdue. (Outing Weinstein was also part of this MeToo moment.)

But imagine that, the long intervals between. First between the suffragettes at the beginning of the 1900s to get women the vote and right to be treated as “people”, and the early 1970s women’s movement for equal pay, the pill, and better treatment, and now in 2018 (almost 50 years later) for legal equality in courts and in America.

The American Dream failed women for a long, long time. For too long, they were used, abused, shamed, manipulated, controlled, and fought against on sexual matters. Rape convictions have been very tough to get on celebrities and famous people. Justice has long been unequal in these important, basic matters.

I think that these landmark cases will lead to more prosecutions and support for women in courts on these charges and crimes. It’s been a long way to Tipperary, but these brave women have achieved justice and fairness and broken a long negative chain of injustice and oversight. New heroines will be born out of all this positive change and moves forward.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Kudos to J-Man!

(the wise Einsteinian owl who keeps this blog afloat)

My remarkable IT Man who keeps my two blogs up and running despite the nasty hackers and robots running amuck out there in cyberspace. As long as he keeps my sites going, I will continue to share and opine in the best, thoughtful Montaigne-ish ways.

Tothineownselfbetrue.ca remains my all-purpose repository for personal consciousness and I thank readers again for tuning in periodically. I hope you find some helpful and inspirational stuff here that works for you, too.
RD

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Quotes by RD

(the necessity of having art in one’s own life)

Life is one long near-death experience.

You haven’t, always, experienced everything.

Poetry remains the most conscious, concise, aesthetic use of language.

The quiet desperation of the multitudes is physical, mental, and soul-related.

Objects often have minds of their own and bounce away or out of where we intended to put them. Matter over mind, pure and simple.

Three every day basics are sleep, three healthy meals, and movement of different kinds.

If you must work, make sure you have freedom and control, and feel like you’re making an important contribution to others and society.

Nobody likes others telling them what to do or limiting their freedom of choices.

To thine Inner Child and sensibility be true.

Sensibility is where the deeper feelings, thoughts, and soul experiences reside.

No one can/should ever make your daily or important decisions for you.

Childhood is best experienced on its own natural terms without unnecessary intrusions and impositions by the grown-up and cynical worlds.

Imagination is the saving grace of inner sanctum in all creative persons.

Creation and love remain the best games in town.

A full life requires mastery of language, self-expression, and effective communication.

A good sleep and breakfast are the two most important factors for a successful day.

Every day requires the presence of permanence to withstand the daily changes and adaptations usually in response to others’ stupidity, laziness, and egotism.

A good day is when you accomplish something positive, discover new interesting information, have insights, and move forward in one ‘world’ or more.

Psychologically speaking, it is most important to be and accept yourself as you essentially, really are.

You can no longer rely on public education for yourself or your kids and must assume personal responsibility for it and whatever life-long learning.

Love is essentially doing for or sacrificing for someone else and putting that person on a par or ahead of yourself and your own life.

Friendship is unquestioning loyalty and support regardless of circumstance.

Knowing and accepting yourself is one of life’s main obligations.

Regularly, you must be nice to yourself since there are no guarantees that anyone else will. You must ‘put back in’ for yourself and learn something new each day. Otherwise, you’ll be depleted and run-down.

A life without music, poetry, books, or art is terribly limited.

The truly great movies or artistic movies cannot be found on Netflix. They are also more likely to be found before 2000 AD. Today’s movies are too coarse, loud, violent, stupid, predictable, limited, phoney, and dumbed-down.

Nature is the greater context in which we live our lives. Experiencing it is necessary for perspective and personal fulfillment.

Everyone and everything is limited in some way. That said, there are myriad possibilities and one can choose to transcend whatever limiting context.

Most people settle for less or the conventional and use others while ignoring the finer, deeper, higher stuff and soul matters.

Materialism and chasing money blind most Western people from deeper consciousness and self-actualized autonomous living.

The secret of happy old age is not being bored or being a burden to anyone else.

We are only here so long so we’d better experience fully each passing, non-refundable moment of life.

Governments are exercises in holding onto power and creating agenda-ed perceptions in the voting public.

Everyone has a right to experience sensation.

There are many times when God and imagination are one.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Fun Day at CBC Mainstage, Edmonton City Centre

I was reading at noon with three women poets for the Edmonton Poetry Festival. 24 photos of us on the festival’s Facebook site.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

2 Lost Causes of Correct English:

February and Et cetera (etc.).
The ignoramuses have won on these two.
More often than not, you will hear Febuary and eck cetera (ect.–no such) out there, especially spoken by government and media types.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Monday: World Book Day

Something worth reminding people, students, and kids of.
750 million adults in the world cannot read or write (UNESCO)
1/4 of Americans have not read a book in the past year. 60 million people.
1/5 of Americans would struggle to read any part of a book.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment