Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Apr 2015


Gumbos are made of this...
First onions and garlic,
Of course.
Next chorizo,
The real Mexican kind.
Then tomatoes, herbs,
And the most important:
OKRA!
How I rejoice
When I find okra.
I spent too many years
Without
Okra.
Bleak deprivation...
Now restored:
Crop added to
Canadian rotations
And tastes.
I re-discover
Each spring.
As if the first gumbo
Since time began.
Ah!

Monday, March 2, 2015

Mar 2015

Memories are made of this...

Objects created over time
Discover each other
On a shelf in my studio.
Guy Willingham, beloved husband
To my favourite Aunt Florence
Sat on his Dallas front porch
And whittled this little figure
Of me! He also whittled a figure
Of my dad. I'll show you another time.
The little bowl was gifted to me by
Philip John Evett, my university
Sculpture prof who showed me
The magic that can inform
Shapes and textures... as well as colours.
The bowl is pre-Columbian and sits
Exactly in my palm.
Do you suppose its ancient creator
Made it while sitting on his own front porch?
Did it sit exactly in his own palm?
The clay and glass piece is a more recent
Creation made by sculptor Bill Grace
In Barbados. Not long before his
Recent passing he sent me
A rather silly e-mail joke
For no apparent reason,
Explaining it with the words
I put on the sticky note
Behind my little whittled head.
Bill claimed it a typo.
I think not.
Now I bring them all together
And present them to you,
Just beecause.