A Memory of Today

Victoria Park, Regina, Saskatchewan

The heat offered me a bench in the park, 

a breeze at my back and 

a lingering summer day. 

Once more the calendar 

had been challenged by 

the shifting weather.  

Two errands completed, 

each with a good stroll between 

with a stop for lunch and tea. 

Businessmen and women, shoppers, 

and teens that should have been in school

walked and strolled, laughed and talked, 

read a book or just enjoyed the shaded sun 

for what has become a memory of today. 

“In solitude we give passionate attention to our lives, 

to our memories, to the details around us.”

~ Virginia Woolf, writer

(1882 ~ 1941)

Cathedral Area Arts Festival

Sun warm

  light warm breezes 

   music filtered through the air

    vocalists, bag pipes and dancing

Walking, talking crowds filled

    13th Ave and two side streets 

     strolling past tented kiosks

      in front of open shops

All ages and manner of dress

 Loose flowing pants or skirts

  Shorts, big floppy hats

   Strollers with tots, sleeping or curious

   one or two dogs on leash and well mannered.

My only purchases: food.

  First stop - a chicken taco

    Second stop - a spring roll

      Third stop - scuffles, 

chocolate puffed wheat square, 

  and one cinnamon bun

    Last stop: a loaf of raisin sourdough bread

My other interests:

  Pottery  

   Jewellery

Nothing forced money from my wallet!

I walked about half of the entire length of 13th Ave 

  only one short foray into one of the side streets.

Time for home!

“We were a train full of strangers, and they were all the same.”

~ Cherie Priest, Dreadnought

Cheer and Charm ~ A Tiny Story

Cheer and Charm were twins. Two little guys with shiny brown curls and big twinkling brown eyes. When Cheer was caught taking cookies from the cookie jar, Charm would just smooth the way with their mom and they both got more cookies. Both of them had smiles that melted the grumpiest of people. You know, those people who’s hearts are stuffed in their back pockets. Cheer and Charm were quite a team, getting away with all the mischief that five year olds could think of. But when it came to a bird with a broken wing, a cat all scruffed up from living outside too long, anyone in need of a five year old’s hug they turned all their sweetness on them. They could find homes or shelter for any of them, by bringing them home to their mom. “She always knows what to do. You know, the phone numbers for helping.” So inside a smile and a laugh, might be someone with a soft squishy heart that dials down their excitement to help.

“You will discover that you have two hands, One is for 

helping yourself and the other is for helping others.”

~ Audrey Hepburn

Where is The Poetry?

Where is the poetry in today?

A hot, muggy day filled with banking, 

groceries, pet supplies, 

hair care needs, 

bus rides to and fro. 

to be greeted by the cheerful bank teller; to see students and grandmothers; parents with their children or wee ones in strollers; moving around the city, 

it is too easy for me to be 

critical of how people walk or talk; 

picking at the minutia flowing all around me; a Babel of languages rippling through the hot afternoon.

to feel the kindness of the young man 

who called out from his bicycle: “Be careful” 

when I crossed the street;

seeing the tiredness on the face

of the young mother next to me on the bus,

to hear the laughing chatter of teenagers 

in their last days of summer before school.

This is the poetry of the city.

“Poetry is what happens when nothing else can.”

~ Charles Bukowski, poet, novelist, writer

(1920 - 1994)

Book Review ~ The Promise of Canada by Charlotte Gray - 150 Years - People and Ideas that Have Shaped Our Country

Such a fascinating read! This book is packed snugly with the story of Canada. Not just politics, but some of the people that created and continue to develop this sprawling, multicultural country. Historian and biographer Charlotte Gray shows us the work that it’s taken to build Canada, including showing some of the dirty laundry over our 150 year span. She includes the need to bind east to west with the railway and the immigrants that built it. With excellent research and elegant narrative, Charlotte Gray chose nine characters from Canada’s first 150 years to paint this picture ~ 

George-Etienne Cartier, the Francophone Father of Confederation 

who advocated for political multiculturalism; 

Emily Carr on Vancouver Island, the Group of Seven in the east and 

the development of the arts in Canada; 

Economist Harold Innis, a prolific writer of nationalism 

about Canada as a ‘natural’ rather than political entity;

Tommy Douglas, a provincial and then federal politician

and his promotion of health care for all that brought in Medicare; 

Sam Steele and the founding of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police 

with their successes, benefits and deficits;

Elijah Harper, former chief of the Red Sucker Lake First Nation, spoke up in the Manitoba Legislature against the Meech Lake Accord and for Indigenous rights;

Supreme Court Justice Bertha Wilson, the first woman on the Supreme Court, 

who had strong views on the Constitutional Rights and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms;

Margaret Atwood, a Canadian literary treasure 

who has shaped Canadian literature at all levels; 

Preston Manning, the Alberta politician who disagreed 

with the traditional politics of the East throughout his career.

I can only give you a sketch of how Canada came to be, how this country grew and has continued to grow. The recent events since Charlotte Gray’s book was published, shows our strength to survive and thrive no matter the conditions.

“Cbarlotte Gray helps us to better understand who we are 

as an evolving nation ~ a country for all that 

will thrive well beyond the next 150 years.

~ Naheed Nenshi, previous mayor of Calgary, Alberta

Title: The Promise of Canada - 150 Years - People and Ideas That Have Shaped Our Country

Author: Charlotte Gray

Copyright: 2016

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Canada, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Format: Non-Fiction, hardback

Type: History

ISBN: 978-1-4767-8467-0

ISBN: 1-4767-8469-4 (ebook)

We are the Reason

In our nation 

we can only see 

in weighty words like 

infrastructure, 

politicians, 

governance, 

and political partys. 

I suppose that last is 

two smaller words, 

but they carry 

the same weight

as the others. 

Those we don’t see 

are those of us that 

make necessary those 

grand ideas peopled by

bow ties and natty business suits, 

pearls and smart business suits. 

Those of us that protect our streets, 

teach our children, 

heal and care for the sick, 

fill out forms in whatever job we do,

clerks in grocery stores, farmers;

bus drivers, street cleaners, 

garbage collectors, tax preparers……

I know I’ve missed some of the multitude ~

We are all the reason for those 

in positions of power and decision.

“If you look at life one way, there is always cause for alarm.”

~ Elizabeth Bowen

 

People, Not Politics

Of all the words broadcast like the fluff of thistles, words of the last several weeks 

speak ill of the United States writ large. Words landing in the soil north and south

threaten to disrupt us all.

Faith in the hearts and minds 

of our peoples ground me.

“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

~ Steve Jobs

On an Afternoon Walk - Through the Park

Buttercups scattered daintily at waters edge, lilacs bursting with elegance along the path, cyclists and walkers, some with their dogs big or small, while sun warmed benches welcome a casual sit down to watch 

   ducks in flight

      pelicans landing gracefully

Through the park, a light breeze dances and cools the air just enough.

 

“At some point in life, 

the world’s beauty becomes enough.”

~ Toni Morrison

Special Shadows

People come to us 

with their stories, 

tapestries woven 

in the glare of success, 

the brilliance of achievement, 

the dank, darkness of grief, 

ordinary days ~

lost in the shuffle,

while stitch by stitch

in clarity or fog

we are the people who come…. 

“You write your life story by the choices you make.”

~ Helen Mirren