What in the world...

It's hard to believe that it's really only a year since you-know-who was sworn in, yet it's even harder to not be amazed for how much the world has changed in that time. 

The "Gulf of America" was only the beginning. 

Today, there's a visual circulating online showing a new map, one that posts the US flag on the 'current US' as well as on Greenland, Venezuela, and Canada. 

Harder yet to imagine just how much more damage to alliances and relationships might be foisted upon the world in the coming year. 

Remembering Nelson Ball

Today would have (should have) been the day poet and publisher Nelson Ball turned 84. Sadly, he died in 2019. 

On Sunday, I joined with other writers in honouring poets no longer on earth in an event that takes place on a bi-monthly basis, the Dead Poets Reading Series. It was my distinct pleasure to be the one to celebrate Nelson. 

The little pile of books in the photo above were the ones I read from. What a joy to be able to share some of his poems with an audience who seemed eager to listen. 

The one on top, In This Thin Rain (apt for this quietly raining day here in BC) accounts for the happenstance of my meeting him. I wrote a review of it for a now-defunct online magazine and somehow Nelson tracked me down so he could say thank you. Not an experience a reviewer often has!

As I noted in my presentation, Nelson's wife Barbara Caruso was hugely important to him. An abstract artist who adored colour, she clearly influenced a great deal of his writing. The poems he dedicated to her were always filled with visual imagery and a lot of colour. I did my best to read a range of his work, poems that always seemed to be the result of close observation, both visually and sound-based. 

I closed with a poem that seemed appropriate for an ending to such a joyous presentation. Here, in its entirety (from a collection with the hopeful-sounding title, Almost Spring) is a poem called "Infinity" -- a little bit philosophical, I suppose. Somthing to think about...

There is 

no infinity--

 

only large numbers

 

growing

larger 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reso-revolutions

This past year has been one of the most challenging years I can recall. On the local front, the provincial scale, and of course, on the stage of world events. 

The last time the world was experiencing this many wars going on -- whether actively ongoing or in their early stages -- well, I can't recall.

As for environmental issues (even at the provincial level) -- what with Site C now being open, as well as those new transmission lines being built to supply fracking activities -- well, it's hard not be discouraged. Nation-wide, things are sounding even worse, with the tanker ban along BC's west coast being challenged, despite the hazards of shipping oil through Hecate Strait. 

Nearer to home, even our local arts council has taken a new direction, no longer offering the range of cultural events and activities it once did. 

Discouraging? To be sure. But hey, it's a new year, so all of us need to put on our shiniest set of armour and head out into the world to help bring about some of those badly-needed changes we and our planet so badly need. 

Onward!