23 November 2018

Countered



COUNTERED

An easy climate with all the elements,
earth, air, fire, water.
A desperate system solid as it is human.
Dust is falling where dust has climbed.
The sun is patient, moon calm, 
the sin of knowledge almost innocence.
Love has become goodwill, as grief has, 
as torturing strength has warped to sanity.
Now dustbowl earth completes its nothingness,
every bright image, lark or cardinal,
has dropped its wings, has moulted in disgust.
The lucid mind fumbles to doors and falls.
The crusted eyes tears cannot clarify.
But traveller dust which notices our earth
we totally invite until we die.
Now earth must spin as little as it is
as it has spun before our vast illusion.
Now loves will tumble on dark beds of space.
Loves will tumble now in any case.
But eyes of power, the long mileage to stars
our sleep will dreaden and intensify.
Lovers will love, and all the instant world
will tether joy, creation's sweet pathetic trust,
while our participating marrow
clicks with destroying dust.

Phyllis Webb
The Sea Is Also A Garden
The Ryerson Press, Toronto, 1962

16 November 2018

Summer Was Just Yesterday

It's snowing and windy today - the first real winter weather of the year. I'm not psychologically prepared for this! Thankfully, I find myself to be entirely unscheduled today for the first time in ages. Leisure! Pursue leisure. It feels imperative, especially today.



What better way to pass a cold, blustery November morning than by sharing some photos of a day in September? It was just two short months ago that my friend Sally and I ferried over to Toronto Island for a jaunt and I am enjoying remembering the sun and the water.

The city skyline is impressive though I couldn't help reflecting on how
much it's changed in the 30 years I've lived here.

Our friend's front door. We knocked intending a surprise visit.
 Alas. No one home.

Yep. I wore a bathing suit in public!
Not bad for a gal in her fifties.
Joy.

11 November 2018

Scrappy


It started with my frustration at being no longer able to take decent photos. Then I realized I just wasn't knitting as much anymore. My yarn is in storage and there is no comfy chair here. 

My time and energy have been spent elsewhere these past months. The Fight for $15 and Fairness is urgent and I spend a lot of time attending rallies and doing data entry. I even wrote and gave a speech at Queen's Park in July! You can't knit while doing that.

However, the air is colder now and I got a new job that's farther away. My 45 minute subway rides there and back translate into much knitting and podcast time. It's been nice to get back to.

Scrappy socks. Scrappy cat.