tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-360736362011-07-29T05:09:39.201-04:00This is a blog about my other blog, wordcurrents, where I post a new poem every day. Why write about another blog? Simple. By blogging about my blog, I give myself a chance to talk about the process, and perhaps help more people to find my work. This will not be a daily blog, like wordcurrents — more like weekly — but it should be interesting — to me, at least.riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.comBlogger1331100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-63718629904853226482010-04-03T18:29:00.004-04:002010-04-03T18:35:36.547-04:00

April is National Poetry Month--in the USA, I'm guessing. But on the Internet, there are no national boundaries unless you are trying to buy something subversive, like a book of poetry (Amazon.com refused to sell me a book of poetry because I do not live in the USA). Anyway, about NaPoWriMo: it's a time herds of poets attempt to write a poem every day. That fact has made me decide to join the

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-13202057168323631842010-02-15T23:15:00.003-05:002010-02-16T12:15:52.941-05:00

wordcurrents is down. I installed a plugin that was supposed to keep readers form copying posts without permission. Immediately it created a database error that locked up the whole blog with an error message.I have disabled the plugin, uninstalled it, deletaed and respored my datebase from a previous backup, upgraded my wordpress installation, all to no avail.My latest strategy has been to ask my

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-41468266435265597262010-02-01T07:43:00.003-05:002010-02-01T07:57:07.760-05:00

It has been an interesting experiment/experience running the contest, which ran from December 12 2009 to January 31, 2010.The idea was to get some substantial feedback from my readers.The result was as follows:I received one email through the entry form from a reader who legitimately requested that I edit his book of poetry, and something like thirty spam messages per day. Over the course of the

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-87863447710279682862010-01-19T20:15:00.002-05:002010-01-19T20:20:10.957-05:00

Both Kate and Anna McGarrigle's homes are within about an hour of here. Today's poem, "voice", is prompted by Kate, who died yesterday of cancer at age 63.Here is the Montreal Gazette article.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-26217463402294320442010-01-14T10:22:00.002-05:002010-01-14T10:45:17.690-05:00

You may have noticed that wordcurrents (A new poem every day . . . .) has had no new posts since Sunday January 10, 2010. Today is Thursday the 14th. What happened?I got the 'flu.Monday, I slept all morning. That afternoon, I practised with our quartet, Acapellics Anonymous, 2:30 to 4 pm at our home, waved goodbye, and suddenly felt so tired I had to lie down. By 6 pm I had a temperature, and the

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-49018081015987318312010-01-04T05:30:00.002-05:002010-01-04T06:10:28.108-05:00

I wrote this poem at the suggestion of Kathleen Hay, soon after St. Albert's Cheese opened its Facebook location, and everybody in the area was becoming a fan. St. Alberts is one of the few remaining "cheese factories" in an area once famous for its cheeses. Our focal farm industry used to be dairy farms (raising mainly Holstein cattle). In the day, there were numerous of these "cheese factories"

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-48165376039978105302009-12-22T23:10:00.003-05:002009-12-22T23:28:51.397-05:00

This is a picture of my uncle, Ron Hill, who died yesterday, two months shy of 100 years old. Ron was a very kind and sensitive person who was a force for the cause of blind people in the maritimes. At age 7, he was having his jacket sewn by his mother when the Harbour at Halifax was subject a massive explosion: a ship loaded with explosives collided with another. Although the family lived at 5

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-33121810405596858412009-12-15T09:06:00.004-05:002009-12-15T09:44:33.996-05:00

Yesterday ( December 14) and the day before, I posted a couple of poems as reactions to a substantial snowfall. In /"fluffy", I expressed a grumpy revulsion, and in "low gravity" I took the contrary position.I think northerners have this love/hate relationship with snow, each of us occupying an ambivalence with considerable scope since snow plays such a definite part in our geographical existence

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-42772305349029694012009-12-12T07:48:00.002-05:002009-12-12T07:55:40.643-05:00

Yesterday I posted my 1000th original poem in my blog, wordcurrents, where, except for a hiatus of fourteen months, I have posted a new poem every day since February 2006. Not every poem is a "keeper" (as anglers say), but I am pleased with most of them. You may wish to drop by and comment.In the space of a month, over 2000 visitors read wordcurrents. You can see where they are from by clicking

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-51726513437523883472009-12-07T05:46:00.002-05:002009-12-07T06:06:28.087-05:00

Poetry presents a rare point of view to the world: the poet presents the world as filtered through the right side of the brain. I think this is an interesting way of determining what is the essential element that qualifies a collection of words to be considered a poem. I note that writers often place words into what looks like verse, but does not strike me as a poem because it is all left brain

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-68320099141738777242009-11-28T17:47:00.003-05:002009-11-28T23:11:10.948-05:00

On the Dr. Oz Show the other day, Dr. Oz was talking about coffee addiction. One of the points he made in passing was that it takes the body twenty-eight days to detoxify itself after you stop taking the addictive substance.After two and a half years of use, I have been off the Temazepam that was prescribed by the sleep clinic doctor, for eleven days. Except for really sore places and severe

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-83452982473897065852009-11-16T12:45:00.002-05:002009-11-16T13:09:18.960-05:00

I wrote this poem after meeting my cousin, (let's call her Mary) whom many years ago, my sister and I babysat many times, back when we did not know she was our cousin, once removed. A little over twenty years ago, Mary found her biological mother, my first cousin, who acknowledged her but blocked Mary's contact with her children (Mary's half-sisters and half-brothers) and the rest of the family.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-19700487324234460402009-11-08T23:12:00.000-05:002009-11-08T23:12:39.906-05:00

I took this photo today after I finished raking. This is part of what I was talking about in the poem.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-64939490866110381902009-10-31T08:30:00.003-04:002009-10-31T08:38:24.756-04:00

This is a map generated to cover the past ten days. It does not show bots, just human visitors. I have very little idea who these people are, but I can see where they are. Each orange dot represents a reader's location. If you can't see the fine type, there are 1089 of them, during a time span of about nine and a half days.If you click on the map, you will see it full size.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-64882879276339011322009-10-30T06:39:00.003-04:002009-10-30T06:46:35.334-04:00

Last night, not only did my site lock up so that I was unable to post, just when I was trying to post yesterday's poem, but my Internet service went down shortly after, and I finally had to give up. I lost more than half of the poem in the process, and upon recovering my connection today, proceeded to rewrite the piece; however, when I tried to post it, my blog locked me out. I did manage to save

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-37671980997626460432009-10-28T23:45:00.003-04:002009-10-28T23:48:40.287-04:00

I was able to solve the problem. Apparently there was an error in the code at the ISP level, and that caused strange issues in the software. I found it frustrating to have written a post that I could not share.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-70208706206721110112009-10-28T00:53:00.002-04:002009-10-28T00:57:04.337-04:00

I have been unable to post yesterday's poem in wordcurrents. I was able to write the poem in the editor, and save it, but unable to post it, and cannot get back into the editor to copy it here. Nerts!!

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-54449329940854270882009-10-27T18:32:00.004-04:002009-10-27T18:45:54.043-04:00

Here is the photo that appears in the thumbnail with the poem. Click on it to see the large version of the photo. A larger version is available on line, as are details.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-18056866784300225272009-10-19T18:35:00.002-04:002009-10-19T18:50:36.581-04:00

There is a progression in these photos. I will probably post more later as they build the new fibre-optic cable system centre. The poem pretty well says it all. Click on the title above to visit the poem on wordcurrents.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-24711426617642605252009-10-17T08:30:00.003-04:002009-10-17T08:36:23.132-04:00

I wish that the sun and the colour of the leaves would cooperate: when the leaves were brightest, it was raining. Now that we are getting some sun, they are thinning out. This is a view of the bush from the back yard. Note the green lower leaves. Click on the title of this post to see the poem.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-64467670228945914112009-10-10T20:51:00.004-04:002009-10-10T21:34:43.383-04:00

This was a ceremony Colin asked us to perform, on the dock in front of Reynolds' cottage. Peter read Colin's poem, then Colin threw into the river symbols of the summer, that he had collected. He wants us to do this at the end of each summer, using items contributed by each person who visited the cottage. The poem appears below. I find this very moving.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-15245923155213947942009-09-27T14:57:00.004-04:002009-09-27T15:04:15.534-04:00

You can see the leaves that have fallen overnight. Just two days ago I finished grouting the walk. The main reason I wanted to grout it was to keep leaves from filling in the spaces between the rocks. It is also a rainy day, and the rain is forecast to continue for at least sour days. So, as I said above in the title: "Just in time."

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-31249870895182886872009-09-22T10:49:00.002-04:002009-09-22T11:14:42.566-04:00

Here is the walk as the polyplastic sand grout is setting. You can't see that it is raining.In the background are the unusable bags of polyplastic sand that were partially wet when I received them. The supplier is making good.This is a blurry photo of me a few days ago, getting ready to go out and adjust reluctant flagstonestone's opinion of me.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-63806892627086967422009-09-15T08:11:00.002-04:002009-09-15T08:15:39.401-04:00

The poem is a meditation upon a path I am building of pink flagstone.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-30096785901453002002009-09-03T18:41:00.004-04:002009-09-03T18:58:15.079-04:00

When I started this blog, I started counting the number of days I posted a new poem. Today that count stands at 895.However, I looked at the number of posts with the category "poem", and see that it says 901. That is due to the fact that on some days I have posted more than one poem, but added only one to the count because at that point I was counting days instead of poems.So now, I am thinking

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-55080699958003486862009-09-01T13:34:00.004-04:002009-09-01T13:45:02.261-04:00

I have started using a new theme, "EBusiness" a premium theme by Elegant ThemesI am still playing with it: most parts are working, but some are not.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-79628535949676686422009-06-19T15:39:00.003-04:002009-06-19T15:56:02.645-04:00

I have been wanting to develop a logo for wordcurrents for some time, and when matias s' Shockingly Simple Favicon plugin was swiftly followed by Dan Cannon's Dynamic Headers plugin, all the pieces were in place for me to put together the logo that would serves as a favicon too. So here it is, in both forms: The smaller one is the Favicon, which is displayed at the front end of your address bar

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-19353208739554277812009-04-27T10:51:00.003-04:002009-04-27T11:39:06.362-04:00

With my recent review of "Kingfisher Days", I discovered once again the perils of dictating to a computer. The dictation program requires relative silence to interpret speech and convert it to text. Unfortunately, when I was dictating the review, two of my grandchildren ( seven and three) were entertaining (read: "running and shouting enthusiastically with")two friends (six and two) in the room

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-30846165330745352732009-03-30T13:30:00.006-04:002009-04-13T07:10:18.209-04:00

This week, I am posting some of the other poems I wrote in preparation for my reading at the Mayor's Celebration of the Performing Arts at Aultsville theatre on March 28, 2009.I scheduled "Circling the Moon", the Gala poem, to post during the Gala, after I performed it. I brought out my recorder with me, placed it on the podium, and recorded the reading, which I posted that night, with the

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-62507586236386213472009-03-16T12:47:00.005-04:002009-03-16T13:01:46.761-04:00

This gig I have at The Mayor's Celebration of the Performing arts, March 28, 2009, in Aultsville Theatre, Cornwall, Ontario, is turning out to be fun. I have pretty well finished my poem, which I shall post simultaneously in wordcurrents with the event, along with several of the poems I wrote so as to have a choice. I was just speaking with Pam Maloney, the event organizer, Chair of the

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-65218358522738992692009-02-20T13:27:00.003-05:002009-02-20T13:38:52.773-05:00

With the purchase of some excellent portable recording equipment (see photo below), I have begun podcasting the poetry in earnest. I have previously recorded some readings and commentaries which have suffered from the quality of the equipment. I hope I get some feedback to let me know if the commentaries are useful; as well, since some of my readings are a bit unorthodox, to let me know if my

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-48144542096114538402009-01-12T18:54:00.005-05:002009-01-12T19:02:27.614-05:00

The poem is commenting on what is visible in these two photos. The vet's parking lot is to the extreme left of the photos. The yard past our back fence was as smooth as and unblemished as ours still is. My neighbour has commented on the situation previously. In the spring, his lawn is spattered with a lot of dog poop. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the tall spray of snow when it was

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-74132645814947198872009-01-03T22:56:00.000-05:002009-01-03T22:56:33.744-05:00

On my windowsill, unnoticeable until you look closely: 

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-91440274081041905812009-01-02T18:48:00.006-05:002009-01-02T19:04:50.522-05:00

Here is a look at the Inanis Glass view of wordcurrents:You can change the background and access many other things on the bottom bar:The glass ball with the pencil in it to the left is where you go to change the backgrounds. The rest is pretty self-evident.Fortunately, this blog theme is compatible with the version of WordPress I am using.Here is the bottom bar with the menu open:The menu on the

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-34325499252369732572008-12-16T19:30:00.002-05:002008-12-16T19:32:55.631-05:00

This means that if you are a member of Facebook, you can click on the link, and join my fans. Yipee. I know you are excited. So am I (yawn). I'll just duck behind this bush to avoid the stampede.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-14647825021002317182008-12-05T22:54:00.004-05:002008-12-05T23:12:40.172-05:00

"triptych" is an experiment that uses two WordPress plugins: "Post Tabs" by Leo Germani, and "Grey Box Integrator" by Ajay D'Sousa. The one allows me to set up as many tab links as I want so that a clickable verse appears in each tabbed page, and the other allows me to set up words in a verse so that when you click them, a photo comes up in a rather impressive frame.Here is what the post looks

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-11425421314437448402008-11-29T12:06:00.004-05:002008-11-29T12:18:51.115-05:00

So I was noticing that two of my stats collectors were showing zero visitors to wordcurrents, even though readers were still commenting on items and Google stats was showing a continuing readership. As an experiment, I went back to my old theme*, and right away, my blog stats all started working again. So I guess there is something about the theme that does not allow stats from most stats engines

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-66155371412062959102008-11-24T09:23:00.003-05:002008-11-24T09:41:44.564-05:00

The new look at wordcurrents has come with more than one price:My usage tracking services are not working, even though they indicate they are: according to two stats services, I have had no visitors since I made the intital change, even though I have had comments on the blog's new look.Although I like the appearance of the blog, I prefer a three-column layout (which the new beta versions of the

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-50232339208026132008-11-15T17:57:00.004-05:002008-11-15T18:13:32.216-05:00

Here is a screen capture of one version of what my blog now looks like. I am using Vistered Little 1.6 by Nik Iliadis, a theme that allows me to upload backgrounds that the reader can select using the little swatches (in this shot, there are 29) at the top of the screen. Cookies keep each reader's choice so that the reader's view stays consistent no matter what I or other readers choose.It also

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-46270901560797788862008-10-27T14:17:00.002-04:002008-10-27T14:35:07.161-04:00

Although I started wordcurrents as a poetry blog with occasional theatre reviews thrown in, the reviews have become the most heavy traffic on the blog. My review of Scorched by Wajdi Mouawad has had hundreds of viewers. Today the total count was over 750. Other popular reviews feature Talking With . . . by Jane Martin, Departures and Arrivals by Carol Shields, and Swollen Tongues by Kathleen

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-46655099953472117982008-09-12T10:30:00.003-04:002008-09-12T11:28:16.979-04:00

As I have already posted in wordcurrents, I am attempting to dictate my posts instead of type them. While dictation has the advantage of allowing me to rest my poor aching hands, it has the disadvantage of creating barrier to my imagination. I have noted in the past that my handwritten work is different from my typed work. Learning to dictate without this barrier is a little bit like learning how

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-83482562346594528892008-06-22T21:32:00.002-04:002008-06-22T21:43:46.781-04:00

This is the first time I have used the "pre" HTML code to post a poem with indentations. This procedure lets me compose the poem in WordPerfect, then copy and paste it into the "pre" code, and it more or less keeps its formatting.It has always frustrated me that HTML and php sites do not easily allow poems to be formatted that way, as it really limits free verse form. I have considered rewriting

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-62772084073364083832008-06-07T10:39:00.002-04:002008-06-07T10:49:55.452-04:00

I admired Healey's Plan B, which I reviewed in wordcurrents after seeing it at GCTC on Thursday June 5, 2008.Plan B is a remarkably funny satire of Canadian politics. Better than that, it has three acts, and with two intermissions, runs over three hours. Healey is a Canadian playwright to watch.Here are some links to give you some background about Michael:Playwrights CanadaSuite

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-14900158494465930922008-06-01T09:05:00.002-04:002008-06-01T09:24:39.489-04:00

This milestone has come with no particular fanfare. It is more a tribute to the power of habit than to any other particular talent; I have written and posted a at least one new poem every day (with the exception of July and August last year) since mid-February 2006.I know that many of them are pretty feeble; in fact, since most of them are first drafts, and I have chosen to revise only perhaps

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-46434685229812581042008-05-21T07:59:00.002-04:002008-05-21T08:07:34.885-04:00

One of my FaceBook friends has a birthday today. As I was writing a note on her "Wall", which originally read something like "Today is the first day of the rest . . . ", it struck me that there was a poem in there. Then I thought of the anecdote that appears at the top of the piece, and after about a half-hour of fiddling, today's poem, of four-lines, was born. I tried a few stabs at lengthening

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-81960956717188748182008-05-15T11:16:00.005-04:002008-05-17T07:26:12.557-04:00

The title of this poem ("fiery braille") derives from Tom's lines in the opening of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie":“. . . the thirties, when the huge middle class of America was matriculating in a school for the blind. Their eyes had failed them, or they had failed their eyes, and so they were having their fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery Braille alphabet of a dissolving

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-3500566258728307102008-05-04T06:52:00.004-04:002008-05-04T07:23:32.121-04:00

This series of poems is based on the fact that my office is in the basement, it is spring, and I have been noticing worm castings all over the lawn.Worms remind me of the Hamlet's line in Hamlet, in which having killed Polonius, he tells the king to look for the old schemer "not where he eats but where he is eaten. . . certain politic worms are e'en at him."The setting, then, is under ground,

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-41615038862085824762008-04-18T00:52:00.002-04:002008-04-18T01:07:44.611-04:00

"fountain" which first appeared in wordcurrents on March 16, and was redrafted and posted on April 12 in a new version in WILD Poetry Forum, has been selected as Poem of the Week for the week of April 14 in Wild. The version of the text posted in Wild is different, and appears below. Here follows the text of the proclamation at Wild, posted yesterday.Please join the administration, staff, members

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-56848167678434926922008-04-02T13:56:00.005-04:002008-04-02T17:22:27.947-04:00

I wrote this poem, "the geology of snow" in wordcurrents after a few days of observing the ugly remainder of winter, which is best understood, if you have not observed such snow, by looking at these photos: I have been trying to publish these with the poem, but the Gallery feature of the new version of WordPress is not working for me.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-80179775498676857762008-03-30T18:51:00.003-04:002008-03-30T19:04:45.508-04:00

Today's poem, "Jay-Gee closes" is based on the following.After 61 years in Cornwall, Joane Assaly, owner of Jay-Gee Shoes, has announced that the store will close by the end of August of this year. "Competition from stores like Wal-Mart made it impossible to continue," she said. Jay-Gee comes form her her uncle's name and her father's name: Joe and George. The two brothers owned and operated the

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-16593609443569152392008-03-26T00:39:00.003-04:002008-03-26T00:45:57.155-04:00

Here is an article our local paper ran about me. It is a 20 Question Q&A with a brief bio. There was a photo taken last summer of me with my youngest grandson, De Danann, but it is not included with the article.So here it is. To see the article, click on the title, "About me" above.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-52106013855123972672008-03-09T08:02:00.004-04:002008-03-09T08:15:13.833-04:00

The wordcurrents poem referred to here is "reluctant clocks"Last night, as my wife and I, both sneezing and coughing and feeling somewhat sorry for ourselves, attempted to reset our bedroom clocks to daylight saving time over a month earlier than we used to, our clocks refused to co-operate. Her bedside clock, a fairly new digital clock radio seems to have decided that the "adjust" button refers

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-86271974083139340762008-02-10T10:23:00.000-05:002008-02-10T11:08:07.225-05:00

Today's poem, "Looking out over the Elsa Valley: Tuscany, 1998", was inspired by reading notes and poems I wrote while staying in Cellole Uno, ten years ago. I found them while doing the cleanup I wrote about in yesterday's poem, "clearing out the essentials"For two weeks in April 1998, we rented a section of the villa shown here. This is located just a couple of kilometers from Castellina in

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-77529719390952057592008-01-27T14:28:00.000-05:002008-01-27T15:00:26.517-05:00

In the picture you see Eero with his mother and maternal great-grandmother, attending the Robbie Burns Night in Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario. The event is run at the Picton Legion by the Picton Legion Pipe band, of which my son Peter, Eero's father, is Pipe Major (leader of the band, for those who don't know what a Pipe major is.)The morning after, in the Picton Harbour Restaurant, where

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-20193131375192331772008-01-24T07:37:00.000-05:002008-01-24T07:48:51.217-05:00

I was at it again yesterday: shoveling four inches of snow out of my too-big driveway, path, front steps. The only advantages I can see to frequent renewal of snow depth are that the exercise is good for me, and the fresh snow covers all the gray road crap. Of course, this means that come the next thaw, we'll have an eyesore, but that's the nature of snow.We have terrible cards at duplicate,

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-14014221592201406132008-01-10T15:35:00.000-05:002008-01-10T18:22:40.284-05:00

The first two shots show the city's loaders clearing snow from the boulevard in front of our house around midnight a few days ago. These next shots show the state of the yard and street in front of our house after the warm spell of the last few days, when the temperature was warmer (15 degrees celsius) than it was in the first few days of July last summer (8 degrees celsius).

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-54122157080303444932007-12-29T07:20:00.000-05:002007-12-29T11:59:17.045-05:00

Here are some pictures from the day after we received 50 cm of snow, with winds that left it a lot deeper than that where it drifted. On a clear day like the one shown, even the shadows in the snow are blue! The poems in wordcurrents I wrote about the snow in latish December are based on this event.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-29282489857090373622007-12-16T10:06:00.000-05:002007-12-16T10:27:45.802-05:00

The title of this post for December 15 is a play on CPAP, the acronym for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. This is a device to overcome a condition called sleep apnea, in which the airway to the lungs is cut off during sleep. The device reminds me of Jonathan Swift's take on science: complicated silly invasive procedures applied to human problems.Don't get me wrong: sleep apnea is a serious

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-79199643529946073902007-12-08T13:51:00.000-05:002007-12-08T14:04:44.957-05:00

Once again, I have posted a reading of one of my poems. This reading of "elephant waltz" is about two minutes long, in MP3 format. The file size is a tad larger than 2Mb. The poem is part of an experiment in rhythm. The rhythmic poems in this series are tagged under "rhythm" in the tag cloud at the bottom of the left column in wordcurrents. (Clicking on "rhythm" in the cloud, brings up excerpts

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-22340165687145533932007-12-06T12:36:00.000-05:002007-12-06T12:43:58.984-05:00

It turns out the problem was not a hacker, but some internal security software that accidentally identified me as a malicious fiend intent on destroying the blog and world peace or something. A great many conscientious bloggers who use this software were locked out of their own blogs. Here is a link to a discussion of the problem: Bad BehaviourYesterday's poem, which, because of the screw up, I

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-40521469824675362472007-12-05T21:29:00.000-05:002007-12-05T21:32:10.884-05:00

wordcurrents has been hacked. For the time being, I can neither post nor edit anything in the blog. If you try to post a comment, you will see an error message that says you can fix the error. Please do not try this procedure, as it will probably create more problems.I shall post a note here when the error has been corrected.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-13493119302550776412007-11-25T11:29:00.000-05:002007-11-25T12:14:22.105-05:00

A group of us went to the virtually sold out 2300 seat Southam Hall at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada's capital, last night. The three hour performanceof Pina Bausch's Les with a cast of ten men and ten women was mesmerizing. The setting was a bare black-box stage with a shallow depression where a pool of water formed, ostensibly from drips above. The piece comes to us from

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-31183708470363512922007-11-22T23:11:00.000-05:002007-11-22T23:23:38.767-05:00

I used to call my wife and her sisters the Four Sisters of the Apocalypse. A joke, of course. Sure they were four very definite women of Scottish-Irish descent—that tells you a lot. That gave their four husbands a kind of collegiality in my mind.Now, just as there are only three sisters of the Apocalypse, so also are there only three husbands: Ed has left. He didn't exactly want to go, and

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-25712366520548979752007-11-16T15:50:00.000-05:002007-11-16T17:21:22.093-05:00

Yesterday, because Flora was curling, I was alone as I drove down to Lancaster for my haircut. The day was pretty wet, with dark but distinct heavy clouds hanging low over the river. The road hugs the river quite picturesquely for most of the half-hour trip, making the drive a pretty Zen experience.I like to drive with the radio off, mainly for the sake of absorbing the experience. I don't know

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-44301494736974757742007-11-04T14:22:00.000-05:002007-11-04T14:39:06.947-05:00

I have just finished a gig as "Poet in Residence" for October at youngpoets.ca.The site is run by The League of Canadian Poets for students and their teachers. My job for October was to comment on poems posted in two parts of the forum: the General Forum, for young poets who are sensitive about criticism, and the Advanced Forum, for young poets who can take and give serious constructive

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-90133079515748154792007-10-20T16:58:00.000-04:002007-10-20T17:00:38.959-04:00

The final problem, keeping anyone including search engines form finding wordcurrents, was that Google Analytics was preventing pages from loading. I removed it, and everything is A-okay. What a relief!

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-72764587353655449122007-10-19T13:15:00.000-04:002007-10-19T13:35:59.897-04:00

True horror story: The past week, I have been working desperately to overcome a disastrous database problem in wordcurrents. Two fields in the database totally disappeared, making linking from page to page impossible. All six hundred-plus posts were there, but there was no way to read anything but parts of the front page. Search engines could not find me, and my readership dropped dramatically. I

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-10038012350346489092007-09-19T15:41:00.000-04:002007-09-19T15:50:27.029-04:00

This is not about anything Biblical: it's about sunsets. I posted a few from this summer on facebook. These look so much more amazing on a monitor than on paper. This one is from July; it is the view from our cottage.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-38057462377657714772007-09-01T19:10:00.000-04:002007-09-01T19:33:47.241-04:00

Yikes! I posted my next poem after taking the summer off.As September approached, I was beginning to wonder if I might face an insurmountable writer's block, but "Centaur" just flowed out easy as sighs.I originally started blogging in wordcurrents as an antidote to blockage; it seems to have worked so far. I watched Stranger Than Fiction again last night on TV. It is one of my real favourites,

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-62323605795991608682007-08-31T07:40:00.000-04:002007-08-31T07:45:36.800-04:00

It will be a slow process: first, I have to figure how to turn on my computer; summer has been so wonderfully Luddite--no TV, no Internet, no WordPerfect--just birds, river water lapping, and the patter of grandchildren's feet as the cicadas sang in the island heat . . .

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-78475639084307717212007-06-28T07:56:00.000-04:002007-06-28T08:07:17.528-04:00

Starting July 1, riverwriter will be working on two significant writing projects for print media, and will not be posting in wordcurrents. This hiatus will probably end in September , although there may occasionally be a post in the interim, in wordcurrents or here, in platinum river. Jean-Marie Morin will be taking over the posting of Duplicate Bridge scores during that time.So until next time,

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-78271214181780159662007-06-17T23:52:00.000-04:002007-06-18T00:04:10.560-04:00

I just discovered that I am listed in Arc Poetry Magazine's list of Canadian Poets, along with some fifty, including Margaret Atwood, Margaret Avison, bill bissett, Patrick Lane, Dennis Lee, and rob mclennan. Here is a link to the listing: Canadian Poets —awesome. Thank you, wordcurrents! this process is working!The reason I call this entry "Vanity Googling" is that I notice many people Google

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-3313267914118598072007-06-17T21:01:00.000-04:002007-06-17T21:14:20.951-04:00

I wrote the poem, "Katisha of Abyssinia" based on this situation.This is Katisha, our new Abby, lying in state on two seat cushions piled atop a wicker table. From time to time, Circe, our elderly hybrid shows up to hiss at her, and establish the order of precedence. Generally, Katisha does not look as startled as this. She is our first cat to lie elbows out like that. Look at those eyes!Katisha

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-46977827695103499972007-06-15T12:13:00.000-04:002007-06-15T15:32:24.057-04:00

When I started wordcurrents, my main motives were two: to get my work out to readers and to motivate myself to write every day. I certainly have become a daily writer, and I do have readers that I never had before. My craft has improved in that I can achieve a result more consistently and more quickly than I could previously (witness "in perpetual schottische"*, which I wrote in about an hour and

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-9285323735884902142007-06-08T15:36:00.000-04:002007-06-08T15:50:08.550-04:00

I noticed this sign a few months ago on my way to my weekly duplicate bridge session. It is at the corner of Pitt and Water streets, on the corner of Cornwall Square Shopping Centre. I am not certain whether the "curtsey" has to have thirty points to it, or the inspection of the "curtsey" has thirty points.Either case makes me think. A thirty point "curtsey" would have to be a sort of Silly Walk,

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-76145445438756074522007-05-30T18:30:00.000-04:002007-05-31T08:23:14.634-04:00

We have pink spirreas which will not be out for some time. These are out now, and really make a show. If the sun comes out before the rain bashes them down, I'll take some more sunny photos of them. All this, and lilacs, too!

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-70877123680165866582007-05-27T08:24:00.000-04:002007-05-27T14:19:04.556-04:00

Blogger is based on web 2.0 (interactive online) software, and so is my main blog, wordcurrents. Both seriously let me down today, causing me to lose hours of work, and making me rethink the way I blog.Let me explain: yesterday, I saw Copper Thunderbird, in the English Theatre at the NAC in Ottawa. I rose this morning at 5 am to start writing my review in wordcurrents, which is based on WordPress

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-75182263416350710512007-05-18T10:07:00.000-04:002007-05-18T10:33:51.112-04:00

[I accidentally posted this as a blank post with just a title; I'm going to become gun-shy of posting at all.]I am really caught on the horns of a dilemma about posting a new poem every day in wordcurrents. On the one horn, the discipline of having to meet that daily deadline is really good for my writing bones; on the other, I am flooded with early drafts (consecutive daily poem 482 today).Last

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-24264042266907911772007-05-05T14:11:00.000-04:002007-05-05T14:37:26.221-04:00

I was sitting the other evening in our GP's waiting room. I had some prescriptions to renew, and this is the drill: I call his office; the receptionist gives me an appointment; they call a few days later to change the appointment; I arrive a few minutes early, ask if there is a long wait, am told there is not; an hour and change later I am still waiting, but I have accomplished something: I

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-66745611987197295402007-04-29T19:15:00.000-04:002007-04-29T19:29:24.069-04:00

On Thursday, April 26, 2007, I was walking alone in Rideau Centre, an upscale indoor shopping mall in downtown Ottawa, wondering what my next poem should be, hoping that I would see something that would move me to write. Knowing I would have this opportunity, I had tried but been unable to find my notepad before we left home; so I was wondering if I would need a notepad. There were a great many

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-65643500543525088262007-04-22T16:55:00.000-04:002007-04-22T23:35:04.650-04:00

I have been amazed by the number of hits on my review of NAC's production of Scorched, Linda Gaboriau's brilliant translation of Quebec playwright Wadji Mouawad's stunning play Incendies. Granted, it is my first positive review in a while; but let's face it: this has been a bleak theatrical season, generally, with NAC's new Artistic Director Peter Hinton and GCTC's new AD, Lise Ann Johnson both

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-21761894438352222052007-04-20T12:43:00.000-04:002007-04-21T08:26:07.484-04:00

Last night, I attended a read by Charlie Wilkins, a writer of note who has the distinction (for me) of having once been my student. Charlie's writing includes considerable very insightful freelance journalism and several books about his travels and very astute observations.A few years ago, he achieved some fame by walking from Thunder Bay to New York City. The walk was chronicled on CBC Radio.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-1042237027237764852007-04-16T13:08:00.000-04:002007-04-16T22:37:53.131-04:00

I had not realized it until just a few minutes ago, but "You're Soaking In It!" is currently the most popular poem in my blog. Of the most recent 100 hits, it had 26 (that's all my free service counts.) Little did I know when I posted that poem on March 18, 2006, that I was fascinating some people. I remember the line from the detergent commercial, where Madge is doing somebody's nails, and lets

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-74598424902880245712007-04-10T19:55:00.000-04:002007-04-10T20:07:40.437-04:00

These are pictures of George doing the Kung Fu fan form. This form was practised by monks who were forbidden to carry weapons. Of course, the fans can inflict significant harm upon anyone foolish enough to challenge a practitioner. I believe the monks' fans were metal, but just hearing the fans snap through the air is enough to make one realize that cloth and bamboo can be pretty formidable too.

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-91493679829980278212007-04-03T10:16:00.000-04:002007-04-03T10:36:29.055-04:00

You can be one of the first to check out this site: The Divine Women. Rosemarie Collins gave me the link. Her daughter, Carla is one of the partners in it, and Rosemarie will be writing a column called "Ask Mama Divine". Since Rosemarie and Carla are both wickedly funny, whether you are male or female or both, this is a site to put on your favorites list.Carla's current blog on the site, called "

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-26570471834226846862007-04-02T15:20:00.000-04:002007-04-02T15:32:50.738-04:00

My buddy Bill Roddy, (photo left) has just won the best actor award in the EODL Full Length Play Festival, for his portrayal of the father in A.R. Gurney's The Cocktail Hour, which I reviewed last week in wordcurrents.Bill has been an actor since the beginning of the universe. He has a comic sensibility that reaches deep into the character with total commitment. But he is also a dramatic actor of

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-62854266392008580892007-03-28T23:26:00.000-04:002007-03-28T23:50:49.257-04:00

I have just discovered an amazing poetry resource called Portage. It is a site sponsored by Arc Poetry Magazine. Portage contains links to multiple poetry resources which as yet, I have hardly looked at. If you are interested in poets or poetry, check out this comprehensive site.I discovered this site by looking into links supplied me by Ottawa poet Max Middle, who gave me a link to Ottawater

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-10197373158705702852007-03-28T18:33:00.000-04:002007-03-28T18:41:08.297-04:00

I have started a series of poems, each on a letter of the alphabet. I am hoping to look at what I thought of the letters when I was first learning them, but I don't know if I can sustain that or not. I have decided to concentrate on the capital forms of the letters, although I have already thought of a little detour involving the letter "D". This will take several weeks to get through, not

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-36559299624928312972007-03-17T15:34:00.000-04:002007-03-17T18:50:57.460-04:00

March 17: We have gone from wearing street shoes outside yesterday to six inches of snow overnight. Check out "trip up" in wordcurrents. The change from Friday to Saturday out my kitchen window is shown below:

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-30233471946666338762007-03-16T15:09:00.000-04:002007-03-17T18:48:46.873-04:00

Photo of Katisha and her mother Willow, and sister. The poem is at KatishaPhoto by Frances Merlo

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-27075855444130069632007-03-14T23:07:00.000-04:002007-03-17T18:52:40.887-04:00

Here are photos of what I am taking about in "spring kludge".

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-19319273139890197302007-03-07T14:00:00.000-05:002007-03-17T18:49:16.729-04:00

I have posted my first podcast. It is a reading I did of "noun theft", today's poem. There is a link to the mp3 podcast at the bottom of the poem. What do you think?I am still planning to post the podcasts on ipod and so forth. This is a whole new world for me . . .I have added two podcasts to "The Allegory of the Photographs", one gives an outline of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave", and the other

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-14722592512755368972007-03-05T22:32:00.000-05:002007-03-05T22:55:35.498-05:00

Both of today's poems, "crisp" and "thoughtless", were inspired by things that happened in my driveway. In "crisp", I stepped into the driveway to put out the garbage and was almost blown over by the cold winter wind swirling around in the carport, and in "thoughtless", I face a car temporarily abandoned in the driveway and blocking our ability to drive our car out.In the back seat of the car, I

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-36595503146357420592007-02-27T08:01:00.000-05:002007-02-27T08:50:20.370-05:00

[image copied from Wikipedia]This article is a companion piece to the poem "MC", which I posted yesterday, in wordcurrents.Ellen Degeneres' type of humour really appeals to me. While it is self-deprecating and seemingly self-conscious and even seemingly naive, it appears to come from a genuine joy. We all need that joy in our lives. While there is occasionally a bit of an edge to it, Degeneres

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-8284770859381675702007-02-25T17:25:00.000-05:002007-02-25T18:14:04.259-05:00

There I am, in SCUBA gear in the Caribbean, at the place I wrote about in the poem. The photo was taken with my underwater disposable camera, by our instructor, who is pictured below, feeding kibble to the fish that swim in the bay we were in. This was 1999, during a loop down the so-called eastern cruise route; the ship was SS Norway, the remade France, which was commissioned just as

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-63154743940383586512007-02-24T13:37:00.000-05:002007-02-24T14:44:34.646-05:00

It is hard to believe I have posted 400 of my own new poems in just 375 days. I am printing them each day, and have filled one binder and started a new one January 1. (see photo below)The new result has been that even if I sit down to write with no idea what is going to come out, I can usually start and finish a fairly serviceable poem in a few minutes. Today's poem, "I started to write a

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-50604328402350599552007-02-15T13:27:00.000-05:002007-02-15T23:24:47.333-05:00

I wrote this piece early in the morning, prior to facing the foot or so of snow in our driveway. I had an appointment for an interview later in the morning: Kathleen Hay, the arts reported for the Cornwall Standard-Freeholder, was coming over to do a piece on the anniversary of wordcurrents, and I wanted her to be able to access the house. As well, Flora had to get out for her curling in the

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-91466721204558065212007-02-10T11:02:00.000-05:002007-02-12T23:55:18.977-05:00

Alexandrine lines appear in the brilliant poetry of Alexander Pope, who is quoted daily by people who have no idea he is their source. Pope often used Alexandrine lines, that is, lines of six metrical feet rather than the usual five. Pope was known for his towering intellect, often displayed with devastating effect in his poetry. One example I like was written for engraving on a jewelled silver

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-53288711084780870522007-02-06T10:59:00.000-05:002007-02-06T11:08:37.964-05:00

I like to experiment with the sonnet form. My most recent to date (February 6, 2007) is "Hearth". In it, I use a rhyme scheme in which there is a single repetition of one word as an alternating rhyme for each stanza, as abcb, defe, ghih. The final couplet is the only true rhyme in the piece. I am hoping this approach gives the piece a primal sensibility to go with the primal subject matter. Maybe

riverwriterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09860786366556304177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36073636.post-80548106374751492722007-02-03T12:52:00.000-05:002007-02-04T05:29:26.018-05:00

The title of this poem come from a scene that intrigued me in a thoughtful sci-fi movie, The Final Cut, starring Robin Williams. Williams plays a despised man who works as a cutter, editing the film of people's lives. The film he edits is garnered from an implant placed in a baby and harvested after death. In a very poignant scene, the cutter tells of the legend: after a death, the loved ones

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