First Friday Poetry: January 2, 2026

I'm joining Beverly A Baird & Linda Schueler again in another year long poetry practice. On the first Friday of each month we, and anyone else who joins, writes a poem and shares it.

This year, Bev and Linda have organized themes for each month. This month's theme is New Beginnings.

In the last month I've carried those words in my pocket. I've mulled them over and chewed on their meaning. it wasn't until I started to write that I began to make sense out of them. 

The Beauty Way that I've referenced in my poem is both a Navajo philosophy and a traditional prayer. This musical version was created by composer/conductor Gregg Smith. I learned the song in a choir ages ago. We might not have sounded as good as this, but singing it with others was/is a glorious experience.

beginning anew

these days,

in the big picture of my life,

it’s more about endings,

than beginnings.

it’s about looking at the finish line,

at what i’ve left undone,

at how we, as a society, have failed 

future generations

i watch my grandchildren 

and worry about 

the mess we're leaving them

it’s easy to let despair creep in

indeed, it’s hard to stave it off

but this morning,

the sun rose on a skiff of fresh snow,

cracks in the clouds revealed 

a crazy quilt of blue and white sky

and i remembered 

that i can choose

to walk in beauty

so i signed up to volunteer 

for the candidate of my choice

exhorting myself 

to put in the work

even if we don't get the changes we need

even if we end up losing

the big game

i can still

choose anew to love 

choose anew to hope

choose anew to live and walk the beauty way

Next month's theme is Love and Friendship. Why don't you join us?

First Friday Poetry: November 7, 2025

I'm joining Beverly A Baird & Linda Schueler again in a year long poetry practice. On the first Friday of each month we, and anyone else who joins, writes a poem and shares it. This year the focus is on using poems to inspire us.  

In September and October I was gallivanting across the country with two cousins. I started poems, but never found the energy and/or concentration to complete any of them, so I took a break from participating. I'm happy to be back today.

From Linda's blog post:

"This month we are taking inspiration from the Maya Stein poem that is linked to this blog post.
The structure is based on this pattern:
“I could be …”
“But I’m here.”
“I want…”
“They want…”

I wrote this last weekend when I was in Vancouver visiting with a friend. 

I could be somewhere warm. I could be hanging out with my sister in San Jose Del Cabo, lazing on hot sandy beaches and drinking margaritas in a cantina. I could be in my sewing room working on one of the unfinished projects that I’ve started and can’t find time or creativity to finish. I could be hanging out with my grandkids: hiking, playing games, working on crafts. But I’m here, spending time with a best friend in the care home where she now lives. I want to have a conversation, but she is almost incapable of speech. I tell her how much she means to me. I tell her I love her. I want to find the words to say the final goodbye, but they won’t come. They want to choke me. They want more time. She says my name. I cry. She cries. It will have to do.

First Friday Poetry August 2025

I'm joining Beverly A Baird & Linda Schueler again in a year long poetry practice. On the first Friday of each month we, and anyone else who joins, writes a poem and shares it. This year the focus is going to be on using poems to inspire us.

This month we are writing about “Where We Belong” based on this poem.

A while ago I purchased Finger Exercises for Poets by Dorianne Laux. The first chapter asks us to really look at a thing: to carry it around with you in your pocket and pay close attention to it. This past month, I have carried the word 'belonging' around with me like this. I've savoured the feel, sound, and taste of it in my mouth and memories. 

Then last week, Tim Minchin, an Australian singer songwriter released Time Machine, his first album in ages. Not Perfect, a profound song about belonging, is on it.

Growing up, I never felt like I belonged. Living in a small town with a father who used a wheelchair and stayed home, while my mother went out to work, played a huge part in this. We were different. 

Here's my poem. I've stolen those end lines from Tim. 

where i belong

i belong

in my home town:

it wasn’t always like this

half a century or so ago

when i left 

it was: 

too small

too limited

too homophobic

too misogynist

too racist

too redneck

in these intervening years

i’ve changed

it’s changed

i might be flawed,

it might be flawed,

the thing is,

this landscape,

it's imprinted on my heart:

ghosts of my ancestors

haunt these streets and hills

weaving me into the tapestry

of this place and this community

half a century later

i've finally figured it out:

this town,

it's not perfect,

but it's mine

First Friday Poetry July 2025

 I'm joining Beverly A Baird & Linda Schueler again in a year long poetry practice. On the first Friday of each month we, and anyone else who joins, writes a poem and shares it. This year the focus is going to be on using poems to inspire us.

This month we are doing either “Where I Live” or “Where I Come From” poems. I wrote a Where I'm from poem in January of this year. 

where i live
summers are hot
precipitation is rare
the round brown hills of my youth

are a constant backdrop
except when spring rain and snowmelt
inspire bunch grass and wildflowers
to cavort across their slopes

where i live
in the valley,
it’s deceptively lush and green

fruit stands line the highway

displaying baskets of

berries, cherries and apricots 

these ground crops, fruit trees, and vineyards
are sustained by
a concrete irrigation canal
and straightened out river

where I live 

wineries abound

but the expansion of agriculture

into the steppes

has meant that the burrowing owls 

who once populated these landscapes 

have now been extirpated 

where i live
our cedar hedge is home to
quail, sparrows, robins,
and birds i don’t know the names of
i spend mornings and evenings
in the backyard garden
currently, i’m harvesting raspberries
but it seems like what i mostly do
these days
where i live,
is weed

First Friday Poetry June 2025

 I'm joining Beverly A Baird & Linda Schueler again in a year long poetry practice. On the first Friday of each month we, and anyone else who joins, writes a poem and shares it. This year the focus is going to be on using poems to inspire us.

"This month we will be writing about the influences in our life. Poet James Crew has posted the poem “I’d Rather Be Influenced” by Patrick Ramsay, and that’s the poem we will take inspiration from in June."

May was a hard month. 

Each May, for the last 39 years, I've headed off for a long weekend with a diverse group of women friends. The Saturday before I left, I called my cousin Laura, the woman through whom the rest of us met, to sort out a few details as to who was coming, where we were all sleeping, and what to remember. The next morning I got a message that she had died in her sleep. After a lot of phone calls, four of us decided we needed to go to our cabin on the beach even if she wouldn't be there. 

Ever since I got that terrible news, I been thinking about how much she, and being part of this group of friends, have influenced me. I've also been thinking that I need to be more like Laura: a down to earth woman of compassion, love, and laughter. She was the kind of person you felt safe around. She brought out the best in those of us who knew her. She was the closest thing to a big sister I ever had. My heart aches with missing her. 

I started this poem while I was away, and then worked on it after returning home, Then I forgot all about it. I've been working like crazy in the garden and only realized it was Friday when I received notification of Linda's blog post! 

Todays poem is dedicated to my beautiful cousin who leaves a huge hole in many hearts.

I’d Rather Be Influenced by Laura

to giggle more
letting myself be me
finding comfort
in my aging body
laughing uproariously

in the face of what’s to come

I’d rather be influenced
by inclusivity
celebrating difference
and finding common ground
not only with my fellow homo sapiens
but also with
with each and every being on this planet

to find holiness in
rocks and dirt,
birds, flowers, marmots, trees,
cacti, spiders,
even the invasive mallow,
whose roots I rip out with distressing regularity

I’d rather be influenced

to take time to listen to morning warblers
and evening frog song
to cherish the rhythm of crickets

and live each moment in joy

First Friday Poetry May 2025

I'm joining Beverly A Baird & Linda Schueler again in a year long poetry practice. On the first Friday of each month we, and anyone else who joins, writes a poem and shares it. This year the focus is going to be on using poems to inspire us.

This month we are on our own to choose our own mentor text poem.

I recently read an article about Janis Ian's first song, written and recorded in 1965 when she was only 14. I had never heard of Society's Child until then. The song of hers that resonated most with me is At Seventeen. I'm using it for my inspiration this month.

When I was in grade ten, I went off to a Catholic Youth Conference one weekend, and returned home with Hepatitis A. While at home, too sick and exhausted to read, I listened to CBC radio's Cross Country Checkup with Peter Gzowsky. He was interviewing national and international feminists. It was a revelation for me. I experienced a paradigm shift in my world view and returned to my small town high school a very different person than the one I was before.

At Seventeen

I learned the truth at seventeen
That boys should never fill girls dreams
That equal rights and equal pay
Would prove to be the only way
To control our bodies and our minds
According to our own designs
It isn’t what it seems
At seventeen

My mother’s life made clear to me
that a husband and a family
Was no guarantee
of equanimity
that education was the key
to choice and opportunity
it was clear to me

at seventeen

Those of us who dared to venture
Into a new kind of future
Someday, if we found love true
there never would be payment due
for independent girls like me and you

Life's different than it seems

At seventeen

Decades have past and much has changed
We’ve lost much that we once gained.
I ache for girls still in their teens
And hope that boys don’t fill their dreams
It isn’t all it seems
At seventeen

Here's Janice Ian singing her Grammy award winning song. 

#IMWAYR April 14, 2025

Welcome! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. I'm also connecting up with the Sunday Salon. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.

I've been sewing up a storm and managed to finsh my granddaughter's birthday dress. She came up with the design, and when she was last here, picked the dark blue patterned fabric. Here's what I've come up with. I'll send it, along with a little capybara wall hanging, off to her later this week. 

front

back

The original design:
some day I will recreate this. 

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.

PICTURE BOOKS

4 stars

Already All the Love by Diana Farid & Shar Tuiasoa (illustrator)

This book is a celebration of who and what a baby could someday become, as well as a reminder of how perfect they already are. This is an important message for all of us, no matter our ages. 

I might purchase this for someone I know who is expecting a baby. 

Shar Tuiasoa's art work is gorgeous! I wanted to dig out my scraps and embroidery floss to try and recreate it in fabric!

4 stars

Piper Chen Sings by Phillipa Soo, Maris Pasquale Doran, & Qin Leng 🍁 (Illustrator) April 2, 2024

Piper loves to sing. She sings everywhere and all the time. She especially enjoys singing in her school choir, but when she is asked to sing a solo, she ends up getting anxious and feeling butterflies in her tummy. 

At home she talks to Nai Nai, her grandmother, about her feelings. Nai Nai helps her change the way she thinks about those butterflies and instead of fearing them, learns to see them as a reminder that something exciting is about to happen. 

I love a lot about this book. First, I adore Qin Leng's illustrations. I love Piper's relationship with her grandmother. I love that they are both musically creative and that it's who Piper goes to for help. I love that while Nai Nai tells Piper about her butterflies, we also get a glimpse into her background story. The music teacher, Mr Harris, is pretty cool too when he tells Piper she can sing with the rest of the class instead of soloing if that's what she wants.  

I wish this book had been around when I was still teaching. It's a great resource for students like Piper who get anxious when they have to do anything in front of a crowd. 

GRAPHIC NOVELS

5 stars

Noodle and Bao by Shaina Lu October 15, 2024

Momo lives in Town 99. Her favourite restaurant is Noodle and Bau. Bau is also her best friend. When the building is sold and they are evicted, they struggle to make ends meet by selling their food from a cart parked across from their former restaurant. It now houses a high end cafe run by Ms. Jujube. None of the residents of Town 99 could afford to eat there.
Momo is determined to help Noodle and Bau get their restaurant back. Meanwhile, the community is changing. Rent is increasing, people are moving out, and new shiny shops are moving in. Even Momo's parents are having trouble dealing with the high cost of housing. 

At one point in the story, it looks like Noodle and Bau will succeed at getting their place back, but it turns out that Ms. Jujube has plans that will destroy their community even more.

Momo is determined to do everything to save their neighbourhood and stop the gentrification. She starts out working on her own, but it isn't until the whole community gets involved, that they can be successful. The importance of collective effort is a message we need now more than ever. 

Town 99 is populated by a collection of human and anthropomorphized animals. I thought they might represent the diversity of the population, but am not sure since Momo, who is shown as human, has two animal parents. Perhaps the animal people represent first generation immigrants and the more human looking ones are those who were born there.  Even the text, written in both English and Cantonese characters, highlights the complexity of the residents.  I was fascinated by the character of Ms. Jujube. On the one hand, she seems to be evil incarnate, but on the other, she is very supportive of Bau, and even pays for him to go to cooking school. 

If you want to read a much more thorough and considered review of this book, I encourage you to check out Max @ Completely Full Bookshelf's post from last week. 

 

ADULT NON FICTION

4 stars

Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik November 12, 2024

Joan Didion was the same age as my mother. I've been a fan ever since reading The Year of Magical Thinking. It helped me understand what my mother's life was like after my father died. I had never even heard of Eve Babitz until this book. 

When Babitz died, a box of her letters was discovered. This book, chronicling Eve's perspective of her relationship with Joan, as wall as many other aspects of her life, arose from them. 

I really enjoyed this book. A number of reviewers on Goodreads complained that the book was all gossip. I believe that our lives are made up of all kinds of stories and this book highlights the glory of these little vignettes. 

In many ways the two women seem to be competing opposites, but I agree with the author, that they are more like two sides of the same coin. "Yes their sensibilities were polarized, their styles clashing, their intentions though, were identical, to make literature that exploited what was novel and expose what was familiar in a city, a society, and an epic under convulsive pressure. Joan and Eve are the two halves of American womanhood representing forces that are, on the surface, in conflict, yet secretly align."

CURRENTLY 

Hell and Gone by Sam Wiebe October 23, 2021 🍁

The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin May 1, 2012

Fantastic Lou: Little Comics from Real Life by Qin Leng January 28, 2025 🍁

UP NEXT (MAYBE)

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong November 5, 2024

A Two Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby & Mary Louisa Plummer May 3, 2016 🍁

2025 READING GOALS

#MustRead2025 10/25  one on the go

NonFiction 14/30

Poetry 1/12 

Canadian Authors 24/50  two on the go

Indigenous Authors 6/25

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 54/200