I’m always looking for ways to enrich the lives of my children, to introduce them to things that will stimulate their intellectual growth. Anything to get them away from the blasted video games for a few minutes. It’s hard for …

A Quiet Walk Together

When I look back and see all that I’ve been through,
I asked God “Why Me? When will I be set free?”

I hear in a quiet voice saying “Why not you?” I have walked beside you all the way,
and times I have carrried you day by day.

I’ve always been threre through thick and thin,

If You Forget Me I want you to know one thing. You know how this is: if I look at the crystal moon, at the red branch of the slow autumn at my window, if I touch near the fire the impalpable ash or the wrinkled body of the log, everything carries me to…

I wrote this a few years back after a tragic house fire my partner and I responded to on the ambulance.

House Fire

One day up in heaven

I know this isn’t “poetry”, but didn’t know where else to put it. Just a story, thats mostly true.

Sandy and Dave entered the woman’s house carrying their medical equipment on the ambulance stretcher. They had been sent by the 911 dispatcher for a woman about to deliver. As a paramedic, delivering a baby was something Sandy had always dreamed…

*And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.*
Ephesians 4:32

Be not swift to take offense, let it pass.
Anger is a foe to sense, let it pass.
Brood not darkly for a wrong which will disappear ere long,
Rather sing this cheery song, let it pass.

Echo not an…

O Lord, I don’t understand
My brain screams like a naughty child
But my faith, under pressure, holds firm.

I have so many questions.
I feel the doubt growing.
No. I will not allow it to grow.
There is a war raging in my soul.

Lord you promised to be with me always.

You sometimes forget about authors. They sort of fall out of your head. Expect more Millay in the future. And You as Well Must Die, Belovèd Dust And you as well must die, belovèd dust, And all your beauty stand you in no stead; This flawless, vital h…

Preamble
Tonight I wear red in support of my feminist sisters,
the Radical Handmaids, who gathered today on Parliament Hill
in opposition to Motion 312 which re-opens the abortion debate
tomorrow afternoon in the House of Commons.
And I share this poem…

In a free world I would have been brave and asked you…
why you keep hurting me…
but this isn’t a free world and I’m not brave.
I’ve seen the look in her eyes when she spoke.
I’d say there is no hope but I have no voice here.
In her world all things are silent except for her.
She’s a kind ruler they say.

Is it fear that keeps the…

image source Invictus Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance M…

I thank the Lord for White Out
And what its done for me

Its what i think He must have used
The day He set me free

He blotted out my sins
And made them white as snow

And now He fills back in The blanks

My own, with at least Easterish themes of death and rebirth. Originally published on 7/10/10. VSA You came to us, no vital signs, no breath Found dead, or nearly so, by the mall You last saw cars, careening carts, a child. Then falling, hard pavement, …

Easter in Pittsburgh Even on Easter Sunday jungle of lilies and ferns fat Uncle Paul who loved his liquor so would pound away with both fists on the when the church was a stone pulpit shouting sin sin sin and the fiery fires of hell and I cried all aft…

It has been almost a week since the world lost Adrienne Rich, an influential poet and writer and powerful feminist and ally, yet we must continue to move. Move on, move forward, move boundaries, move barriers.
Rich’s messages were those heralded in con…

A new exhibition reveals previously unseen photos of Canadian poets at the dawn of their careers. And, they’re really cute.

How Beautiful We All Were… Portraits of Sixteen Canadian Poets by Shelly Grimson Miles Nadall JCC (750 Spadina Avenue) April 3–30; Monday to Friday 9 a.m.–9p.m., Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m.–7 p.m. Opening Reception: April 3, 7–9 p.m. FREE A young Michael Ondaatje lies outstretched on a bed of pebbles, shirtsleeves rolled up with the [...]

Today was the birthday of Milton Acorn, the People’s Poet, who lived rough, and died before he was eligible for the Old Age Security, even under the old rules.For those of you who have missed him until now, Milton Acorn is not only Canada’s…

You Heal Me…

You Heal My Heart,
You Heal My Mind,
You Heal My Spirit When I’m Broken Inside,
You Heal My Feet From A Troubled Past,
You Heal My Soul When I Am Lost,
You Heal My Eyes So I Can See,
You Heal My Body So I Am Free,
You Heal My Ears So I Can Hear,

Yes, the fiftieth edition of Favourite Poems. You might wonder why a blog about nurses and nursing (and some other stuff, but mostly nursing) does poetry. The answer is simple: because nursing is far more than all the mundane tasks we need to do to car…

Many man have come…
Riding on lies and fame.
You came riding in the master’s courtyard…
On truth as your guide and leader.
You’ve come to set our lady at rest.

Dignity she calls her sister.
Truth he calls his adviser.
His words are fleeting…
But his action is written in stone.