Sushi

Photos: July 18, 2016

Dinner with hungry friends
Growing girls
Delighting in exotic tastes

In this global world
We share our foods
Our cultures



Blending flavours
Remixing to create
New combinations

World news
Highlights anger
and difference
Let food be our guide
As we remix
Build on
Share
To create an
...even better

This week I'm building and creating with others in CLMOOC. Online communities can be very powerful catalysts of creation.

I had dinner with a wonderful friend whose daughters are of two racial backgrounds. They, too have been remixed - creating a combination that is more than the sum of their parts. Looking at them, I have hope for the future. We shared food of another culture, music of a time long ago, spoke two languages and smiled and laughed and look forward to next time... à la prochaine.

Rainy Night

Rain has washed the city
Leaving streets slick
City lights
Look brighter
As the rainy haze lifts

The ground drinks
Feeding the grass
Once winter white
Then sepia spring
Now green growth appears

April showers
To end the month
I am looking to May
With hopes of flowers
And sun to warm them

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And here ends my month of poems - it has been quite a challenge. There are some I feel good about - others missed the mark. But each has been a way to push me to write, to imagine and to share.

Now I am hoping for that May weather so I can get out more with my camera and concentrate on the photographs.

Glass

Glass blowers like alchemists
Transform one thing into another
Melting glass until it flows
They blow in life
To create new forms

Heating and cooling
Twisting turning
Shaping
Adding layers of colour
A thing of beauty emerges
Each piece unique




Transparent opalescent
With a lightness
Forged in hot furnaces
Each glass artist
Finds his style
Beauty born of fire

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The bottom piece was bought at Robert Held's studio some 35 years ago. You can read about glassblowing from his web site

Books

I love to dive into a book
Mostly fiction
Explore ideas
Visit other cultures
And linger over
Well-chosen words

My library is brimming
With stories, mysteries,
Misadventures
And tales of the  lives
Of those who have gone before

I can pore over an atlas
Imagining great adventures
Or visit the work of artists
And try to see the world
Through their eyes
One shelf is full of advice
Psychology for living

Trees flowers stars
A book for each
And photographs to
Wonder at this world of ours

My tablet is my new library
An annex to these shelves
I can carry with me
The Complete Works of Shakespeare
Or my latest books to read

I'm not ready to give up
On real world books
Turning pages
Or just flipping through
Always new discoveries
And a reason to stop a while
Time to go read

Coffee

A post dinner coffee
Finer than dessert
The frothy milk
Feels like decadence
An end to a meal
With time to linger

A morning jolt
To start the day
I like mine dark
Corse and bitter
Fair trade
Rich taste

No hundred mile
Diet for me
My coffee needs to travel
Its aroma fills my kitchen
One of life's simple pleasures

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for an ode to coffee, listen to Bach's Coffee Cantata
and here are the lyrics with English translation

Spring Rain

Outside the spring rain falls
Working its magic
Greening the grass
Winter's dirt begins to wash away
The air smells fresh

Inside I sip my tea
And bury my nose in a book
Alice Monroe for company
Simple pleasures
On a dreary day

Outside the buds begin to burst
Hints of leaves to come
All around
Growth is speeding up

Inside I wrap a blanket
Around my shoulders
Pour another cup
A day for slowing down

Changes

I'm feeling dated
I lived through avocado green
A mixer sat on my counter
Beside my harvest gold stove

Almond was a relief
From those murky shades
For my next kitchen
I happily bought white appliances

A riot of colour is back
As silicone tools take over
I balk at this brilliant rainbow
Reminiscent
of clothes I wore in the seventies

My metal appliances
and wooden spoons
Sit proudly on my counter
No need to change
I know this is just a passing fashion

Stumped

Searching for my muse
I wander the neighbourhood
Looking for inspiration
Some days I'm stumped

I have extolled the welcome spring
Waxed poetic over new arrivals
Birds and flowers
Marvelled at music

I play around with words
Is lack of muse amusing?
No wit, no gems
That percolate

A day without Erato
To stimulate my pondering
Perchance she'll visit later
To illuminate my wandering

Shakespeare

Note: the photo just made me think of Titania sleeping in a flower - a little homage to Shakespeare

Four hundred and fifty years
To celebrate Shakespeare's life
His words are still spoken
Around the world

He spun the English language
Inventing words to fit his rhythms
And to best express his thoughts
We use them still

Ideas still fresh
To the modern ear
His plays do not grow old
Their messages ageless

So great bard
I salute you on your birthday
Four hundred and fifty years young
And still going strong

First Flowers

Scylla are naughty flowers
Not content to grow
In the confines of a garden bed
They spread where they will
Playing outside the lines
I love their saucy attitude
Small but determined
They bring colour
To the sepia of early spring.

Spring by Vivaldi

Notes painted on ceramic
Those notes paint pictures
Vivaldi used his colour palette
Bows not brushes
To create a canvas
Of the story of spring
Sounds evoking nature
Listen
Spring is upon us

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Spring played by Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra

Here is Vivaldi's poem:

Allegro
Springtime is upon us. 
The birds celebrate her return with festive song,
and murmuring streams are softly caressed by the breezes.
Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring, roar, casting their dark mantle over heaven,
Then they die away to silence, and the birds take up their charming songs once more.

Largo
On the flower-strewn meadow, with leafy branches rustling overhead, the goat-herd sleeps, his faithful dog beside him.

Allegro
Led by the festive sound of rustic bagpipes, nymphs and shepherds lightly dance beneath the brilliant canopy of spring.

Sweet Spring Sounds

Sweet sounds as the birds
Newly arrived
Sing their pleasure
At the warm spring day

A red-winged blackbird serenades
Its song returned from another tree
Back and forth they sing
A merry melody on my walk.


I

My eyes flit from tree to tree
Trying to trace the source of the singing
Birders with long-lensed cameras
Share their knowledge identifying species




Soon nests will be built
As more new arrivals move in
Quacks and squawks join the songs
A chorus celebrating spring.

Shadows

What is real
It is sometimes hard to tell
As imagined possibilities
Loom larger than life

Shadowy thoughts
Can consume us
While the realities
Seem murky

We need to see those shadows
For what they are
Exaggerations
Imaginings

Learn to play with perhaps
Dance with the shadows
Spin them into positive prospects
New perspectives

Determination

These hardy flowers flourish
In early spring's chill
Their sunny disposition
Announces spring's arrival



Spring is determined
Shoots push their way up
Through barely defrosted ground
With low growing flowers showing their faces



Scylla dances out of the garden
It loves to play outside the lines
First green on the winter matted grass
Spreading the joy of a new beginning

And so begin the rapid growth and changes
Spring sets in motion
As the plants awake
From their long winter sleep.

Eating Ethically

It's harder and harder
To eat with a clear conscience
Asparagus from Peru
Travels more than I do
And sucks the land dry
So the locals can't grow food

I read of chickens crammed in cages
Barely able to move their entire lives
Buy organic to assuage my guilt
Ethically treated animals
I like to think their lives
Were not so confined

And fish
So many endangered
by overfishing or poisoned
By man caused problems
mercury, pesticides
Environments destroyed
by trawling

Chocolate too
That essential of life
Harvested by children
Forced into labour
How does their despair
Flavour the end result

I try to walk gently on the earth
Fair Trade Organic
Ethical Farms Eat Local
Do I stray off this path
Most definitely
But life is not perfection
One can only try

The Battle

Winter and Spring are in a fight
Each wanting to dominate the city
Spring pulls Sun onto its team
Chasing away the snow and ice

Winter retaliates
With its icy winds
People huddle into their coats
Hats and scarves

Spring sends rains
Washing the city of signs of winter
Warning off Winter with thunder
And bolts of lightning

Winter rallies the north winds
To dust the city once again with snow
Flowers once opened
Close their petals to hold in warmth

But the sun is strong
It is gaining the upper hand
It looks like Spring
Will once again win the battle

Train Passing

Train passing
Full with commuters
Homeward bound at the end of day

Back and forth
Along the tracks
Starting at Lucien-L'Allier

Vendôme Dorval
Beaconsfield
Just some of the stops along the way

Trains passing
No matter the weather
Carrying passengers every day

Book Spine Poem

The best laid plans
Away
After midnight

In transit
Amsterdam!
The best of life

Brunch

A musical weekend laced with food
Feed the brain to make it function
A hearty brunch is always good
To help us play with joy and gumption

Coffee to help us concentrate
For our muscles good protein
Vitamin C in the fruit is great
Now we are really keen

Life without music would be a mistake
Said Nietzsche long ago
Put music with food and friends  and cake
Then the music will really flow

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“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination
and life to everything.” 
― Plato

Music

A magical weekend
Of music
friendship
challenges
and laughter
Always learning

Add a recorder coach
Italian music
We played our way
Through three centuries
Exploring different styles

Don't just play
the notes on the page
How to add grace
We're learning to improvise
In the spaces
Learning the style of the time

Like mastering a new language
We explore the nuances
The flourishes
The accents
Not just notes
But a way of speaking


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After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music

-Aldous Huxley