Category: Writings

January Coffee House

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Linda and Bill Studley
Linda and Bill Studley

Despite the nasty weather, we had a really good turnout at the January PRSA coffee-house (Peace Region Songwriters’ Association) at the “Faking Sanity” Cafe in Dawson Creek. Bill and I were the featured performers and played mostly original songs for the better part of an hour. A great variety of performances were provided during the open mic sections of the coffee-house by musicians, singers, and poets.

Barb and Ian Munro
Barb and Ian Munro

Barb Munro, long time member of the PRSA, debuted a new song, “Over You” (she made a point of telling us that it was NOT about her husband, much to Ian’s relief!). Lovely people, Great new song, Super talented!

Kjetil Landsgard
Kjetil Landsgard

It was a treat to have Kjetil Landsgard perform a couple of songs for us. Kjetil is a past member of the PRSA and I hope we’ll see more of him now that he’s moved back to the DC area. Kjetil’s music is unique and compelling, he uses his voice in the most amazing ways and had the audience enthralled. Welcome back Kjetil!

Barb Carlson
Barb Carlson

We had poets aplenty too! Barb Carlson delighted the audience with a reading from her original poetry.

I am also privileged to be a part of a group of writers who meet regularly to share and challenge each other. One of our most recent challenges came from Sabrina L’Heureaux, who unfortunately couldn’t make it to the coffee-house. She challenged us all to write pantoums (an unusual poetry form that repeats lines in a specific pattern). So we exchanged photos that we thought were interesting and we wrote 10 lines/ phrases/ questions about the pictures, then fit them into the pantoum form. The resulting poems were quite interesting so we thought we’d share the exercise with the audience at the coffee-house.

Rebekah Rempel Chorney
Rebekah Rempel Chorney

Rebekah brought a picture and asked the members of the audience to write a line/phrase/question about it. Then she and Jeannie Lindgren worked to put the lines into the pantoum form. The result? A beautiful pantoum poem. Rebekah has promised to send it to me so I will post it here, with the picture as soon as I get it.

Jeannie Lindgren
Jeannie Lindgren
Jeannie and Rebekah also entertained us with more of their poetry during the evening. These ladies are very accomplished writers. You can find out more about Rebekah on her blog
 
 
 
 
Janina Carlstad and John Fletcher
Janina Carlstad and John Fletcher
More music! We had some wonderful collaborations last evening.
Janina Carlstad – our local Flute aficionado teamed up with guitarist John Fletcher to great effect! Both PRSA members!
 
 
 
Jenna Bratt and Andrew Ho
Jenna Bratt and Andrew Ho

Another great duo included Jenna Bratt, vocals, and Andrew Ho on keyboard. Jenna and Andrew are new to the open mic and we are very pleased that they participated. Jenna has a very lovely, expressive voice and Andrew is a brilliant pianist.

There were other performers too, including a very talented trio of young ladies who sang for us and an amazing performance of South African music, vocal and Kalimba! That was a real treat! I apologise for not including everyone, but my little old digital camera is not fool-proof (I guess that would make me the fool taking the pictures!) but if I can find more photos I’ll definitely post them!
All in all, another excellent coffee-house.
Writing – songwriting, poetry, it’s so much better when it’s shared!

Winter Comes

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Winter comes with icy hands.
Strip searches trees
Greedy fingers rifle remains,
Leave them naked in the long darkness.
 
Winter comes with deadly aim.
Single gunshot boom
Rips the silence, echoes menace.
Lays bare the tender heartwood.
 
Winter comes with shrill lamentations.
Feigns sorrow, howls hollow grief
Through its own devastation.
Freezes grudging tears upon its victims.
 
Winter comes with fatal beauty.
Whispers songs of frozen warmth
Thin ice traps; snow blind brilliance.
Crimson sunrise streamers cordon off the scene.

Whatifs and Whynots

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Whynots were wondering loudly one day
 “Who thought up this language I wonder?
There, their, and they’re in our personal view
Are etymological blunders”
 
Clarity suffers we really believe
One spelling would do very nicely.
Why not just spell it as ‘thayr’ and have done
T’would do the job much more precisely.”
 
Whatifs were list’ning and shaking thayr heads
As Whynots continued thayr mewling
“Why do we use double leters at all
This language could use some retoling.”
 
Whatifs said “What if the word’s incorrect?
The last word you said was confusing”
“Fine” said the Whynots it’s easy to fix
We’l just start to spel it ‘retewling’
 
While we’re on doubles, why have duble vowels
When one wud work as wel or beter?
Why not cut down on the time riting takes
By leving out al silent leters?
 
Whatifs just side and sed “What if yor plan
Becomes more confusing than ever”
“Nonsense, now let’s drop that dum leter ‘c’
Wel thayr, don’t yu think that sownds klever?
 
Drop the apostrofe, lews p h to
Its sily when ‘f’s what yor after”
Whatifs kryd “Stop now, yor making a mes.
But Whynots just burst owt in lafter.
 
 “Why not fonetiks? wel rite wat we here
I no that yull no wat Im thinking.”
“But if I dont?” “wel it isnt mi falt
Thayrs no nede for yu tu start drinking”
 
“What if” sed Whatifs “its sumthing rel big?
And what if I cant understand yu?
What if the klarity yu thot yu had
Duz not go just kwite as yu pland tu?”

“Wat now?” sed Whynots “now wat did yu sey?
A kwite yu kan fli? or a pland pot?
How kan I tel wat yor trying tu say
If yu kant speke klerely, I kan not”
 
“What if” ses Whatifs “I giv yu a slap?
Yu think it wud help komprehenshun?”
“Why not” size Whynots “mi hed hurts so bad
Its stuffed full of misaprehenshun
 
“What if” said Whatifs, we left it alone
This language, so full of confusion,
Doesn’t take kindly to radical change
I’ve come to a perfect conclusion;
 
Learn it correctly and learn it with pride
This language that gives us such trouble,
Reading and writing till we understand
Which letters are single or double.
 
Where do the silent ones live in a word?
Apostrophes, how do we use them?
‘C’, I embrace you, your ‘sss’ and your ‘k’
I’ll study so I won’t confuse them.
 
This is my language, it’s my Mother Tongue,
I love her in spite of her foibles.
Why not delight in the shading and tints
That make her so deep and enjoyable
 
“Why not” sighed Whynot.