Over the past month by TOpoet.ca following blog grew to 492 so I should hit 500 by the end of the year! The WP map shows my hits have come from 31 countries around the world. That the USA tops the list is no surprise but that Italy & South Korea are in the top 10 is a surprise. Most popular posts were Small Word (https://topoet.ca/2021/05/17/small-world/) & The Flirt (https://topoet.ca/2021/05/29/the-flirt/)
My Tumblr is at 326 followers – the latest being a cryptocurrency trader (we have so much in common 🙂 ). Twitter is at 226 followers.
Picture Perfect: 69 sections, about 100,000 words posted so far with approx 85,000 to be edited & then posted.
The rollercoaster of the Ontario lockdown measures continued its ups & downs almost in keeping with the weather’s ups & downs. Hot one day, frost the next night. As usual Toronto jumped into summer with a week of hot dry weather which has been great for my garden which exploded within a week.
Apparently travel restrictions (for those who feel such restrictions apply to them) will result in travel money going into gardens & home improvements. Waking up at your office because you are working at home has made many tired of seeing the same furniture 24 hours a day. I’ve seen a bounty of desks, sofas, dining room tables dragged to the curb.
Rewatched our dvd of Fellini’s Amacord which I enjoy more & more with each watching. It captures a sense of nostalgia that transcends time & place. The cinematography is stunning – the floating puffballs, the snow, the amazing moment when the peacock lands during the snow to open its tail. The music is delightful, the performances are on point.
In one of the extras someone says that the movie may not be a historically correct memory but it is a true one. The past is always a selective reconstruction. The Crown, as excellent as it is, doesn’t hesitate for a good story. I was surprised to find out that, in fact, Princess Margaret never met LBJ on her USA jaunt. I love the show but don’t mistake it for factual.
Inputs from hard copies of old poetry & short stories nearly finished. Found a paper folder full of old scripts to input next. At times it feels endless but also reflects that I wrote constantly for many, many years. I did have many of these backed up on disks but none of those disks are readable any more 🙂 I did try a few years back, before tossing them all, & found that even if I could up load the word processing programs couldn’t be read to even translated, as it were.
I’ve been posting the stories on Thursdays along with talk about my music collection. Some of the poetry will be blogged over the summer on Wednesdays with my comments & memories of writing them. All are from between 1972-77. Wallowing in the past? Not me.
Fog Tarantella
<>
for too many years
I was in a tree top
shouting out for love
I didn’t care where it came from
the louder I shouted the less I heard
the higher I climbed
the further I got away from it
yet I didn’t think of climbing down
I wanted the love that was in the air
not the common stuff of the earth
not knowing then
that was where love grew from
<>
one morning during a snow storm
the first after a long hot autumn
of yelling myself hoarse
give me love I want love
blood flecks dappling the leaves
the snow at first a few darting specks
then a steady scrim hush
to cool my eyes
flakes on my fevered tongue
letting the sky satisfy
as best it could
but the sky doesn’t love back
except with echoes
<>
while the snow cloaked me
my own limbs mantled like branches
a peacock
clumsily descended
a bird that at a distance has stunning beauty
but this close it was motley
squawking as it settled by me
our eyes met
his tail opened
the breathtaking fan of feathers
stopped my shouting
I reached out to touch
fell
earth bound by beauty
at the foot of the tree
<>
a mist arose around me
through the winter fog
came men dancing
their arms around wisps of white
the imagined bodies of lovers
caressing the backs
touching the hair
making it as real as they could
kissing empty haze
could I join them
should I
was this all I could expect on earth
or would I be bold enough
to allow one of these dancing men
to dance with me
before I climbed a tree
lost in the fog
Hey! Now you can give me $$$ to defray blog fees – thanks? paypal.me/TOpoet
TOpoet 