Monthly Archives: August 2019

The Proof is in the Pudding – American Poet Gregory Orr’s Ongoing Healing Journey Through Poetry

A Song of What Happens If I wrote in a short story Or novel that when my father Was young, about thirteen, He and his best friend Stole a rifle […]

The Art of Narrative Finesse – The Poetry of Susan Browne

Chiaroscuro The Italian birds fly over the garden where this morning I stood on sunstruck tiles next to an olive orchard, thinking how fortunate to land here, eating the earth, […]

Making the Opioid Crisis Personal – Leslie McBain and Fourteen Other “Mums” – and a Poem by Sheryl St. Germain

Prayer for a Son May your soul now be with the creek, may it swell and flood in Spring, brimming with excitement and wildness as you sometimes were in this […]

Announcing My Fifth Poetry-as-Prayer Retreat at Hillhurst United Church, Calgary, Alberta

The First Sky Is Within You A Generative Poetry-as-Prayer Retreat with Richard Osler Hillhurst United Church Calgary, Alberta October 18th to 19th, 2019 Retreat Introduction When we address the world […]

Searching for the Poet Deborah Digges (1950-2009) – Part One of a Two-Part Series

My Amaryllis So this is the day the fat boy learns to take the jokes by donning funny hats, my Amaryllis, my buffoon of a flower, your four white bullhorn […]

Wise Words from Two Great Sages and Teachers – Pema Chodron and Jelalludin Rumi

THE ONLY REASON WE DON’T OPEN OUR HEARTS The only reason we don’t open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we […]

The Rough-Knuckled Life and Poetry of Charles Bukowski Born on This Day 99 Years Ago!

a song with no end when Whitman wrote, “I sing the body electric” I know what he meant I know what he wanted: to be completely alive every moment in […]

Heidi Garnett’s Blood Orange – An Important Poetry Collection from 2016

  Upstairs in the Study A wound is a place where light enters you. So many words, books on shelves, paper shoulders holding dust’s weight. But what is this pain […]

A Huge Small Poem from Greg Orr’s latest Poetry Collection

              Song of Aftermath Standing now, in a place Scrubbed raw by flood. I, who sought neither Rapture nor fracture. Now the question is: […]

Registrations Open! – A Ten-Day Generative Poetry Writing Retreat in Umbria, Italy – June 11 to June 21, 2020

Poet as Diviner: Hunting the Pluck of Poetry A Ten-Day Generative Poetry Writing Retreat June 11th to June 21st, 2020 Writing “En Plein Air” with Richard Osler at the La […]