Laughter

Take bread away from me, if you wish,
take air away, but
do not take from me your laughter.

Do not take away the rose,
the lanceflower that you pluck,
the water that suddenly
bursts forth in your joy,
the sudden wave
of silver born in you.

My struggle is harsh and I come back
with eyes tired
at times from having seen
the unchanging earth,
but when your laughter enters
it rises to the sky seeking me
and it opens for me all
the doors of life.

My love, in the darkest
hour your laughter
opens, and if suddenly
you see my blood staining
the stones of the street,
laugh, because your laughter
will be for my hands
like a fresh sword.

Next to the sea in the autumn,
your laughter must raise
its foamy cascade,
and in the spring, love,
I want your laughter ilke
the flower I was waiting for,
the blue flower, the rose
of my echoing country.

Laugh at the night,
at the day, at the moon,
laugh at the twisted
streets of the island,
laugh at this clumsy
boy who loves you,
but when I open
my eyes and close them,
when my steps go,
when my steps return,
deny me bread, air,
light, spring,
but never your laughter
for I would die.

Pablo Neruda

lonely anticipation

my
face
and
this single tear
fall
silently
as
this hope
that
bloomed
now
wans
from
neglect

Upcoming CD - sneak preview

Perfect Girl Productions

will soon** be releasing its first ever CD titled:

The Perfect Girl First Ever CD

(yes very original name)

Tracks will include:

1.

Perfect Girl

(yes we know still very original)
2.

Crunchy Lips

3.

Everything Tastes Like Chicken

4.

What are You Gonna Do?

4.

Lee Lee Zombie Girl

and others

So stay tuned!

[this message has been brought to you by

Perfect Girl Productions]

(who else did you think it would be from????)

** soon is a relative term.

[photo credit to Willy]

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house,
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
Empty of its furniture,
Still, treat each guest honorably,
He may be cleaning you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Poem by Rumi

The Lady's Yes a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"Yes!" I answered you last night;
"No!" this morning, Sir, I say!
Colours, seen by candle-light,
Will not look the same by day.

When the tabors played their best,
Lamps above, and laughs below --
Love me sounded like a jest,
Fit for Yes or fit for No!

Call me false, or call me free --
Vow, whatever light may shine,
No man on your face shall see
Any grief for change on mine.

Yet the sin is on us both --
Time to dance is not to woo --
Wooer light makes fickle troth --
Scorn of me recoils on you !

Learn to win a lady's faith
Nobly, as the thing is high;
Bravely, as for life and death --
With a loyal gravity.

Lead her from the festive boards,
Point her to the starry skies,
Guard her, by your truthful words,
Pure from courtship's flatteries.

By your truth she shall be true --
Ever true, as wives of yore --
And her Yes, once said to you,
SHALL be Yes for evermore.

Outside the Minnesota State Line PART 3 Recipes for disaster and all that jazz, as performed on a rusty tin whistle

It was a difficult few months, finding himself outside the minnesota state line with nothing to show for himself. I mean, whilst within the borders of that hospitable state, he felt lulled into a quazi comfort zone. What prompted that delusion to rear itself from his soul to sustain that reaction, we will never know.

Be that as it may, now, at his peril, the lulling had terminated, abruptly, or so it seemed.

He found himself in the midst of a storm without hope of a door upon which one dare dream of collapse. The poor dear.

Instead, he found himself wondering the byways and straitways of life outside the minnesota state line, with only his collection of recipes, and a rusty tin whistle, to keep him company.

(yes, let us pause here to reflect upon the crafty hilar perfectly tangled into that last run on sentence.)

northern saskatchewan, july 2005, road trip

Epipsychidion

lines 174-189, Percy Bysshe Shelley

Mind from its object differs most in this;
Evil from good; misery from happiness;
The baser from the nobler; the impure
And frail, from what is clear and must
endure;
If you divide suffering and dross, you
may
Diminish till it is consumed away;
If you divide pleasure and love and thought,
Each part exceeds the whole; and we know
not
How much, while any yet remains unshared,
Of pleasure may be gained, of sorrow
spared.
This truth is that deep well, whence sages
draw
The unenvied light of hope; the eternal law
By which those live, to whom this world of
life
Is as a garden ravaged, and whose strife
Tills for the promise of a later birth
The wilderness of this Elysian earth.

Well: Millstone and Cistern Under Trees (Meule et citerne sous bois), Paul Cezanne 1892

"The Well"
written by Pablo Neruda

At times you sink, you fall
into your hole of silence,
into your abyss of proud anger,
and you can scarcely
return, still bearing remnants
of what you found
in the depth of your existence.

My love, what do you find
in your closed well?
Seaweed, swamps, rocks?
What do you see with blind eyes,
bitter and wounded?

Darling, you will not find
in the well into which you fall
what I keep for you on the heights:
a bouquet of dewy jasmines,
a kiss deeper than your abyss.

Do not fear me, do not fall
into your rancor again.
Shake off my word that came to wound you
and let if fly through the open window.
It will return to wound me
without your guiding it
since it was laden with a harsh instant
and that instant will be disarmed in my breast.

Smile at me radiant
if my mouth wounds you.
I am not a gentle shepherd
like the ones in fairy tales,
but a good woodsman who shares with you
earth, wind, and mountain thorns.

Love me, you, smile at me,
help me to be good.
Do not wound yourself in me, for it will be useless,
do not wound me because you wound yourself.

Salmon Chowda

Wild Salmon Chowder

NB. The salmon must be wild or else you’re not allowed to use this recipe!

Recipe was created on January 3, 2004 w/ Huck as salmon skin advice-helper and consumer.

photo does not represent how the chowda in the recipe will look like, it's just the most recent chowda I made and was silly enough to take a photo of, ok? Geesh.

2 tablespoons of good olive oil – Portuguese was used for this recipe
Four garlic gloves crushed or chopped, your choice
One big onion chopped in small pieces
One tablespoon of fresh chopped ginger
Sauté these ingredients together for 7 minutes

One half of a side of roughly chopped wind dried salmon from Lil’Wat
One cup roughly chopped smoked salmon by Grace Kelly from Lak’lahamen
One commercial can sockeye salmon (in a pinch) or better yet two cups chopped fresh salmon - for the fresh salmon, add in the last 15 minutes before serving – yes use a timer!
Two and a half celery sticks and the leafy heart of celery too, all chopped nice and small
Two thirds of a cup of dried mushrooms – in fridge weeks for drying, or get dried ones, or use one and one third cup of chopped fresh mushrooms.
Two litres of good filtered water
“Major” brand fish base one and a half tablespoons
Two cups of small yellow potatoes chopped in two
Tablespoon of fresh dried dill or fresh dill
French dried herb mix – marjoram, oregano, basil, thyme
One big yam chopped small
One big sweet potato chopped small
Three medium sized carrots chopped small
One medium leek chopped in rings – soaked in water for five minutes and drained before adding to the slop – I didn’t do that but my mum would be disappointed in me as a result. But this evening it was only discussed.
One third cup of dried barley
Skin of one side of wind dried salmon for flavouring… no you don’t eat it – think bay leaf…

Leave all the above to boil then to do its simmering thing for 40 minutes at least, maybe 50

Then add
One and a half cups of roughly chopped organic kale
One green onion chopped nicely
Juice of one lemon squeezed in

Let it all cook together for five or seven minutes

Put in serving bowls
Finish with one big dollop of sour cream, with one teaspoon of dried sumac stirred in haphazardly.
Done
Let the eater mix that in
And enjoy!

Wine to accompany such as, Stoneleigh Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, 2004 Marlborough or if you are really lucky you could drink a Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand (Aotearoa), alternatively a Stein Lager (or a Heineken in a pinch)

non alcoholic post chowda beverage recommendation: rooiboss w/ wiggiskwa (wild mint)from northern saskatchewan

bannock or baguette or irish soda bread are ideal breads to sop up the juices

If...

Two Poems by Rumi

THE ALLURE OF LOVE

Someone who does not run
toward the allure of love walks
a road where nothing lives.

But this dove here senses
the love-hawk floating above
and waits and will not be driven
or scared to safety.

SKY CIRCLES

The way of love is not
a subtle argument.

The door there is devastation.

Birds make great sky-circles
of their freedom.

How do they learn that?
They fall, and falling,
they're given wings.