New Boots

... how pleased I am with them too!

Ahh the joys of the wooden roller coaster!!!!

My Great-grandmother Poonoo

...yes, this is a very old photo of my great-grandmother Poonoo, taken on the porch of her home in northern saskatchewan. She was my father's mother's mother. She had 18 children and eventually lost her lower legs...yet that did not stop her. She kept her home and was pulled around in a small wagon when she was out and about. She smoked a pipe and brought a piano up north on a canoe. Yes, that one seems crazy, but I have learned that the more crazy of my father's stories are often true. He also tells me she was called the "Mother of the North". She was born in Lac Brochet, Manitoba. Her maiden name was Tawipisim, which means half sun ie the sun was only half in the sky. No wonder I love sunsets and sunrises so much. As for resemblances, I do know I have her hands.

Oma, as painted by my Tante Willy

...yes, this is a painting of my Oma, as painted by my Tante Willy, in Amsterdam. It is based on a lovely old black and white photo taken when my Oma was a young woman in Holland. I never met her. She died when my mother was a child. My Tante (auntie) Willy took some liberties here... by painting in some make up. There is another photo I love of her, which I will scan when I can get my neice's help... of Oma on a motorcycle! Apparently there is some family resemblance. Hmmm...

The Questiona poem by Pablo Neruda

Love, a question
has destroyed you.

I have come back to you
from thorny uncertainty.

I want you straight as
the sword or the road.

But you insist
on keeping a nook
of shadow that I do not want.

My love,
understand me,
I love all of you,
from eyes to feet, to toenails,
inside,
all the brightness, which you kept.

It is I, my love,
who knocks at your door.
It is not the ghost, it is not
the one who once stopped
at your window.
I knock down the door:
I enter all your life:
I come to live in your soul:
you can not cope with me.

You must open door to door,
you must obey me,
you must open your eyes
so that I may search in them,

you must see how I walk
with heavy steps
along all the roads
that, blind, were waiting for me.

Do not fear,
I am yours,
but
I am not the passenger or the beggar,
I am your master,
the one you were waiting for,
and now I enter
your life,
no more to leave it,
love, love, love,
but to stay.

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.