Sitting with the Breath

Time to sit and breathe. I am honoured that @canadianpoets has chosen my 'Sitting with the Breath' as their final Poetry Pause of 2024. In October 2022, my wife and I were fortunate to be among the first post-pandemic visitors in the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan. The country had closed to visitors in 2020 and only re-opened in September 2022. Bhutan invented the concept of ‘gross national happiness’ as an indicator of health. The lives of most Bhutanese are structured around small family farms and Bhuddist practice. We were able to visit a number of monasteries, including the famous Tiger’s Nest high on the cliffs over Paro. The experience that we treasured most was being invited to sit in on the annual, day-long, blessing ritual in a family farmhouse in Phobjikha valley.

Monks from Gangtey monastery performing annual blessings in a family farm home, Gangtey, Bhutan.

The poem ‘Sitting with the Breath’ is rooted in that experience. The poem received Honourable Mention in the Lesley Strutt Poetry Contest through the League of Canadian Poets.

You can read the poem here.

Episodic Tremor & Slip

Check out the amazing 'Schism' special issue of The Ex-Puritan, edited by Puneet Dutt. Puneet has pulled together an impressive collection of fiction, poetry and essays about "people simply trying to make sense of their place in a world that doesn’t feel settled." I'm honoured to have poems included alongside the powerful work of poets like Jose Hernandez Diaz, Jane Zwart, Amorak Huey and Salma Hussain.

'Episodic Tremor & Slip' is a sequence of poems about a winding, many-years-long parental journey. The 5 poems published in The Ex-Puritan are from a 13-poem sequence in my forthcoming book. Another poem from the sequence will be published in an upcoming issue of The Fiddlehead.

The Senior Class

I’m honoured to have my poem “Biking to the Green Burial Grounds” included in The Senior Class: 100 Poets on Aging, from Lamar University Literary Press.

The new anthology aims to explore through verse the themes of aging, as well as other issues related to eldercare, retirement, mortality, grief, gratitude, earned wisdom, senior living, spiritual reflection, and physical and mental decline, as well as changing dynamics in family relationships and marriage.

I heard about this anthology via my long-term poetry pal Peter Christensen. Peter and I go way back to the 70s when we founded and edited Canada Goose poetry journal and the Ride Off Any Horizon anthologies (NeWest Press), so we know something about being 'the senior class.' Thanks Peter.