Callaghan's Rapids cancer haibun

(from an email to friends Marc and Doug who are working to restore Callaghan's Rapids Conservation Area)

 

 I visited Callaghan's yesterday to destress and enjoy nature. That's a nice little foot bridge you built on the north trail to the bridges and it came in handy. I checked the barriers by the first beach, and everything looks untouched. Then I walked the new trail and over the old rail bridges to check the barriers by the sharks' teeth rock barrier. Everything also looked solid there. I guess the trail association paid for the side brush to be cut back, like was done along Mary Street and the Devil's 4 Mile many years ago. I added 5 or 6 larger branches to the barriers.

Then I surprised myself and hiked all the way out to Morrison side road. I met a nice senior couple, Steve and Bernadette and their dog, Sam, close to Morrison. Sam's overwhelming friendliness encouraged conversation, and Steve and I shared kidney stone and cancer operation stories, while Bernadette was suffering from an intense bout of shingles.

Nice hike and I can't believe I was able to hike for 3 1/2 hours.  Seeing a small doe and her tiny fawn was the other highlight!

far ahead

cautious silhouettes

cross the trail 

Deep sorrow comes with realizing that everything we previously took to be lasting and real is actually just about to disappear—and it never even existed in the first place. Such sadness and disillusionment have a wonderful effect. Sorrow makes us let go.

Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, “The Secret Strength of Sadness”

from today's Daily Dharma email sponsored by The Tricycle Community

                                          

                                                            ~    ~    ~   

From:     Tricycle Feedback

Hi Chris,

Wow, thank you so much for sharing with us! What a beautiful interaction on your hike, and the synchronicity with Daily Dharma is lovely.

Please be in touch if there's anything our team can do for you. So glad you're a part of our community!

Warmly,
Erin

 

Al Purdy Day 2023: Big Al On Point

 

Big Al On Point

for Patrick Connors

Barrow by barrow load
Big Al built his special point on Roblin Lake
waterfront sells by the foot
& tho Al & Eurithe wished for a secluded spot
a small space for coffee meditations, well ...
poets can handcraft more than wordy magic

Always resilient (and poor)
this was before fame
Al lugged his barrow loads for weeks & months
planted some soft maples and a few firs
sat back & drank - composed - relaxed
and let Nature do her work for a few decades

Years on I finally found his reclusive retreat
...  found Al's grave marker first
made many treks from Marmora to A-burg
to honour Al & his best bud, Milt
But it was years before I finally found
the magic landscape of Al & Eurithe's hand hewn refuge

on the work day last summer
prepping for the inaugural A-frame Open House
I gave myself the pleasant task
of gardening Big Al's special point

on the way in for my restorative chore
I wandered the dirt road for a place to pee
for my little dog Chase & me
and I met a neighbour woman with her young in tow

I asked if she had ever met Al Purdy
as her family cottage is but three doors away
& she replied that Al was almost a recluse
so shy that when she was a teen
eager to see the now famous poet's abode
she and a boyfriend (husband now)
paddled slowly towards Al's point

in the shade of his fully grown arbor
Big Al himself sat in a deck chair
reading perhaps, or composing deathless lines

the People's Poet looked up
saw the canoe of teens approaching
abruptly turned his chair away
back towards the A-frame
and his meditations


Chris Faiers



postscript:

in the shallows
blue heron awaits
his old friend



Marmora, Ontario
Jan. 25, 2014

inspired by A-frame email from Patrick Connors


published in Umbrella (Quinte Arts Council magazine) September/October/November
issue 2014, p. 29

published in Crossing Borders, Bruce Kauffman, editor, Hidden Brook Press, 2015, p. 29 




         

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This is a lovely image Chris...the bombastic drunken poet hiding in plain sight on his point of land in Roblin Lake.
Have you been following all the buzz generated from last Monday at the Monarch? Descant interview? etc.
Advance notice - August 30 - we have another event at the Active Arts church in Rednersville. More complete news as soon as I hear back from our Writer in Residence. And the Picnic's scheduled (did I tell you that already?) for July 26.
Exciting times...I can't keep up to it on the blog (which I am sure has an international following hungry for news of Al, she said, sarcastically)
I have been hiding on my own point of land, scribbling an architectural essay for a local magazine.
Is Chase keeping his head above the snow?
Are you?
hugs, Lindi

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On 2014-09-12, at 11:52 AM, James Deahl wrote:


September 12, 2014
Dear Chris,

         Thank you for sending the new UMBRELLA. I enjoyed your poem as well as Patrick's review of PurdyFest.

Poetry Power!
         . . . James


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Posted by Chris Faiers/cricket at 18:01 No comments:

 

Haiku Canada Archives: Nicholas Virgilio and Michael Dudley

 Hi All,

Vicki reminded me that I'm slowing down with my donations, so I thought I'd better get these two important collections in the mail asap  ;  )  

The first is the Selected Haiku of Nicholas Virgilio published in 1988 by Canadian presses Burnt Lake Press and Black Moss Press. The intro is by Canadian haijin Rod Willmot. Virgilio was one of the most influential earlier English language haijin. His classic haiku is:

Lily:
out of the water ...
out of itself


The second donation is series three through six in a limited first edition of 125 copies published by Wind Chimes Press in 1986.

There is an interesting dedication to me dated 4 October 1986 The Fallout Shelter

To Chris,

among flickering
but distant light -

with warmest wishes,
Michael

We must have done a group haiku reading that night in Toronto, although my memory is vague on the event. It was an extremely busy and "crazy" time for me with projects and dealing with my starter house in Toronto.

my memory was jogged by Michael memorializing the event by burning the bottom corner of the page in a candle flame  


the first haiku of his series "On Strike"

broken hockey stick
shaft
of a strike sign



off to the post office on this rainy spring day -

 

spring cleaning

more books

off to the archives

 (for Vicki, Heather, KJ, and Lara)

Chris/cricket

Picnic with Al (Purdy)

 April is Poetry Month, and April 21st is Canada's national Al Purdy Day

Picnic with Al

Al, you tough brilliant old bastard
you've been dead for what,
6 ... 7 years now?
And yet your spirit still soars thru
this godforsaken country north of Belleville
permeating the equally godforsaken Canadian poetry scene

We, your people's poetry progeny
miss you and Uncle Milt so much
we've organized a festival with your name all that's necessary
to announce our intentions

Now the formal parts of the festival are over
It's time for beer and finger food and
real poetry in the graveyard where your
spirit keeps company with failed Loyalist ancestors

Today you've got us to lift your spirits
one crazy old hippie poet (me)
is ringing a Buddhist temple bell
reminding you not to be late for the feast
of poets reading your poetry
all beer sodden, chicken smeared
and better for it

This early August day in A-burgh's settler cemetery is perfect
sunny, the wind coming up as the bell chimes
its invocation: animals may appear I intone
& sure enough, a second turtle pops onto the log
from the millpond's cool depths

I remember the wake in Belleville
in the posh private school dining hall
more Hogwartz than the owners realized
Halfway through the turgid readings
you flew from the rafters
in the form of a bat
swooping among your guests
and all recognized your spirit
with authentic laughs

Melanie reads your poem "The Buddhist Bell"
after the goofy invocation
and as our vision clears
we see the turtles smile
as Jeff Seffinga appropriately reads "At The Quinte Hotel"
all of us joining to chorus "for I am a sensitive man!"

James Deahl lounges on your tombstone
carved in the shape of an open poetry book
his arm is draped as if over your shoulder
while he props on this convenient lectern
reading your words of drunken wisdom

Suddenly rude crows caw above the pond
Uncle Milty with his raven clan
clangour their guttural approval
People's Poetry is alive and well
laughing from beyond the grave
mingling pitch perfect with Jim's voice

---

Chris Faiers
Oct. 6/07
 

From 2007 until 2014 I organized 8 annual Purdy Country Literary Festivals at my ZenRiver Gardens retreat near Marmora, Ontario. The above poem was inspired by the first "Purdy Fest" gathering.

Dedicated to James (Jim) Deahl about the Aug. 6/07
picnic celebration in Ameliasburgh by Al Purdy's grave.

* Uncle Milty is of course Milton Acorn, Purdy's best friend
and fellow Governor General award winning poet.

this poem appeared in Umbrella, Quinte Arts Council's magazine, May 2008

published in And Left a Place to Stand On: Poems and Essays on Al Purdy, Hidden Brook Press, 2009