Buoyant blog of septuagenarian (77) Kanadian poet and haikuist Chris Faiers/cricket. People's Poetry in the tradition of Milton Acorn, haiku/haibun, progressive politikal rants, engaged Buddhism and meditation, revitalizing of Callaghan's Rapids Conservation Area, memories of ZenRiver Gardens and Purdy Country LitFests (PurdyFests), events literary and politikal, and pics, amid swirling currents of earth magick and shamanism. Read in 119 countries last week - 43,329 readers in September.
Looking at the Canadian political spectrum, you might think that I’m at one end and Andrew Coyne at the other. However since the start of Trump’s resurgence, Coyne has stood out as one of the few voices in the Canadian press with a very clear-eyed view of the nature of the threat emanating from Washington.
“We are in a lot of trouble, and we need to move fast. There is no reason to confine our imagination to what is reasonable or even practical. It is not enough to hope for the best.
We have to plan for the worst.”
Coyne was writing about the fact that as much as Carney’s Davos speech inspired the world, it will have enormous political consequences for our relations with the United States.
Not only was Trump made to look like a fool, but Carney called on the world to defy the Project 2025 worldview. The speech has bolstered other leaders to begin standing up to the intimidation. The Americans view this as an act of insubordination or even rebellion.
Trump said as much at Davos when he warned Canada to be “grateful”.
“Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”
The threat was unmistakable: Canada’s sovereignty exists at the whim of the gangster in the White House.
Economic retribution has already begun. Trump has threatened to shut the Gordie Howe Bridge and walk away on CUSMA.
A year ago, such threats would have rattled us and dominated press coverage. Now we seem to barely notice. Canada came through the first year of economic intimidation with surprisingly little pain. Trade with other nations has increased. There is a growing sense of national purpose.
And if Trump storms out on CUSMA, the government won’t be surprised. Plans are already being made.
So far, so good. But it is very dangerous to assume that this is the worst it could get. If economic threats don’t bring us into line, will Trump go further?
Recent polling shows that nearly 50% of Canadians believe that the United States could consider a military invasion of Canada.
The so-called “Donroe” doctrine has designated the entire western hemisphere as existing to serve the interests of the United States. Minister of War Pete Hegseth bragged that the U.S. has put aside legal and diplomatic “niceties” and is determined to create a world “governed by strength, governed by force, governed by power”.
Former UN Ambassador has warned that Canadians would be naive to think that our country is not on the “menu.”
Trump recently threatened force in Greenland but backed away because the European powers were forced to stand up to him. Will our allies stand up for us if Trump seizes the Gordie Howe Bridge?
Or if the U.S. military is sent across the border to help a staged insurrection at Coutts, Alberta? Or if a drone strike at the Nipigon Bridge paralyzes Canadian national trade?
I would like to think they would, but I wouldn’t take it to the bank.
Helping Canada out militarily would be much more difficult than sending ships and troops to Greenland. The Europeans are preoccupied with Putin. Canada might very well be on its own.
The Canadian military has begun war-gaming scenarios for a U.S. occupation and a Canadian insurgency war that would inflict “maximum casualties.”
Canada is hoping to establish our independent footing through a huge increase in military spending, but such retooling is a decade-long project. As Coyne notes, we don’t have the luxury of time.
I keep coming back to reports that the government is planning a 300,000-person volunteer force. So far, there has been little talk about how this force was created or deployed. But every day I meet Canadians who tell me they are more than willing to join up to defend our sovereignty.
I have been thinking a great deal about how a proactive civilian defence plan would work. This isn’t about getting seniors to march behind tanks in Belleville or telling folks to head to the hills with a can of beans and a rifle.
We need to give people a sense that it is possible to establish an all-of-society approach to protect sovereignty and democracy. This could be done by establishing a national network of local groups that are trained in civil defence and resilience.
Here’s what that could look like:
Establish the volunteer force with the mandate to help communities whether in response to wildfires, floods or threats to sovereignty.
Build from the bottom up. Decentralized local networks of resistance will foster esprit de corps and can respond quickly in the event of a local emergency.
Draw on expertise already in our communities by involving health care and front-line workers, community planners, retired military and police.
Invite the Canadian Rangers to play a role in establishing local training programs and consider a Junior Rangers-style program for our young people.
Prioritize training in first aid, communications and logistics for use at the local level in case of emergency.
Bring in Ukrainian trainers to help with drone skills and civilian-defence expertise.
Conduct workshops in civil resistance in how national resistance can be undertaken by refusals to aid and abet an occupation.
Give the local networks a strong social media presence to highlight local service and build national unity.
When I first started writing about these issues, I worried people might think I was being hysterical. But I agree with Coyne. It would be dangerously naïve to assume the best when we must realistically plan for the worst.
In doing so, we send a very clear message to those who doubt our resolve.
Canadians will never submit to a foreign threat. We will always govern ourselves based on Canadian values and law. And in preparing for the worst, we might just bring out the best in this beautiful nation.
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It has been inspiring to see Canada standing with the people of Greenland and Denmark. In a world that seems increasingly cynical and dark, it was genuinely moving to witness the warmth, joy and friendship on display at the recent opening of Canada’s consulate in Greenland.
But it wasn’t so long ago that Canada and Denmark were locked into a longstanding feud about sovereignty over a northern island. If Donald Trump had any class, he might learn something from how Canada settles disputes with an allied nation.
Okay, so the fight over Hans Island wasn’t nearly as high-stakes as Trump’s attempt to take over Greenland, but it does offer an important lesson in how allies resolve disputes.
For nearly 50 years, Canada and Denmark had been squabbling over control of Hans Island, a barren piece of rock in the Arctic, used by both the Hudson’s Bay Company in the 19th century and Greenlandic whalers.
In 1984, Canadian soldiers landed on the island, planted the Canadian flag, and cheekily, they left a bottle of Canadian whiskey for the Danes. The Danes responded with their own flag planting and a gift of a bottle of schnapps.
This was the beginning of the “Whiskey War”.
In the years that followed, both sides made numerous trips to Hans Island to plant the flag, erect cairns, and leave domestic alcohol for their adversary. In 2005, Canada’s defence minister, Bill Graham, even flew to the island to show Canada’s determination to advance its claim.
But in 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the two NATO allies decided it was time to settle the dispute. They drew a line down the middle and called it even.
No threats. No tantrums.
But there is another story about Canada and its relationship with Denmark that few Canadians know.
In May 1945, a small group of Canadian paratroopers with Sten guns stopped the Soviet takeover of Denmark.
The 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion (1CanPara) had been fighting almost nonstop since June 6th, 1944. They were called in for many tough jobs, including helping the Americans during the Battle of the Bulge.
1CanPara were part of the largest airborne drop in history in March 1945 as Allied troops pushed across the Rhine. Over 16,000 paratroopers were dropped by 1500 troop planes.
In the war’s final days, Prime Minister Winston Churchill was growing increasingly concerned about the Soviet push for the German city of Wismar on the Baltic coast. It sits at a key link to Denmark. If the Soviets reached Wismar, they would move straight into Denmark.
Churchill needed soldiers who could move fast and fearlessly. He didn’t think twice about his choice. He sent the men of 1CanPara.
The Canadians advanced so quickly that they actually passed entire German convoys on the road. No shots were fired.
“The strangeness of the situation is that we are passing complete units of the German Army, lying by the roadside, some with vehicles, even horse-drawn artillery, but no shots are exchanged, no white flags were shown, and we cannot stop to disarm them.”
The Canadians took control of Wismar as Russian armour moved on the city. The vastly outgunned Canadians were protecting both the Danish border and German civilians who feared heavy reprisals and mass rapes.
When the Russian forces encountered the small Canadian unit, they were shocked. Things were friendly at first, and then the Russian commander told them to step aside so that his tanks could continue moving forward.
Edie, from Winnipeg, had turned down a chance to play for the Chicago Blackhawks to serve his country, and ordered his paratroopers to hold their ground in the face of the Russian tanks. The Russians were shocked that Eadie and the outgunned Canadians were ready to fight.
They backed off.
In the peace agreement that followed, the allies gave Wismar to the Russians, but Denmark remained free.
This is not a story I ever read in any Canadian history book, but the people of Denmark remember. During the recent struggle for Greenland, a number of Danes reached out to me to tell me the story of how their freedom was won by a small, gutsy group of Canadians.
We have been allies ever since.
Despite the Whiskey War.
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(from my 1969 haiku chapbook Cricket Formations - also in Foot Through the Ceiling, Aya Press, 1986 which received The Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award - and in many other publications)
Please note David McMurray selected a Honey Novick haiku below:
Neither heads nor tails sardines--all in the same boat --Tim Chamberlain (Tokyo)
* * *
first frost migrant boats turn away --Melissa Dennison (Bradford, England)
* * *
freezing fog an extra urgency in the blackbird’s call --Tony Williams (Glasgow, Scotland)
* * *
winter sparrows a Saint Francis statue streaked in white --A.J. Johnson (Stephens City, Virginia)
* * *
work, work, work-- a cat in the sun --Yoshiho Satake (Tokyo)
* * *
Snowdrift reaches the window a cat’s gaze --John J. Han (Manchester, Missouri)
* * *
Sleety night stray cats, too sit round the hearse --Yutaka Kitajima (Joetsu, Niigata)
* * *
Fear of the unknown... Gypsies driven from winter fields --Angela Giordano (Avigliano, Italy)
* * *
crunching salt beneath my feet… childhood fear --Artur Zielinski (Gdynia, Poland)
* * *
dreary winter rains sputter, muttering again no frosts --Mick McGann Jones (Kerry, Ireland)
------------------------------ FROM THE NOTEBOOK ------------------------------
faster, longer more work hours marathon olympic medal --June Read (Calgary, Alberta)
The Olympic Winter Games opened today, Feb. 6, in Milan and Cortina, Italy. Christina Chin traveled under the English Channel from Bournemouth, England to Genoa, Italy.
hopping onto the transcontinental train cold drafts
Ana Drobot felt invigorated. Ivan Georgiev opened a gate.
cold winter wind sharpening my senses
* * *
sense of home a stolen horse returning through the fog
David Greenwood forged ahead.
head tucked down the wind numbs all before it but my shadow
Pitt Buerken cheered for his favorite sports team until the very end of the game.
final whistle the team’s relegation is a done deal
Junko Saeki noted that her profession requires so much concentration, she disciplined herself to say “no, to all unexpected assignments after a full day of work,” adding that “it is not the most important thing in life.”
an interpreter I stumble out of the room after-hours meeting
In Perugia, Italy, Maria Tosti closed her eyes and dreamed of “skipping the calendar and going straight to March 21st!”
drawing still life--the last window light in the neighbourhood always mine
Laila Brahmbhatt watched a peaceful competition.
swans stretch their wings children measuring themselves in the water
Archie G. Carlos kept an eye on children playing in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Writing from Taylorville, Illinois, Randy Brooks recalls how valleys with steep walls on three sides were used to corral wild horses America’s Wild West.
eight-foot snowbank the cul-de-sac kids’ growing interest
* * *
horse tracks in the snow to the box canyon none of them shoed
Morgan Ophir judged a diver in Sydney, Australia.
temple bell frog jumps a perfect circle
David Cox sat on his sofa watching “The Detectorists,” a quirky television show about lost treasure hunter-evaluators.
always a pen lid hoard under the middle cushion… antiqui-searcher
Feeling under the weather, Ella Aboutboul overheard equestrians chatting cheerfully as they passed by her window in West Sussex, England. Tsanka Shishkova was entertained by a virtuoso’s “Winter” in Sofia, Bulgaria.
winter melancholy clip-clopping riders laughing for me
* * *
snowstorm icy lace on the window Vivaldi’s violin
Tomislav Maretic wrote his resolutions for the incoming lunar new year in Zagreb, Croatia.
Chariots of fire-- I have not yet finished all my battles
Writing a tribute about a fashion icon in Tehran, Iran, Pegah Rahmati Nezhad closed with the words, “May she rest in beauty.”
in leap years i’m twenty-six Iris Apfel’s epilog
Alexander Groth contemplated the meaning of fleeting beauty in Berlin, Germany.
if beauty held not impermanence within what would be its worth
Mario Massimo Zontini looked over the fence from time to time in Parma, Italy.
another cold day my neighbour’s dog barks, not much
Chen-ou Liu pressed his nose up against a window in Ajax, Ontario. Georgiev kept his nose to the grindstone in Gottingen, Germany.
work work work and work etched across my office pane... sunlight tinged gray
* * *
backbreaking work closer and closer to the ground
Dennison noted on her calendar that the hardworking squirrels which concealed food with their snout and paws last autumn will soon awake from hibernation. Marie Derley tried to suspend time in Ath, Belgium. Urszula Marciniak awoke early in Lodz, Poland.
tap...tap...tap... a squirrel buries nuts
* * *
staying in autumn because the image is nicer wall calendar
* * *
a winter morning a squirrel clutching a dug-up nut
Haikuists celebrated end of winter (setsubun) events by throwing beans to ward off evil spirits at shrines and temples. Attending the Feb. 3 festival at a temple in Tokyo, Murasaki Sagano felt like a kid again. At home in his kitchen in Honolulu, Hawaii, Raj K. Bose fondly recalled playing with his brothers and sisters.
waffle hollows full of honey… bean-throwing festival
* * *
shelling peas I recall the faces of all my siblings
Teiichi Suzuki sat near sumo wrestlers in the subway who were heading home from Nanba station in Osaka.
Sweet scented hair oil from sumo wrestlers’ topknots the crowded subway
Robin Rich threw a peanut to feed a squirrel but a crow got the rebound in icy Brighton, England.
throwing crows the monkey nuts… bounce off puddles
In Draguignan, France, Francoise Maurice watched flat stones skip across the ice.
frozen pond--anyway he throws a stone
Honey Novick tossed a coin for good luck in Toronto, Ontario.
winds of change breathe hope like a wishing well dragon new year new dreams abound
Dennison shivered at the sound of chemical reactions.
throwing salt... the hiss and crackle of ice
Carlos cried in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.
ice pellets the sting of tear gas
Scott Reid froze in Monte Rio, California.
Minnesota ice-- the frozen song of poetry
Rob Scott created this line fissure in Melbourne, Australia.
cracking ice another deadline approaches
Anthony Q. Rabang risked seven years of bad luck in Santa Catalina, Philippines.
swinging and slashing with plastic swords cracks on the mirror
Worried that “spirits wander aimlessly in suspended time,” Giordano shut her door tight at the seasonal division of winter and spring.
closed doors--devils and witches rule the night
Asleep at home in Nienhagen, Germany, Isabella Kramer’s eyes suddenly opened wide in the dark.
hidden moon the something under my pillow moves
Maretic recounted the history of the horses that were set free to roam in a wilderness region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, rather than be sent to slaughter.
rusty plows-- our horses take care of themselves
* * *
snowy landscape-- Livno wild horses lick the salt from the road
Slobodan Pupovac outstretched a handful of salt on a farm in Zagreb, Croatia. Georgiev watched a similar scene. Pegah Rahmati Nezhad relaxed in Tehran, Iran.
happy cow moist palm of my right hand
* * *
temptation the salt already dissolved in his warm hand
* * *
in her palm a volcano hummingbird in torpor
Sagano received a packet of salt to carry home.
purified salt after the funeral winter solitude
Patrick Sweeney empathized with a Russian author who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union and the Gulag prison system.
house to the car with cane I’m Solzhenitsyn in the snow
Yutaka Kitajima turned up the heat in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture.
The coal stove maxes... a soporific lecture on The Tale of Genji
Dejan Ivanovic looks forward to Feb. 14 Valentine’s Day celebrations of love in Lazarevac, Serbia. Luciana Moretto pitied poor Juliet Capulet’s popularity with tourists in Treviso, Italy.
frosty February the cats already meow that love is in the air
* * *
Juliet’s statue in Verona her right breast worn out... endless yearning
Jackie Chou read a love story in Pico Rivera, California.
old diary his name and mine locked in a heart
Sagano visited India.
Taj Mahal love crosswords in marble windy flowers
Feeling melancholic from a profound saudade, Foteini Georgakopoulou found refuge in Athens, Greece.
in the shade of a past love I shelter in the winter
Sagano was charmed at a classical style cafe in Tokyo by an aged waiter who warned “please, be careful.”
hot wet towel placed unfolded on my hands Valentine’s Day waiter
Visiting Medellin, Colombia, Dina Towbin implored her lunch companions to share their leftovers rather than let the waitstaff return the exquisite-tasting food and beverages to the kitchen.
unforgettable lemonade delicious cheesy bread don’t let them take yours
Kitajima dedicated this poem to his granddaughter, who is “charming like Kaguya-hime.” In a folktale about a bamboo cutter, a mysterious baby found in a bamboo stalk grew into a beautiful woman who rejected all her suitors with impossible tasks until she flew away to the moon.
Puffy wind stirs fluffy hairs off the bonnet
Lethargic after a vacation away from his political science studies at St. Xavier’s College in Kolkata, India, Allen David Simon felt a little off routine.
year’s first class-- my fingers forgot how to hold a pen
Yumi Miyashita won the 7th Annual English Haiku Contest at Kagawa University. Judges praised the work of the fifth-year medical student for sharing a real story in a “vivid, powerful, and memorable haiku” which strikes at all our senses.
Blood pumping from the bag Like drums calling out her name She is meant to live
Zontini heard mellow, mournful sounds at a beach. Gordana Vlasic wondered if birds might have escaped from a zoo. The cold seeped deep into Johnson’s thoughts. Vasile Moldovan observed birds form Vs as they migrated further south from Bucharest, Romania.
the snow falls: from the shore the muffled cry of the plovers
* * *
frozen lake-- at the zoo the children search for swans
* * *
not far enough south tundra swans honk at freezing rain
* * *
the northern wind increasing their flying speed flocks of cranes
The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears Feb. 20. Readers are invited to send haiku about imperfection on a postcard to David McMurray at the International University of Kagoshima, Sakanoue 8-34-1, Kagoshima, 891-0197, Japan, or e-mail to mcmurray@fka.att.ne.jp.
* * *
David McMurray
David McMurray has been writing the Asahi Haikuist Network column since April 1995, first for the Asahi Evening News. He is on the editorial board of the Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku, columnist for the Haiku International Association, and is editor of Teaching Assistance, a column in The Language Teacher of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT).
McMurray is professor of intercultural studies at The International University of Kagoshima where he lectures on international haiku. At the Graduate School he supervises students who research haiku. He is a correspondent school teacher of Haiku in English for the Asahi Culture Center in Tokyo.
McMurray judges haiku contests organized by The International University of Kagoshima, Ito En Oi Ocha, Asahi Culture Center, Matsuyama City, Polish Haiku Association, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Seinan Jo Gakuin University, and Only One Tree.
McMurray’s award-winning books include: “Teaching and Learning Haiku in English” (2022); “Only One Tree Haiku, Music & Metaphor” (2015); “Canada Project Collected Essays & Poems” Vols. 1-8 (2013); and “Haiku in English as a Japanese Language” (2003).
