I Lost My Head-A Halloween Poem

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I lost my head

I lost it through and through

I lost my head

Because of love for you.

I lost my head

Inside a witch’s brew

I lost my head

Cause that’s what lovers do.


Frankenstein’s a cutie

He’s got a bolt or two

But I lost my head

In time for winter flu.

I sneezed and sneezed

Creating breeze

That simply wouldn’t leave

But I had lost my head

And couldn’t find my sleeve.

There is a headless horseman

I’m blaming Halloween

For I lost my head

Now I’m the headless queen!

Happy Halloween!

Kaleido at 21

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Sing it from the rooftops

Shout it through the mail

(The Rat Creek Press, of Course!)

Once again, the mighty ship, Kaleido, is set to sail.

Alleys become galleries, colour spills into the street

The sweet music of Kaleido, where neighbours come to meet.

Houses lean to listen, the street forgets its’ birth

As magical surprises transform this piece of earth.

So, let us hoist Kaleido’s sails

With gratitude they ring

The compass winds will take her far beyond imagining.

“The Sure Shot”

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“The Sure Shot” by AJA Louden

She cannot know what this small life will become.

Unheard yet—the child’s first cry

Nor the sound of a voice softly calling her “Mother”

This Cupid Virgin Mary, who flies with Hermes’ feet

Brings her own message of faith

As she rises above the scorched, black earth

Dotted with satellites and solar panels.

She draws her bow without hesitation, her aim sure and steady

Not knowing the sorrow or grief that lies ahead

Or the ground upon which it will fall

The arrow of faith wings its’ way into the future

Bringing with it the power and the love of two hearts beating as one.

“let’s heal the divide”

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Sign created by Toni Latour (used with permission)

Homelessness, helplessness, heartlessness

Our Province, our Country, our Land

Let’s heal the divide.

Diversity City, so pretty,

Standing awash in a prism of colours of gender and race

Of skin and of face

Extending a hand

Let’s heal the divide.

Fly the flag, proudly, loudly

As this challenge over fills us and wills us

To heal the divide,

Heal the Divide

through me.

Tell Me What You See

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God built you a beautiful face
Brick by brick.
As building blocks are a passion for you
You and your Lego smile
Creating a wall of face, this wall of grace
With mortar moving silently
As your bright eyes gaze around, when no one is watching.
Tell me what you see…
A twisted penny, an empty piece of tin foil, a grimy grocery cart with rusty wheels
Your eyes search for something wonderful to cradle in your sight
One lone yellow dandelion colours the landscape
Yet you find your delight in the arc of a rainbow
Translucent as dew reflecting your eyes.

I Howl Instead of Saying “Hallelujah”

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I Howl Instead of Saying “Hallelujah”

This day, I want to talk

to say something beautiful or wise.

Instead, I imagine that I am a fox,

my own inner animal.

I am running through a dark forest at night

Snow dripping from the firs

There’s a silence so deep that I can feel it in my bones

I can only breathe in short gasps

My insides are screaming, blood pounding,

when I finally reach the top of a cliff

where a sliver of moon dimly lights my way.

I stand still and blink in the darkness.

Here, there is air and space and time and madness—and then I howl…

the air coming out as white as snow on a Bethlehem night.

But this night—I howl, instead of saying “Hallelujah” to God












			

	
	



			
				


	

		

			Zoom-Zoom
		


				

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Yesterday afternoon, many of us on Alberta Avenue were keeping watch for the Canadian Forces Snowbirds Aerobatic Team fly-by  and we were not disappointed. “Operation Inspiration” fly on!


Here they come!


Closer!




 


Leaving rivers of Santa’s white whiskers behind


Zoom-Zoom


Sonic Boom


Hearts Bloom


Snowbirds embrace us all


As they fly 


Hope glinting through


Leaving


Rivers of Santa’s white whiskers behind 


A gift 


in the summer sky. 


 


 


 

			

	
	



			
				


	

		

			With Love, From Edmonton
		


				

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At 5 a.m. this morning, I am thinking of my daughter. She is an R.N. at one of the city hospitals in Edmonton and she is no stranger to 5 a.m. Work for her starts at 6:15. This poem in a pandemic, is for her and for all of our front line workers, who go to work daily, risking their lives for the rest of us.


Painting on Alberta Avenue by AJA Louden (used with permission)


With Love, From Edmonton


The door clicks behind you in the otherwise sleeping building,


You head for the LRT—another day.


A bus goes by with one soul on board headed into the dark of morning


where “It” waits, invisible.


The news shows a mass murder in Nova Scotia, a flood in Fort McMurray,


I try to turn down the knob on my trauma channel


Dial down the Red Zone.


Two chickadees on the feeder steady me.


Over my mound of potato chips, the cashier tells another COVID joke


The City guy comes by to pick up our blue bag


“Hey, thanks!” I yell.


“No problem, have a good day!” comes back to me.


Social distancing, blue bag distancing, chickadee distancing…


It’s all at a distance now.


Inhaling a global breath of wind, 


I taste the air, feeling it deep in my lungs


Then exhale.


My pen skips along the page trying to explain,


trying to tell a tale of you.


At work, you are the soft voice that speaks of many things


Of patients and PPE 


Of masks and methodologies


You, who glimpse the invisible.


Your phone vibrates


It’s another R.N. friend who is running a COVID testing site in B.C.


Your hands, dry as sandpaper, with all the washing,


Touch the screen—catching another Kitty video on your break.


Yet, at the end of the day, you create the Genesis of a song


Of fearless fighters in the rain


Of hope amid the pain


Diminished, yet more


We all want to sing your song


this Edmonton sing-a-long—of love. 


 


(Mother’s Day 2020) 


 


 


 

			

	
	



			
				


	

		

			Grieve This Day on Golden Pond
		


				

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Broncos


Front Porch Memorial on Alberta Avenue 


As I write this poem, days after the Humboldt Broncos hockey team bus crash in Saskatchewan, my heart and all of the hearts here on Alberta Avenue, go out to those who are grieving today.


Grieve This Day on Golden Pond


“Prayers for Humboldt”


“Shattered Lives”


All signs of the times today


Grief unimaginable 


Flying flags half-mast.


Yet, heart to heart and hand in hand


We reach around the World.


Green and yellow and golden threads embroider


this time, this day, this hour, now yours.


Your green lives in the prairie grasses,


Your yellow glows in the never-fading light


Bright yellow hair ruffled by a new wind,


Blows across this golden pond of ice


Forever binding us


Broncos strong. 


 




 

			

	
	



			
				


	

		

			Faces on a Wall
		


				

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Faces


Hello everyone!


Welcome back to Bard of the Avenue.


When I took this picture; painted on the side of the Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts and the Stollery Gallery on 118th. Avenue; I was struck by the silent, unmoving, unnaturalness of a rigid face, a face not in motion; not alive. I was intrigued by the idea of faces on a wall and I wrote this poem. 


Faces on a Wall


Tell me a story, young faces of glory


An act on this brick stage.


Emoji stones faces, erases


A blink, a wink, a pout, a rage


Blow me a kiss- I miss.


Granite brow without wrinkles, or crinkles


The rain pouring down never falters – never alters 


This page.