Monthly Archives: March 2018

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.

 

 

 

Ghost Bikes

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IMG_8718Hello All!

I wanted to write a poem about the ghost bike which was placed at the intersection of 96th. Street and Norwood Blvd. in Edmonton last November. It stands as a stark reminder of the death of a city cyclist, killed in an early morning hit and run, and is the work of the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters Society.

If you want to find out more, you can go to the EBC site or ghostbikes.org, to see what is happening with ghost bikes around the world.  

Ghost Bikes

You rode into death on your bicycle.

Different, I wonder?

From getting old, everything slowing down

Breath, pulse, being

You rode into death on rubber tires.

A sudden slam ending

Like birth-entering with an explosion of light and noise and new dimension-

The wheels going round and round, then slowing down and stopping.

A determined hand, frozen,fallen,broken, brake.

Riding a white chariot to the stars.