Poems - JP Melville

And We Entwined dateless jp melville shirley did not have an affair shirley is a good cook believe it or not i said to her that i was obliged to believe because she affirmed her ability far too often to pass the idea off as a boast shirley thought maybe   she would have her hair tied back in a neat bun when she was fifty years teaching at university and have the students come back to her place single she never envisioned men in her future i’ve a secret five year plan which starts in june her fortune recently told by tarot card indicates that she is going to be burgeoning with confidence soon that this will attract men to her like flies to honey we agreed that happy people have an attractive quality i said powerful women instil fear in most men yes all part of a long sejour with shirley tonight she mentioned her friend carol-anne several times and carol-anne's illness without saying just what that illness is i don...

Newfoundland and Ontario for Shirley 1993 jp Sunlight dancing on pond waters Trilliums splashing white and purple on a forest floor Sparrow singing on the fence post all day long While I dig in garden soil. Then I stand, surveying, hold tightly to a gift of patience... angry… my thoughts distracting me. Hard work, hopes, dreams, blunted fingernails, swollen bellies fish, sea, deep snow, moose, tractors, cattle, potatoes, lumber mills, pulp the mines the seals the fox the sweat the rock wealthy vs labourers them vs them and we the damned middle the self righteous class... Tradition raped by progress: our cod liver pills, our Hibernia oil, our computer paper our potato seed virus free, our animal protection rights. And now we advocate tourism for economic development: ‘Why, those folk have such friendly ways out there on the rock...’ When I understand my heart bleeds... though I survive still my heart bleeds... ...