my Father always toiled at the earth above the rocks he kept our yard a solitude of quiet and play a kinder garten circled by the elm hedge and shaded by the twin aspen it was always home and always work. my Father always toiled at our garden on the verge of my perception I…
My Gift to You …
My childhood’s eyes a world swallowed in a mint multiplication of every deed suddenly I can master anything just like my superhero Pop I’m a star, I’m hero, I’m singer every hum a single that brings tingles a sunset arranged upon my plate a half-eaten grilled cheese a fish-tail if you please a skyscraper of…
Gee Whiz
golly gee — what if I were He … and I could sow what I would reap in the heart and soul of this family — we are family — aren’t we all? did you know — come on — did you? who doesn’t, captain obvious — oh, please grant me the serenity to change…
A Legacy in Place
We together sit upon the earth in the shadows of a sundial that connects Me to the soil that fed me from the mud patties I fed me with a place that grounded me of a ground that holds family Us under the sun defines place out of it seasons my own by it my…
Generations
Staring into faces I stand in the dark Of my parents’ room At the black and white Photos silently Paper tombstones line Thick dust silhouettes Names only spoken In stories of others Stories once taken Immigration there Just married right here Anniversaries Graduations once Off to war once more Suits ties shiny shoes Dresses Sunday…
Leftovers
Fortune was the recipe — or fate — it depended what was undercover in the fridge leftover from the week past. Tupperware containers half-filled last with remnants of meals: a roast of Dad’s beef sad butter crusted beans some old tomato dyed cold spaghetti some gravy for sauce. Tossed together my Mother of invention added…
Herbs — A Gateway to Freedom and Abundance
As a child, I hated the family garden. It represented work. It represented indentured servitude. It represented poverty. There isn’t more evidence in my life of the difference perspective can make. Growing into a man, my perspective changed when my attitude changed — when I stopped working a garden for others and started working it…
An Untraditional Canadian Christmas: Vegetarian Tourtière
I believe in Christmas and I believe in the power of tradition. For me, the power of Christmas, and the true spirit of it, is beautifully wrapped up in O. Henry’s masterful short-story “The Gift of Magi.” In this story first published more than a century ago, O. Henry beautifully shows the power of giving…
Harvesting an Identity
Long has the harvest been an important part of my life and long has it been associated with fall, bountiful cornucopias of food, and Thanksgiving. Growing up in the Okanagan Valley, the fall harvest meant picking the last of the fruit and stripping our garden of its remaining plenty before tilling the vegetation back into…
Preserving: Our Canadian Tradition
I grew up among trees. Indeed, trees define a huge part of our national identity – and our food – in this country. Speak to any foreigner about their image of Canada and it will almost universally be of “wilderness” and the wide expanse of mountains, water, open spaces, and trees. Growing up, everywhere I…