It’s tempting to see a woman as a poem. Men too, but I happen to be thinking about my main character, Carly Rouhl in the Requiem novels. She’s a poem in the sense that she was created with imagined characteristics: appearance, personality, fears and ambitions. She took shape in my mind the way photographs used … Continue reading Poems and Rivers
influence
Bringing Out the Dead
My neighbours across the street are installing cobwebs on their house. They have a large spider web draped over their front yard tree, and an inflatable green spider. They also have three ghosts. These ghosts are recognizable as such because the are draped head to toe in white sheets. I’m not sure where this visual … Continue reading Bringing Out the Dead
Small Bird, Big Sky
I just watched a scene from one of my favorite movies. Again. I must have run this movie a dozen times over the last few months. I’m not going to tell you what the movie was because it’s not an objectively great film, and you probably wouldn’t know it anyway. We all have films that … Continue reading Small Bird, Big Sky
The Curious Case of Maxfield Parrish
I’ve settled on a name for the fourth Requiem novel: Requiem for Parish. The word ‘requiem’ refers to a mass for the dead—a prayer for their souls. An unconscionable number of people get murdered in the new novel, so I had plenty of names to choose from in framing a title. So, who is Parish? No, … Continue reading The Curious Case of Maxfield Parrish
Route 66 Revisited
I drew a cartoon once: There’s a lovely maiden sitting under a tree and a young swain is kneeling beside her with his hand on his heart. The girl says, “So you can write poetry. You’re still a Goddamed shepherd.” I’d been reading pastoral poems with their delicate idylls of love and simplicity, but I … Continue reading Route 66 Revisited
A Thurber Carnival
The CN and CP tracks run parallel and close together here on the MacTier sideroad. As I approach the first track the red warning lights start to flash and I pull up far enough back to get a good view of the train as it crosses the road ahead. There’s a wail from somewhere in … Continue reading A Thurber Carnival
Of Lakes and Seas
I could use your help here. I’ve lost a poem. I know what it’s about: a man determined never to return to the sea, who nevertheless can’t forget the love he feels for the vast reaches of the salt ocean. I’ve tried searching the net for the only line I remember from the poem, and … Continue reading Of Lakes and Seas
“Richard! Richard!” (Jane Seymour in Somewhere in Time)
Influencer—that’s a word that shows up a lot now. Images that drift by us on movie screens or crowd out at us on social media. People we look up to or envy. The truth is we make up our lives as we go along; we didn’t come with an instruction book or a style guide. … Continue reading “Richard! Richard!” (Jane Seymour in Somewhere in Time)
Douglas Cockell 