Steps & Stones

I haven’t counted the stairs at 1001 Steps, but walking down felt like there were 500 and climbing back up felt closer to 2001. At the bottom, a beach of countless stones made each step awkward. Nearby, a train hauled U.S. coal alongside Canadian shores to barges heading for China where it will fuel power plants and be used in furnaces to produce steel, adding hugely to carbon emissions. Though China seems to embrace wind and solar, it's no easy shift. All countries face the grip of immediate needs versus the long-term health of the planet. The glacier collapse in Nepal confirms that we’re on a one-way escalator moving too fast to step off, and the Poet’s and Storytellers United prompt “numbers” to me says environmental disasters are too overwhelming to tally.

   

The train passed by and so did my focus on troubles and challenges. Later at Crescent Beach, a butterfly kite swirled and a dancer joyfully whirled to the delight of onlookers.

     

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH and Saturday's Critters. 

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report and watch environmental activist, 90-year-old David Suzuki, in an interview.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

No Backtracking

"Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances." - Mahatma Gandhi

    

White Rock, Ocean Park and Crescent Beach are sleepy coastal communities that trains waken. I've written a lot about the BNSF Railway into Canada from the US that ribbons the West Coast seaside, heading to terminals in Metro Vancouver with cargoes of coal and chemicals to load onto massive ships for export largely to China. Environmental and safety concerns abound, particularly since a long string of boxcars (sometimes stacked), and tanks, cut off beach access. In Crescent Beach, the train coming through can prevent residents from exiting the village sometimes for a half hour or more, a serious concern should an emergency needing an ambulance occur. My recent sighting of the train in White Rock and the Poets and Storytellers United prompt "body of water" inspired my poem Overload below, not only about trains but a metaphor for airways carrying the weight of the world's discourse. Water, tracks, the internet: all conduits. 

     

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH and Saturday's Critters. 

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report and watch environmental activist, 90-year-old David Suzuki, in an interview.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

Read more

Words Have Wings

"From the wide window towards the granite shore/The white sails still fly seaward, seaward flying/ Unbroken wings ..." - from Ash Wednesday by T.S. Eliot

    

The Ocean Park Hall that opened in 1926 was the perfect place to celebrate its 100-year-history this June. Outside were games, food and face painting. Inside, grainy photos were on display of days gone by, including of the original post office. Deemed the world's smallest at the time, the six foot by six foot building made it into Ripley's Believe It Or Not!. Nowadays, most messages are sent electronically on keyboards and hand written letters in the mail seem a luxury. My poem (at bottom) is an ode to the hand written letter, inspired in part by the Poets and Storytellers United prompt, the quote by T.S. Eliot, reminding that words have wings though they travel by different means and that even Eliot preferred a typewriter in the early 1900's to ink and pen.

       

For clarity, above and below are digital reproductions of faded black/white photos. Mail arrived to the Ocean Park community via the railway by the shore and carried uphill.

   

My poem in flowery font is from the heart, although not written by hand on paper.

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH and Saturday's Critters. 

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report and watch environmental activist, 90-year-old David Suzuki, in an interview.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

Read more

Fireworks & Fresh Sparks

The New Year is upon us and it's time to reflect. The usual seasonal pondering and a "fireworks" prompt from Poets and Storytellers United inspired my poem below. Noisy colourful displays in the night sky are pretty but excite me less nowadays. I am more attuned to the rustle of wind, the patter of rain and the luminescent waves that splash to shore. Hope you enjoy my poem and views when the old year waned at the bottom of 1001 Steps in Ocean Park. Wishing all who pause here a happy, calming New Year.

   

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH and Saturday's Critters.

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.

Parting Of The Clouds Over White Rock

The sky was awash with brooding and bright clouds after a recent atmospheric river of rain fell where the sculpture of a passenger stood as if ready to hop onboard a train at the former station, now White Rock Museum, where my Penelope cards and book live. Many scenes captured my imagination that day as did the Poets and Storytellers United prompt Mary Oliver’s “The Uses of Sorrow”: Someone I loved once gave me / a box full of darkness. / It took me years to understand / that this, too, was a gift.

Most harbor private sorrows. Sometimes we cherish them like old friends that we call upon from time to time. Most also know that life is too precious not to be savored.

I contemplated many things as I walked on the pier and took in the surroundings.

The White Rock Pier, said to be the longest boardwalk (1540 ft.) in Canada, was upgraded to wheelchair friendly recently. From the pier, I saw the museum and a rail of the still active track for trains that no longer stop there. The painted rock for which the small city is named was in the distance. Apartment buildings and homes large to little were stacked on the hilly horizon. Birds were recovering from the downpour, seeming to enjoy resting and grooming in the after-the-storm calm.

   

Explore more at Poets and Storytellers United, SKYWATCH and Saturday's Critters. 

Check out my sites: Postcards from Penelope Puddle and Musings of A Puddlist In B.C.

Because the state of our planet is the most pressing issue of our time, link up and learn about the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report.

HOLD ONTO THE LIGHT