dream haiku

you told me your dream
red subaru two-for-one
gift in the telling

but I couldn't so I did the next best thing

Ever since I've got involved with the Vancouver Poetry Slam, I have wanted to go to a national/international event. Poets travel to these things to meet, compete, participate in showcases, hang out and absorb each other's presence, talent and friendship.

Being a working mom and wife with teenagers and a dog and cat and house, I have chosen not to go. If I ever made it onto a team, I'd go of course, but that's not likely at the moment, with all of the talented poets in Vancouver who dedicate a lot more time and work than I do to writing, performing and touring. I'm happy with my place in the Van Slam scene. I compete when I want to, volunteer, and even host once in a while. We have a growing pool of talented performers right here in Vancouver, so any time I go to the slam, I'm sure to hear new work from poets I know already and see new faces joining the scene. My friends in the slam community are probably the best thing about it. We are good people who well work together and have a lot of fun. Still, I'm jealous when poets head out on tour to perform at venues in other provinces or countries, and especially when they go to Nationals or the Individual World Poetry Slam - the big slam competitions that draw poets from all over North America and beyond.

So far I have satisfied my craving for poets from out of town by enjoying the feature poets who come to Vancouver from other cities to perform at our slam and other events. In 2005 we hosted the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. I met poets from all across Canada and Great Britain and heard more voices in one week than I thought I could in a whole year. That was good.

Also in 2005, our Vancouver spoken word community, organized in Vancouver Poetry House, decided to put in a bid to host the Individual World Poetry Slam in 2007. Our bid was accepted and we've been planning and preparing ever since. I guess if I couldn't go to Nationals or Indies, I could help bring them here to Vancouver.

Today is the day. Early registration and the Aboriginal and Last Chance Slams are this evening. The official competition begins tomorrow and runs through Saturday and there are daytime and late night showcases, even a skating party and ball-hockey game. And here I am, in the middle of it. As a member of the Host City committee I'll help make sure everything runs smoothly. I'll also get to meet more poets, hear more poems and find out what it feels like to be part of THE BIG SHOW! Sitting here in my pajamas at the computer it still doesn't feel real, but it will soon enough. Today I will run a few errands for the festival, then arrive at the festival hotel late-afternoon for a meeting and to help with registration. My plan is to soak up as much of this as I can, meet as many people as I can and have fun with my Vancouver friends, and all of the new ones I'll be making this week. At the end of it I can say, I have been to a national poetry slam event.

It's not every day that I get one of the things on my "I have always wanted to..." list. Today is one of those days.

question: did you ever find a way to do something that you thought was un-doable?

mompoet - lucky, lucky, lucky (oh yeah, and smart too)

dreamballs

I have been dreaming like crazy every night for the past week or so. So much dreaming that I can remember just bit of it, but I think the parts you remember are the important ones.

Here are some fragments:

I'm with my family, camping with friends. We go out for the day and return to find our tent and all of our belongings stolen. Where will we stay?

Andy and I invite two couples from the neighbourhood over for supper. Our friends are sitting in the dining room as we put food onto the table. We keep running in and out of the kitchen saying, "wait! there's more!" After about an hour of manic table-loading we discover that our friends have given up, left without saying good-bye, and gone for supper somewhere else.

The family is going on a vacation that we have planned for a long time. I took care of getting passports. I forgot to get one for myself.

It's late at night and nobody has walked the dog today. I take her outside, get in the car and drive around the neighbourhood with the dog sitting in the front seat. There. Now she's gone for a walk.

I have not dreamed any memorable surreal dreams for the past while, just these ordinary life gone slightly askew kinds of dreams. I've been waking up tired like I worked hard in my dreams to make things turn out, but things keep happening to frustrate my intentions or I make wrong choices and end up disappointed.

I think our dreams reveal to us how we are feeling about what's happening in our waking hours. They illustrate to us our response to our experience with some of our daytime thought-censors turned off. I'll have to think about these dream-bits and figure out what they're telling me. It could be central and important, or just some firing-off of reactions around the edges - like how my leg twitches when I'm about to fall sleep, taking the last few steps that I didn't take but meant to during the day.

question: do you remember your dreams?

mompoet - sometimes amused, frequently confused, always bemused

intensity

It's iWPS week, something for which we've been preparing for a couple of years. On Wednesday it will happen. By Sunday it will be over. It feels like just before a Christmas we have never experienced, and we're responsible for it going well.

This week, 72 performance poets will come to Vancouver to compete for the title of Individual World Champion. A few hundred audience members each day will enjoy the shows. Our little committee of six people has planned, prepared, promoted and even sold all of the tickets. We'll be joined by about the same number of people from PSi - the big Poetry Slam organization that puts together this tournament and the summertime "Nationals" for slam poetry teams. Together we will make the tournament and surrounding festival events happen.

I feel energized and mostly confident, thanks to this great team I'm working with. We did it once before in 2005 at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. This festival is almost like a second baby. We know what we've got ourselves into this time, and what we want to do differently and the same as last time. We also know it will be overwhelming - stressful and wonderful simultaneously, and that every one is different, no matter what you do.

I have most of the week off work to rest up for late nights, and run around doing errands during the day if I'm needed. There are daytime shows on Thursday and Friday and a skating party and ball hockey on Saturday afternoon. Saturday night will be finals night followed by a party and I know I'll cry. This baby flies out the window before the light of dawn Sunday. In the meantime, I'm ready to enjoy the show, meet lots of great people and see/hear/feel poetry like I never have before.

question: are you coming?

mompoet - boggled in a good way

my favourite gizmo

I don't much like many gizmos. I do have a palm pilot with a keyboard, and this home computer that I'm using to post my blog works pretty well too, but I don't go out searching for more gizmos just for the sake of gizmos.

The one gizmo that has totally blown me away is my braun 3D electric toothbrush. We bought it when Alex got braces, which was about 2 1/2 years ago. I'd never used an electric toothbrush before but I do like to brush my teeth. a lot. There's something about smooth, clean, fresh-tasting teeth that is very nice. Anyway, within about a day of getting this thing I was sure I could never live without one again.

Here's a yahoo video of someone explaining why he likes the braun 3D. I agree with everything he says. I'm also glad he didn't do a demo. You just have to try one for yourself.

The best part? Our friend Robin bought it for us. It was on sale at Costco when we were on vacation, so I gave her the money and she bought it.

That has to be the world's best gizmo: clean teeth + I didn't shop for it myself + still works fine after 2 years plus. Even better than my palm pilot. Definitely better than my cellphone. Probably wouldn't trade it for a computer, but I would have to give that some hard thought before I could be sure.

I know I mentioned a bread machine in a previous post. I do have that. But Andy bought it. I just went along with it, although I'm the family bread-maker so I'm the one who uses it. I did nix the rice cooker and the juicer, although we do have a waffle iron and a microwave. And a wine corker, and a really nice garlic press, but those are low tech and necessary for a minimal quality of life. They also contribute to the need for a good toothbrush.

hmmm now I want to brush my teeth.

question: what's your favourite gizmo?

mompoet - procrastinating

haiku movie review

the delicate art of parking

open the window
enforcers are people too
local gem with heart

question: did you see this?

mompoet - I like little movies with big heart

if you buy neither feminine hygiene products nor individually-portioned yogurt, you can skip this post

I hate to shop. For anything, anywhere, ever.
But, I have discovered an all-time ultimate hateable shopping experience. And not just one, but two:

Feminine Hygiene Products

"pads" to be specific
Did you ever try to find a specific product in the huge array of items available? Did you try to do it when your perception and judgement were clouded by pms? It's nearly impossible, even for a level-headed and experienced consumer. First you have to locate your preferred brand, which narrows it down to about 18 linear feet of shelf-space. Then you need to make a bunch of other combination and permutation decisions: light, medium or heavy protection? scented or unscented? wings or no wings? long, slim or normal? monogrammed or generic? (I made that one up) and now the latest choice: with or without a personal wipe attached to each pad for a "shower fresh feeling every time." YAAAAKKK! To make it more complicated, the manufacturers change the package and labelling about every 2 months so even if you memorize what colour and what picture, you won't find what you want.

Then there's Yogurt

First you find your brand. Then you choose from: no fat, low fat or "creamy." Then you have to decide on sweetener - natural, sugar, artificial, no sweetener? Then there are the multi-paks of 3 flavours that you or your kids like plus one that everyone hates, thus the heap of "vanilla-pumpkin-loganberry" yogurts at the back of the fridge that came attached to the strawberry, and blueberry and raspberry ones that everyone likes. They all look the same and they all have weird names like "Source" and "Svelte" and "Swoop" and "Sinus" (I made that one up).

By the time I find pads and yogurt and make it home I'm a wreck. Could we possibly just give up on these products and live happier lives?

question: does anyone know why these products are marketed to confuse?

mompoet - not a good shopper at the best of times, terrible when I'm pmsing and needing to buy lunch food for my family

anniversary joke

Brian at cycle class told us a joke. I'm telling it here in honour of my Mom and Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary, which is on Friday, February 2.

A man was being interviewed about his long and successful marriage. The interviewer asked, "You've been married to your wife for almost 50 years. What's your secret?" "Well," the man answered, "You have to be really nice to your wife, and do something extra special on your 25th anniversary. For example, I took my wife to Paris on our 25th." "Oh, that's very nice of you," said the interviewer, "What do you plan to do for your 50th?" The man answered, "I think I'd better go back there and bring her home now."

question: I wonder why my parents chose February 2? Are groundhogs especially romantic?

mompoet - I know, I know, it was a Saturday, and Valentine's Day was not. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

I'm back

BOING
BOING
BOING
I was not boinging on Monday - I still felt like crap.
I can't even remember Tuesday. What happened to Tuesday?
I made it to the gym Wednesday morning, and again today, Friday. And I liked it. I intended to take it easy but I didn't. I felt too energized to go slowly.
I woke up at 3:30 Thursday morning thinking "Cripes, I set the bread machine timer wrong - I can smell it and it smells done!" (It was not done, it had just finished mixing the dough and I was smelling yeast all the way up from the kitchen, through the bedroom door and under my quilt.)
I woke up again at 4am Thursday morning, and instead of saying, "Oh yeah, I can sleep some more, zzzzz..." I said, "Why isn't it morning yet? What's taking so long???
I am jazzed, definitely and completely.
Air tastes good, water tastes good. I want to chase something.
I have had 3 good hair days in a row.
I like my butt.
Well, there, now that's probably too much information, but you get the idea. I think I have finally shaken the smothering ennui that wafted in with this bad head cold that I have been fighting since before Christmas.
I am interested in the world again and want to do something about it.
Yay! I missed my zest. I'm glad it's back.

question: do you know this feeling?

mompoet - it's a good feeling

some of the good press about iWPS

I just found out that we have pretty much SOLD OUT THE SHOW!!! Oh, there'll be a few tickets at the door if any of the venues are not filled by passholders, and maybe even a spare pass or two if all of the will-calls don't come to call. But we're sure to have packed houses, jumping with poet energy and the most remarkable performances we have ever seen.

Here's a story in the local news that tells what it's all about.

question: have you got your tickets?

mompoet - flying close to the sun

Haiku Movie Revew

Inspired by Stephen's post (which was inspired by another blog - you can follow the links).

Kinky Boots (warning - contains spoiler)

steel-shanked pink sex shoes
factory saved, true love found
niche marketing rocks

question: what have you seen that you can tell in seventeen syllables?

mompoet - thinking about haiku barbeque assembly instructions

like this

watch

when you are sad

don’t cry salt-cracker tears into your gumbo
or slug-track your sleeves with someone else’s glue
don’t pop a cork into your blowhole, then hop up and down until you implode
don’t pick up a stick to snap the piñata that’s been mocking your misery

try something else unrelated
like building your very own HOV lane rangoli
with marigold mandalas and asymmetrical heaps of coloured rice
just moments ahead of the serious onset of concrete mixers
or maybe just an unfortunately paced SUV
it doesn’t matter

draw a duvet on the sidewalk and fall into it
pull it up around your elbows and let the feathers tickle your tarantula
look the sun square in the eye and ask it to explain photosynthesis
then laugh and say, “Yeah right, like YOU know anything about it!”

calculate a sonata for kazoo and cantaloupe
play it backwards and listen for the secret meaning
challenge cause and effect to an umbrella wrestle
use a mental detector to find your inner rubber chicken and take it for a gallop around the pond

understand that beauty and sadness are both absurd as sardine smiles
arbitrary as antelopes
that they have an uncanny knack of showing up in clumps like stray gnus
always at the wrong place and the wrong time
without reservations, and inappropriately dressed

it’s likely that none of this will help you feel better
so what? try something else
you can be sure the same thing that didn’t work yesterday
won’t work today
you might as well enjoy some silliness while you wait for next geranium candelabra to arrive

wordless too (except for some yelling and crashing)

watch

(almost) wordless wednesday

laughing always makes me feel better

Oh my, laughing does feel good. I just cackled loudly enough to alarm my children. Check out Lazy Daisy's blog for a list of song lyrics re-written for people "our age."

question: what do you think is funny?

mompoet - I like funny

better is a relative term

I think I am starting to feel better. I still have this yukky, snorky, coughing, dripping cold that has sapped my energy for almost a month. I lack energy and creativity. I'm getting things done, but not feeling satisfied with my accomplishments. I mostly want to sit there and look out the window.

But I do feel better.

Better, like The Globe and Mail is better than the Province
Better, like vanilla pudding is better than jello
Better, like vacuuming is better than cleaning the cat litter box
Better, like a hangnail is better than a nosebleed
Better, like junkmail is better than a telemarketer
Better, like a hole in your sock is better than a hole in your underpants
Better, like maybe some day in the future I will feel like saying


BOING!

but not yet.

question: are you feeling better?

mompoet - accepting in degrees what I would prefer to receive as a unit

Where to go?

Two important meetings are scheduled for February 7
1. School meeting (the continuing process of fighting to keep our neighbourhood school open)
2. Transit meeting (talking to City Hall about the new light rail transit planned to come down our main street and the safety concerns around a busy intersection near the high school)

Growing and shrinking. They're natural processes, but complicated, and negotiable.

question: which would you attend?

mompoet - heart in two places, at least on Feb 7

how much news is too much?

A murder trial begins today in BC Provincial Court. Already we have read and heard details of the lives and disappearances of the women who were killed and the anguish of their families. So far we have not heard much about the life of the accused, Robert Picton, or his family. Soon we will know more than most of us need or want to know.

The trial is predicted to take over a year. It will be in the newspaper, and on radio and TV every day. Journalists from around the world are here report about it.

I have decided to consciously minimize my exposure to the news about this trial. Knowing all of the details of the crimes and the daily court proceedings will not help me be more compassionate. The lives of the women who were killed will still be lost. Their families will still grieve. At the end, maybe justice will be served. I don't know.

I do know that if I soak up the details and envision the horror and sadness of the stories that make up this case, I will be sadder, more discouraged, less optimistic. So I'll skip the pages in the newspaper, tune out the tv and radio, and focus on other things. I know we'll have to talk with this kids about it, so I'll need to have a basic idea of what's going on. I just don't need the salacious details that I know will be the focus of media coverage.

I am not ignoring the awfulness of the crimes, just choosing not to participate in the media frenzy. In the meantime, I will try to keep doing what good I can in the world, to support safety, dignity and care for all people.

question: have you thought about how you will manage your knowledge about this case?

mompoet - sad and determined

Talking with (Almost) Teenagers about God

I led Sunday School today at church, for the pre-teen group, which happens to be all boys. I mostly use discussion, and this day the actual teenagers were all sleeping in at home or staying upstairs for the service, so we got the cool little "Teen Followers" den to sit in, with comfy couches and throw pillows (emphasis on "throw"). We started out talking about what's been happening during the week, how is "back to school after Christmas" treating them etc. We had quite a colourful discussion about movies they have all been to see (Jackass 2 on dvd and Borat in the movie theatre, it turns out). I invited them to explain to me what 11 and 12 year old boys think is funny, and that was a funny conversation in itself. Somehow I successfully segued into today's conversation topic, which was "what does it mean to be part of the body of Christ?" Somehow the magic happened, and in between tossing pillows and cracking up laughing, they engaged in an interesting conversation about whole bodies and incomplete bodies, with reference to the individual's body, the world and universe and our own church community, and how it connects to the idea of Christ's body in communion and the world today. I thanked the boys at the end of the hour for their good conversation and told them truthfully that I had learned some things from them. This is such a cool age to work with when you catch them in a receptive moment. They are smart and insightful, with strong instincts and developing altruism. They are idealistic and justice-oriented, and if you're lucky, they'll tell you, and each other, about it. I'm always shaking a bit in my boots when I go in to teach, not being an expert on the Bible or religion, but I think it ends up being to my advantage. There's not much I can teach them that they're not already figuring out themselves, so we take the journey together. The scriptures reading and the curriculum are a helpful guide, and my Sunday School Coordinator is wonderfully supportive and resourceful. But mostly it's the kids. Thank God for the kids.

question: have you talked with an 11 or 12 year old lately?

mompoet - boggled by brilliance (and a bit too much information about Borat)