Fruit of my labours after attending Room 2018 workshops

Prompts are so useful when the muse isn't visiting.

Objects

After Fanny Howe’s Out There

Manitoba is a street in East Van
Ontario is a street in East Van
Quebec is a street in East Van

A province is a province is a province

One seagull
Two seagulls
Four seagulls dive-bomb laneway garbage bins

Iron gates block you out of everything 

Iron gates hold you into the reality that is East Van

A palm tree

A bamboo

Separated by a road, a store, eternity, all time

A photographer takes many photos

Of two young women in front of a green door

Two jars of pickled beets on the sidewalk

capture the attention

of passersby (namely me)

reminding us of grannies and

smelly kitchens in 1973

© Catherine Woods 2018

The Feather

Along the beach

the water laps,

stones litter,

a single feather (crow, I think)

lies

gracefully,

a diamond among

particles of yellow sand,

a dream among

nightmares inching round,

a sweetness among

the salty coastal waters

of the Salish Sea.

A caw retains its seriousness,

permits a secret,

bring forth my attention

to this place,

quiet,

still,

almost death-like,

nearly sleeping,

solitary

in its oneness,

black

in its colour,

calling me and others,

but only I hear its song,

the others are deaf

to its caw.

Maybe the ancestors 

left it here,

a bridge to past injustices,

a bridge to hope intuitive,

a calm before the storm.

© Catherine Woods 2018