Shawn L. Bird

Original poetry, commentary, and fiction. All copyrights reserved.

dreaming of you January 26, 2011

Filed under: Commentary,Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 5:37 am
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Old friend
Last night
We walked
hand in hand
within a dream.
Your smile and laughter
woke wishes and hopes.
Old friend
who visits
my dreams to
remind me  of

the youthful joys
that make me smile
at soft sweet memories

 

frosty sky January 24, 2011

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 2:43 am
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My sky

is lit with blue

sparkling with the frost

that glistens on the trees.

Your sky

is a vast midnight

glowing with the snow

that reflects a sunless sky.

Our sky

is knit with stars

sparkling in the coolness

that connects our continents.

.

photo by Markku Reijula, Kotka Finland. Used with permission

.

I’m missing my host families in Finland today, and thinking of the Finnish winter skies that are bright despite the absence of the sun as the snow reflects light so even in the dark, the world glows with light.  There is a metaphor here for life!

 

A poem by Wendy Phillips January 20, 2011

Filed under: Commentary,Grace Awakening,Literature,Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 7:40 pm
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From Fishtailing by Wendy Phillips. This novel by UBC Creative Writing alumnus Wendy Philips is crafted in a series of poems in persona of several characters. There are students, teachers and administrators represented.

.

Kyle
Teacher staples my motorcycle dream
to the display board
Tricia wanders over
reads it
I watch
She turns
stares
raises an eyebrow
drifts to my table
Told you Farr would like it she says
Not bad.

I swallow a lump
Wanna ride sometime?
She lifts her chin
narrows her eyes
I look away from the glare
Yeah she says, today
walks away.

So
poems are good
for something.

I like this poem because it captures something that I see often.  Suddenly the communication options open when people master a new medium.  Finding new media opens up an audience they would not have reached otherwise.  I often set up a “Poet-tree” in my class.  It fills a wall.  A trunk and branches are on the wall.  Students can take green leaves and leave a poem on a wall.  It’s a non-credit thing, and some years it gets very little interest, but other years it is a hot-bed of creative communication.  Students from other classes will come in to read the poems, because hearts are bare on the wall, and voyeurs watch developments with avid interest.

A young man who has poetry in his arsenal has a powerful tool to capture the hearts of the ladies he admires!  If he can set his poetry to music, he has even more power.  The ladies will be virtually powerless from his charm!

Yes Kyle, poetry is good for something.  In Grace Awakening Ben takes full advantage of the fact!  😉

 

what are books? January 19, 2011

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:34 am

words

captured on paper

bound together

words

capturing memories

found together

words

capturing dreams

drowned together

words

capturing whispers

sound together

words

 

visiting Martin Luther King January 18, 2011

Filed under: Pondering — Shawn L. Bird @ 6:03 am
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Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.

~ Martin Luther King

Although Dr. King was thinking about the irrational and ignorant hatred between races, there are other things that can apply to this quote.

I’m thinking about yesterday’s blog about long-term relationships.  Sometimes a sense of ‘being wronged’ or ‘deserving more’ creeps into the relationship, and if it is unchecked then hatred takes the reins. When the relationship feels lop-sided, when one is feeling held back or impeded by the weaknesses or inclinations of the other, then a sense of injustice brews hatred. When a couple has hatred simmering amid their love, all that is beautiful and unique in their relationship is lost.  I like that phrase ‘vital unity.’  Couples desperately need to have a vital unity to face child-rearing, long-term commitment, and the stresses of modern life.  

When hatred creeps in, there is no finding joy in each other and the relationship.  Objectivity is gone, and the relationship erodes.  

Dr. King knew what he was talking about.

 

making it last January 17, 2011

Filed under: Pondering — Shawn L. Bird @ 6:42 am

I was just thinking about how in the first blush of love we adore everything about our partner. All his idiosyncrasies are adorable. All his dreams can be accommodated.

As the relationship ages, we are challenged by everyday responsibilities, financial stress, child-rearing challenges, and over-exposure. The idiosyncrasies feel like personal torture. What if his dreams take him away from you? What if the children play you so well that you are constantly divided until the house feels like it’s at war. What then?

What makes the diffference to getting through those irritations and challenges and going the distance?

Cheers to the couples that make it through incredible challenges. This week a friend of mine celebrates her 25th anniversary to a man she adores. They have weathered 4 children, the arrival of 3 more who needed a family, an accident that led to parapalegia and the ensuing financial challenges. They have raised 7 fantastic kids to be honest and respectful individuals; they have built successful businesses. I am constantly impressed by them.

Happy Anniversary, my friends.  I hope you enjoy 50 more together.

 

people faces January 14, 2011

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:58 am
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I was just flipping through a book of writing from when I was in grade eleven and came across this poem.  It’s pretty typical 16 year old fare, but there are some big ideas here.  Worth sharing, I think.

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Somewhere

Beyond the traffic and the city sounds

We exist in separate universes.

Pain in the hopelessness

Of the situation stirs, then quietens.

I want to blurt carelessly,

but contain myself

to casual renderings of brief words.

.

I was quiet,

I tried not scream.

I went as far as I could,

but I had to hold back something.

I almost gave everything

but you were holding back, and

I couldn’t give everything if you weren’t.

.

Nothing was comfortable.

We decided everything was my fault.

It wasn’t.

We share the guilt.

We should have tried to work it out.

But we didn’t and we walked away

Without pain.

.

Understand me?

Our peoople faces were still on

When we should have scraped them off.

.

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(c) Shawn Bird 2011.  Original draft written 1981.

(***4A)

 

winter wind January 13, 2011

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:08 am
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Snow dances off my roof

wind weaves white ribbons of light

and holds aloft crystaline

 lace doilies.

 

something brilliant January 9, 2011

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 7:01 am

I’m waiting

for inspiration

A brilliant thought

One that will change the world

But I keep being distracted

By Monty Python

and the Meaning of Life.

Hmmm.

 

Isn’t LIFE

the meaning?

 

Good news January 5, 2011

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:04 am
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I’m silently shouting
And fighting the bounce
That threatens to explode me
Right out of the house
I am bursting quite gleefully
With the news you are touting.

.

I’m so desperate to share it
To tell one and all
That I’m quivering inside.
It’s so hard to stall

 telling the news far and wide!
Oh! I simply can’t bare it!

.

It’s so hard to contain it
I can barely constrain it
I fight to restrain it
When I want to exclaim it!

.

.

But…

a secret’s a secret

and so will remain it.

🙂