Kirk Sullivan

"Forever will be a day like this"

Fall Song by Joy Harjo

Maestro David Briskin led the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra and the audience in a rousing rendition of O Canada before the opening of Swan Lake. #ElbowsUp is not one of ballet’s traditional positions of the arms, but everyone in Canada is adapting.

Dear Canada... Dear Canada... I felt compelled to do something, to make something for my country. To stick up for, and to honour it. To show our strength, beauty, genius, empathy,…

Dear Canada, I felt compelled to make something. To stick up for, and to honour. To show our strength, beauty, genius, empathy, light & heart. It's made with deep gratitude for the people and places of this beautiful land. Vive le Canada 🇨🇦❤️✌️💪

vimeo.com/1056619122/f...

this place is where I stand
where all my mistakes were made
when I grew awkwardly and I knew what I was
and that is Canadian or Canadien
it doesn't matter which to me

The ladybug hospital now has three patients.

Thanks, Shirty!

❤️

“Dad, the ladybug might have a mommy and daddy and we might have to bring him back to them when he gets better.”

“I’ll cover him with a blanket, Dad.”

My son found an unresponsive ladybug today and said it might not be dead and only injured so he took out a bowl, gently laid the ladybug in, and said he’s going to take care of it until it gets better.

"There should be no question of confusing the flag of one country with that of another. In selecting a Canadian flag, therefore, every effort should be made to avoid including on it symbols more properly associated with another country, i.e. stripes, stars."

people.stfx.ca/lstanley/sta...

The National Flag of Canada A vertical triband of red and white (double width) with one red maple leaf centred on the white band. Designed by George F. G. Stanley

"It has been used by Canadian troops in two world wars, and by Canadian Olympic teams... The single leaf has the virtue of simplicity; it emphasizes the distinctive Canadian symbol; and suggests the idea of loyalty to a single country."

So much for keeping movements under wraps. Typical Canada Geese Operators.

Allowables I killed a spider Not a murderous brown recluse Nor even a black widow And if the truth were told this Was only a small Sort of papery spider Who should have run When I picked up the book But she didn’t And she scared me And I smashed her I don’t think I’m allowed To kill something Because I am Frightened

Just learned that the wonderful Nikki Giovanni passed. We've lost a great presence.

The best tribute I can think of is to share a poem by her that changed my life. "Allowables" has made me think twice before lashing out in fear since I read it sometimes in my late 20s.

Perfectly expressed, @clintsmithiii.bsky.social.

Painting titled Summer Rain. Deep warm yellow background with lightly coloured flicks of rain falling on an angle from the upper right to bottom left corner. Two cedar waxwing birds are flying with wings open among a large stem, leaves berries and flowers. A monarch rests on a oversized maples. Many dots cover the painting to emulate Metis beadwork.

There is so much to love and fight for. So much goodness among us. The violence & hate seems insurmountable. But in the words of Elder Arvol Looking Horse: “Each of us is put here in this time & this place to decide the future of humankind. Did you think you were put here for something else?"

Newfoundland Postal Telegraphs Dated: 7th October, 1916 To: Mrs. Sarah A. Barnes, Topsail. Regret to inform you Record Office London today advises that No. 1576 Private Maxwell Barnes previously reported Missing was Killed in Action July first. J.R. Bennett, Colonial Secretary

My great-great-grandmother received this telegraph 108 years ago. Private Maxwell Barnes was 22 years old.

“We all leave one another. We die, we change – it's mostly change – we outgrow our best friends; but even if I do leave you, I will have passed on to you something of myself; you will be a different person because of knowing me; it's inescapable...”

Edna O’Brien, 1930-2024

A beacon of a woman is wearing a lovely green dress and a warm smile as she celebrates her 103rd birthday surrounded by her family in a fishing village on the coast of Newfoundland. Her name is Marie Fred Sullivan and you’d be lucky to meet her.

Just look at this woman.

Back in Newfoundland, they’re celebrating my Nanny’s 103rd year. 103!

Happy Birthday, Marie Fred Sullivan!

This is a photo of W.S. Merwin's poem "Living with the News." Living with the News Can I get used to it day after day a little at a time while the tide keeps coming in faster the waves get bigger building on each other breaking records this is not the world that I remember then comes the day when I open the box that I remember packing with such care and there is the face that I had known well in little pieces staring up at me it is not mentioned on the front pages but somewhere far back near the real estate among the things that happen every day to someone who now happens to be me and what can I do and who can tell me then there is what the doctor comes to say endless patience will never be enough the only hope is to be the daylight

the only hope is to be the daylight

W.S. Merwin

Geneviève Bergeron
Hélène Colgan
Nathalie Croteau
Barbara Daigneault
Anne-Marie Edward
Maud Haviernick
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz
Maryse Laganière
Maryse Leclair
Anne-Marie Lemay
Sonia Pelletier
Michèle Richard
Annie St-Arneault
Annie Turcotte

A chalkboard in front of a little free library displays this text: I sang you all my sorrows You told me all your joys Whatever happened to that old song To all those little girls and boys Shane MacGowan 1957-2023

Whatever happened to that old song?

Once the World Was Perfect by Joy Harjo | Poetry Foundation Once the world was perfect, and we were happy in that world.

Once the world was perfect, and we were happy in that world.

www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/141846...

Snow is falling upon a string light-wrapped little free library. Scrawled on the chalkboard leaning against the library is this excerpt from Joy Harjo's poem "Once the World Was Perfect": And now we had no place to live, since we didn't know How to live with each other. Then one of the stumbling ones took pity on another And shared a blanket. A spark of kindness made a light. The light made an opening in the darkness. Everyone worked together to make a ladder. A Wind Clan person climbed out first into the next world, And then the other clans, the children of those clans, their children, And their children, all the way through time— To now, into this morning light to you.

A spark of kindness made a light.
The light made an opening in the darkness.

Stove
Mary Pratt
1969

And if when I wrote I used only a few words
it was because time always seemed to me short
as though it could be stripped away
at any moment.

Louise Glück

voetica.com/poem/11516

The night isn’t dark; the world is dark.
Stay with me a little longer.

Louise Glück, “Departure”

voetica.com/poem/7772