details of our gathering during the walk.
November 11, 2018 In Epic Walk Diaries, poetry, Research By mlantin

Epic Walk Diaries (November 11) 

remember
  white berries
red berries
 those were rosehips
  you took a picture?
I saw the depth

a round tree
memories of holly
 a premonition

marry me
    gold plastic inflates
      the mockery of what happens
    after
  the layers of why
 did you ever wonder? no
the rings were watered with champagne
 we drank them on Mykonos by the sea

eulogic writing
  for her 
    for him?
  for them? zest
    in quotes "" 
  shifts her to him maybe?
     we're just happy it's warm
 we can barely make it out
 Francis. yes. Francis.

my mother(tm) hates my driving
 oh dear. half dead flowers
   in a beer bottle? no mug.
 I returned it.
for money? no.
    who does that?

[  ...time..
 we do. ungraciously.
  the flowers alive still
 a toxic time warp
  a leap into generosity
]

my father built a whole church
 out of nothing
  i preach in his image
   admiring and cringing
ugh
 the proud defiant chin jutting out

a path to riches and tackiness
 a mazeratti wanting to be nissan
  an eagle and bear, this path
  my house.

shit
 narrowly avoided

chestnuts 
  crazy bounty for no one
 maladapted
  but for horses?
    some know the secret trees
   in kitsilano

a knotty Holly tree
 oozing in slow motion
near the wealth
  we will email you

-------
[
  Start 2:15pm
  End 4:45pm
  Jericho beach, millionaire path deadend,
  back to Spanish banks,
  Acadia beach, through the sand,
  the end of the trail, and back.
]
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Epic Walk Sep 3 (gatherings)
September 3, 2018 In Epic Walk Diaries, poetry, Research By mlantin

Epic Walk Diaries (September 3) 

moby moby x2 maybe
not sure how much got in
science is constrained creativity
  art bounces off people
  science bounces off the universe

fear 
i can't do this
no truer words
  don't worry, it'll come back
  then you die again

 none of this is ours
   or theirs damnit
   be bold
peasant grass
  you let yourself go
designer grass
   tight weave
upscale private grass
    small bred patterns
   even your color says good dna
 look where you get to be
cartoon rich

the sound of peasant grass
  crickets and walking feet

rose petal feast
  mom, her jam and pastry

pineapple plant
  it does smell like pineapple!
    keith loved it

discarded fragments
  more fragments
   pattern! source!
a nut? a flower
   yes with seeds
     opened in quarters
       two quartered seeds
     look at the ground

  not so good with transitions
    sprint!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      run to the finish line and jump
   no no ritual endings

-----

[
  Start 5:26pm
  End 9:00pm
  Through kits beach, pool, sunset point
  brambles, rich road, Jericho, Spanish Banks,
  concession, and back.
]
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Epic Walk gathering (detail)
August 26, 2018 In Epic Walk Diaries, poetry, Research By mlantin

Epic Walk Diaries (August 26) 

no emergency
   i wait
   the whole world should be like this

emergent conflict
motivation
   why did they do that?
 why did we?
     how do we stay light? dance in the storm.

  what is a good life?

look a pine cone
    what are those red berries? (go fish)
searching
 too many cooks
 surprise! celebrity chef

remnants of an old woman
  but it's a baby feather!

        you're not a beach bunny!
    groomed wild
  let's bring the scanner on our walks
   scan in the wild
     like nico and her microphone

log going to rusty red dust
   flow embedded in captured time
   a method to the destruction

  hawthorn, the thorn part is important

that's a lot of leaves
   so many
     natural or not? groomed? maple?
   tagged! Holly's project!
     someone else liked this tree
maybe many someones. what to email a bushy tree?

butterfly bush
  my nose is happy
    you were always there
   a few feet away
flow and temporality
  does a few hours matter
    to us? to the plants?
 when is integrity called into question

 dusty thoughts
don't worry, I'll put them in water

---
[ 
  Start 6:45pm at Eagle Tree
  End   9:45pm parting on Creelman
  Through Vanier, Elsje's point, 
    Kitsilano Beach, rich man's road,
    Jericho Beach, rabbit land,
    and back.
]
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March 8, 2017 In Musings, poetry By mlantin

On being a woman

So here we are, international women’s day. I have to say, this year is the first year it has penetrated my psyche in any deep way. Before, it was a day that would usually include a note from my mom, some interesting facebook posts, but certainly not a call for a strike or a string of appreciative texts from my friends.

I didn’t strike. I went to work. I went to work because I love what I do, who I do it with, and where I do it. I am unbelievably fortunate. I dedicate whatever merit this day accumulates to all women who have made my situation possible, wholeheartedly.

We need feminine energy to balance what is happening in the world. As Valarie Kaur says in this rousing speech, this may not be the darkness of hell but the darkness of the womb. Think about the power of that statement for a moment. This could be the time of women rising to say “NO, not like this. Like this.” I feel it in myself and in the women around me.

I give thanks to the powerful women in my life that have shaped me in ways they probably didn’t realize at the time or maybe ever. I think of the lineage of women behind me and I am in awe at the small chance that I am here, the hardships borne and the courage shown by each one.

to you

Maman.         kindness
Carole.           alone
Jacqueline.   motor bike
Lisa.               horse rides
Ann.               instruction
Margaret.      wisdom
Sara.              style
Sandra.         witness
Leanne.         truth
Kirsten.         sanity
prOphecy.     joy
Sharla.           loyalty
Catherine.    precision
Leila.             celebration
Thecla.          dance
Julie.             change

 

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January 24, 2017 In poetry By mlantin

porous

After a deep freeze
I asked the ground
What does it feel like?
To be porous again
To feel the thawing water
Flow in
To be mushy and smelly
To hear things as other
Than muffled knocks

During the freeze
They say worms survive
By burrowing deep
In their own slime

I like to think about this

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