MAKING LIGHT
THE DARK IS LONG SO WE MAKE LIGHT
This Week’s Essay is a Poem
A brand new poem! I wasn’t born yesterday, but it was:
This infant poem continues to evolve as I knead it over (yikes—that’s an unfortunately mixed metaphor!); here it is as I typed it up this morn:
Wishbone (Ordering Another Norråker while the World Burns)
MERKAT
The company says the item
--a Scandinavian-inspired bench--
is sustainably crafted and
with a mind for the planet.
I imagine needing this extra bench
to make up for all the other
long and lonely holidays
we have recently endured.
This bench means I will have company;
so many people crowded around my table
that current seating options
will be rendered unviable.
I'll need more space
for these bums, these bodies falling
over one another, I imagine, laughing
and feasting and making merry
and I won't be alone like I have been,
sipping lingonberry in a corner
while cold LED Christmas lights
flash in epileptic fervor.
Instead, there will be candles burning,
and too many humans smushed
onto one Norråker, and also the world,
burning, and babies born to rubble,
and someone finds the wishbone
in the turkey and says, Hey, I need
another person! Someone hold the wishbone!
We'll pull it apart, name a winner; but the winner
won't matter, we'll wish our wish together!
And after the rabble is over
there will be empty bottles, "dead soldiers,"
and I will think: bless this night
and blow out the stubs of candles
and tomorrow morning
at the breakfast table, my children
will show me that, upon waking early,
they found the broken wishbone
and with pink glitter glue
they fixed it--by which I mean,
they pieced the torn
back together.
After writing “Wishbone,” I found myself humming “Crowded Table” by The Highwomen (a supergroup of female artists including Maren Morris, Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby and Amanda Shires.)
“I think that the table and the fire being a metaphor for bringing people together that don’t all think the same thing,” Carlile explained […] about the song’s meaning. “We don’t all believe the same things even in The Highwomen. But the fact that we can come to the table, that we can break bread and then we can go out into the world as activists and as women…but we come home to each other at the end of the day, that’s what families do. I think that’s a really beautiful sentiment everybody needs to hear right now.” (Cillea Houghton, American Songwriter )
“Crowded Table” is a gorgeous, tear-jerker of a song as it stands, made even more so when covered by my dear friend and longtime artistic collaborator, the wildly talented singer-songwriter, Shannon Linton.
If you’ve been following my work for a minute, you’ll know that Shannon, Saskia Tomkins (another totally fab musician!) and I spent a pandemic year co-creating a collaborative Patreon page. Shannon and I have shared the stage a number of times as well—sometimes in poem/song dialogue, sometimes as emcee for the other—and we’ve been stoked to continue our artistic collaboration, with more on the way for 2024 (stay tuned)!
If you don’t already follow her, Shannon has a newsletter of her own, called “Joy Just Because.” Subscribe for her thoughtful, inspiring, and often hilarious writing and to stay updated on her future shows and events!
FODDER
This recurring section is a mish-mash of things I’m thinking reading/listening to/etc. Fodder for thought. Share your feedback! Add a comment or otherwise join the conversation!
What I’m watching: Two films made it into my brain these past couple of weeks, and both have staying power.
I’ve been a longtime fan of storyteller-comedian Mike Birbiglia, whose comedy somehow follows one long narrative arc, and always leaves me laughing, crying, and feeling less alone. His honesty is a balm for the soul, and he’s got a brand new special called “The Old Man & The Pool” on Netflix.
Watch it if you’re in need of some good ole’ Carpe diem. Laughter really is the best medicine, just as my grandma’s Reader’s Digest promised in the early 80s'. Speaking of which, that loveable rag is closing its cover for a final time in Canada, after nearly 70 years in print, RIP, RD!
After reading the novel with my longstanding (nearly 20 years!) bookclub a year or two back, I have to say—the film version of Leave the World Behind does the book justice. I love it when a film makes me hungry to write about it even as I’m still in the midst of watching, and this one is chock-full of SOOOO MUCH that is worthy of analysis and a good picking-over with pals.
Beyond the plot, I was thrilled to see Ethan Hawke again, only days after watching his surprise cameo in one of my current fave TV shows, “Reservation Dogs.”
WHERE TO FIND MY ART/POETRY THIS MONTH!
THIS SATURDAY, DEC 16TH 10AM-2PM COBOURG LIBRARY: Holiday Book Sale! “Books Make the Best Gifts!”
I’ll be peddling my poetry & poetry-related art alongside other local authors on Saturday, December 16th from 10am to 2pm at the Cobourg Public Library! Free coffee & snacks! Find the perfect tome for the poetry lover/memoir-phile/child/history buff/locavore in your life! Support local authors & the local library all in one fell swoop!
CARDS FOR KIDS ARE HERE!
The cards have arrived! My goal is $250 for Unicef’s “Urgent appeal for children caught in the Gaza Crisis.” The 3.5 x 5 cards w/envelope feature my original artwork. The inside reads, “May Peace Begin with Us” and can be used for Christmas, solstice, “Happy Menopause!” or any occasion! If I haven’t sold out by Saturday, I will have them at the “Books Make the Best Gifts” event for your local purchase!
100% of funds raised (I am taking nothing for my time/shipping/printing/etc) will go to Unicef. I will deliver locally to you! Please contact me if you are interested—many cards still available for purchase! $10 suggested, pay-what-you-can depending on your budget. Please spread the word!
MY RADIO SHOW! “NIGHTFALL WITH MERKAT”
Upon moving to this area nearly ten years ago, I took on my longtime dream of writing, producing and hosting a program on our local community radio station, Northumberland 89.7. It was called, “Carpe Noctem with Merkat” and ran weekly for a little over two years, each two-hour episode devoted to local storytellers, good music and the theme, “exploring the human landscape.”
For the past year and a half I’ve been at the helm of “Nightfall with Merkat” on the same station (see mini promo above, with music by Saskia Tomkins and Steafan Hannigan, used with permission), micro-episodes based on poetry from the public domain, by women and folks outside the canon, whenever possible. I just recorded a holiday episode; listen for it on air or online while washing dishes, darning socks, or whatever else it is that you do, Mondays to Thursdays, between 9pm and midnight!
As always, thank you for your readership! Beyond the mysterious metaphysical forces pressing my pen to paper (keyboard)—I write for you, readers! If you like any shred of what I’m up to in these pages, please share this newsletter widely, and subscribe to recieve my weekly-ish missives right in your inbox!
"Let us take on the world while we're young and able." As long as we can stretch the span of young and able by a few years.