the songs I still want to write
Hi friends. Wanted to let you know that I was asked to read my poem “Change Your Life” for CBC’s Saskatchewan Weekend with Shauna Powers. If you wish to hear a special performance of that, please consider tuning into CBC SK on Saturday and Sunday morning. I’ll add more detail as to which morning it will air when I know it! Thanks for being here with me in this space. I do not take it for granted.
the songs I still want to write
In the songs I still want to write there is rich imagery from the farm I grew up on. Of gravel skinning my knees when I crash to the road from my perch on a bicycle.
In the songs I still want to write I tell about my misbehaving cousin who kicked out the windows in the Gouley’s brick house. It stood vacant and crumbling and the glass sheared through his rubber boot and cut his leg and my nurse mother had to attend to the wound and we were all busted.
In the songs that I still want to write there is a huge summer garden to harvest and I flirt with danger as I twirl an ice cream pail of kitchen slop, hoping for a perfect arc in the release where peelings and coffee grounds and spheres of odorous liquid are separated and suspended in the air and splatter across the soil.
In the songs I still want to write the farm dog is outwitted by an old cat missing half his tail and the tips of both his ears. The dog howls in shame from the barn roof where he is left stranded after a dimwitted chase.
In the songs I still want to write there are sunrises and spring melts and we bury our people with grace and the milk house stands grey and weathered, but ever sturdy.
In the songs I still want to write I am there on the stiff grass of our huge lawn with my ankle resting on a bent knee staring at the sky and focusing on the translucent shapes floating through my vision; wondering if everyone sees them and afraid to ask lest they don’t.
In the songs I still want to write we butcher chickens with my two grandmothers and use truck beds and tailgates as work spaces and a tree stump with two nails facilitates the mortal business and a wooden box contains the freshly beheaded birds. A grisly scene made ordinary by custom, repetition and swift hands.
In the songs I still want to write I trace the family lines back to my father’s father and to his father who purchased the home quarter. To the women who shared secrets about babies and medicine and recipes with each other, whether immigrants or indigenous. Women who exchanged food and handcrafts and fabric — gifts born of kindness not of trade — and I see the historic ties that bond the life-givers deeply. Much deeper than I could have believed.
shows and shows…
*full band
^duo with Bryn BesseNOVEMBER 18
Blenders Concert Series*
Swift Current, SK
with opener Dillion Currie
TICKETSDECEMBER 1
The Bassment*
Saskatoon, SK
TICKETSJANUARY 13
Red Lake Wilderness Entertainment Series*
Red Lake, ON
TICKETSJANUARY 14
Dryden Performing Arts Centre*
Dryden, ON
TICKETSJANUARY 15
Sioux Hudson Entertainment Series*
Sioux Lookout, ON
TICKETSJANUARY 17
Geraldton Concert Series*
Geraldton, ON
TICKET INFOJANUARY 18
Atitokan Entertainment Series*
Atitokan, ON
TICKETSJANUARY 19
Tour de Fort*
Fort Frances, ON
TICKETSJANUARY 20
T+A Garage*
Winnipeg, MB
tagaragemusic@gmail.com for ticketsFEBRUARY 3
Roots At Rusty’s^
Inglis, MB
lschlachter@xplornet.ca for ticketsFEBRUARY 4
Parlour Barber Shop^
Yorkton, SK
belleplaine@belleplainemusic.com for tickets
My ears and soul will welcome these songs when they come to fruition ❤️
can’t wait to hear all those songs!