Hello! Let me apologize for the nearly year-long break I’ve taken from this website.
Anything I say will seem like an excuse, nevertheless, I am going to fill in a bit of that blank by saying I was busy, I kid you not. I wrote blog posts for a friend’s website, wrote essays, wrote poetry and wrote short stories. I hosted a lovely launch for a book that I am extremely proud to be a part of. Titled Against Death—35 Essays on Living, this book was edited by Elee Kraljii Gardiner and published in 2019 by Anvil Press of Vancouver. Against Death went on to be nominated for several awards. What a great feeling to have a small toehold in a success story such as this book.
I took a university course for the first time in my life and learned much. The course, How to Edit and Rewrite Your Novel, was offered online through UBC and led by Annabelle Lyons and Nancy Lee. Have I put my new-found knowledge to use? No, and do you know why? I was busy.
One of the personal essays I wrote years ago that was published in Women’s World Weekly came back around at the end of 2019 when it was republished in a special limited holiday production called Angels Among Us.
I spent some time learning how to write a new form of Japanese writing called haibun. In essence, haibun is a prose piece of writing with enhanced thought added in the form of a haiku. My first published haibun was in The Haibun Journal of Ireland. Have I done others? Well, yes, I’ve written more of them because they combine two things I love, short prose and haiku. Have I pushed to publish more? No, did I mention I’ve been busy?
In March of this year I was chosen to fill the shoes of previous poet laureates, Roger Nash, Daniel Aubin, Thomas Leduc, Kim Fahner and Chloe La Duchesse. As Greater Sudbury’s Sixth Poet Laureate, I made a game plan and was thinking ahead when Covid19 stopped the forward movement. I know what you’re thinking, I wasn’t so busy then, was I? You’d be right. But then there was all that isolation to contend with.
So, I got busy writing Covid19 poetry, isolation poetry, and questionable future poetry. Where will all of this end? With a vaccine, of course. We just need to social distance, wear our masks, use our noodles and good things will come, as they do, to those who wait.
My circle of ten, includes members of the Copper Cliff group of writers who used to meet at the library. The other day we had a socially distant gathering in my side yard. It was great.
Now that my website is secure, my motivation has been found, my garden is planted and growing, I will be more likely to keep up to date. Unless I get busy, because we’ve seen what happens then, the gap between posts widens and widens.
Enjoy the sun and enjoy the photo spread! Vera
