Blog

  • Where does it hurt?

    My left foot has been amputated. To most people’s surprise, and my own, a great deal of my left foot pain has been eradicated. I didn’t expect it, and most people with lived experienced with amputation didn’t either. I could no longer walk on my left foot, switching it out for a prosthetic will allow…

  • My Fingers

    Yesterday, I was asked if my top knuckle closest to the fingernail, was red swollen and painful. Bingo!! I actually hadn’t looked at them closely it only be a 9 o’clock in the morning. All of them! All eight of them, inflamed. They feel like they’re frying after being stripped by a wire puller. This…

  • My Eyes

    While this lucky man is happy to have two of them, they don’t focus without glasses. I am farsighted, with an astigmatism in one eye. My mother realized there must be a problem with my undisguised lovely eyes because she couldn’t teach me to read. Frustrated she pulled my ear (see My Ears) to ensure…

  • Eat a Pear

    let the pear appear in the palm of your hand let the pear appear in the palm of your hand                                                 coloured by the sun and all her clothes                                                 coloured by the sun and all her clothes                                                 feel the pear in the palm of your hand                                                 feel the pear in the palm…

  • Murray Toews Rationale

    Murray Toews Rationale

    When I was about 10 years old, my younger brother and I would come home from school for lunch and forage for food. It was a short walk across the field because Mom worked during the day, and wasn’t able to prepare us a meal, so we improvised with toast dipped in a bowl of…

  • The Typewriter

    I’ve just sent this typewriter to Winnipeg which is one of the found pieces for LOOK.  Murray has collaborated by constructing a flow of my words or letters appearing out of it digitally. I’ve shipped it for arrival and Murray’s look over before storing it for about a month, time is unforgiving. Murray and me…

  • An Introduction to the Manifestos

    I must stay strong I tell myself I must stay strong. Strong I say I must remain to remain I must be strong are we there yet have we filled our quota of necessary life experiences indicated by our blood, skin and bones; having reached obesity before death. Last night I dreamed my father lay…

  • A DOG’S LIFE

    Murray Toews is a hard-working guy, devilishly modest about his talent making images. He is kind, and a good friend.  He has some invisible disabilities (oops) and something physical/biological that affects his eyebrows. We met when I was publisher of Rhubarb and he was,  first our Visual Arts Editor, then eventually conjuring images for our pages and…

  • Hard to Swallow

    Swallowing is more important than getting dressed in the morning; and essentially connected to always breathing. My altered breathing at 4am alerted Michelle something was wrong. She tried to wake me and I was unresponsive so she called 911. Michelle saved my life, beginning a horrifying two weeks in the hands of our overworked health…

  • Murray Toews

    I was fortunate enough to recruit Murray Toews as Visual Editor for Rhubarb magazine. He also contributed graphics, culminating in the 9 illustrations for each story in 9 Mennonite Stories, published by The Mennonite Literary Society in 2017. One email led another another email led to 100,000 thousand or more, and Murray bought extra storage and stored them…