seaside

      black-wing gull 
           rides
               the waves to shore                     
            hovers
        dips
    

                                     waves crash
                                       tide swells
                                      drift wood
                                 from time to time


                          gulls land
                            searching
                             bobbing
                          turning
                         face out to sea


sun falls
crimson in the water
evenstar nestled
in moon's crescent

HAPPY CANADA DAY, Y'ALL!!!!

Un Canadien errant,
Banni de ses foyers,
Parcourait en pleurant
Des pays étrangers.


Un jour, triste et pensif,
Assis au bord des flots,
Au courant fugitif
Il adressa ces mots


"Si tu vois mon pays,
Mon pays malheureux,
Va, dis à mes amis
Que je me souviens d'eux.


"O jours si pleins d'appas
Vous êtes disparus,
Et ma patrie, hélas!
Je ne la verrai plus!


"Non, mais en expirant,
O mon cher Canada!
Mon regard languissant
Vers toi se portera . . ."


- Traditional folk song

God bless you - your United Empire Loyalists, your stiff upper lipped Westmounters, Angloman, veille souche, Bill 101, Calgary Stampede, Alanis Morrissette, Sarah McLachlan, poutine, stubbies, the Shuffle Demons, the Kids in the Hall, the Vancouver dope smokers, Hastings, the cry of a loon as you paddle on a lake at 5 a.m, winter camping, the view of icebergs floating in the St. Lawrence in the Rimouski winter, shining like giant diamonds with the most beautiful backdrop on Earth behind them.

God bless and preserve your tolerance, your love of novelty and tradition, your welcoming arms to people of all nations and creeds, and yeah, you left an indelible stamp on me I've spent a lot of my life running from and will run from no longer.

My co-worker put a Turkish flag up on his desk. A Maple Leaf is on mine. Thank God I finally got the wisdom and maturity to appreciate your beauty.

Your name is Algonquin/Iroquois/Mohawk for "Village" and you are aptly named. No great Manifest Destiny, grandioseness or grandeur vision, but an assembly of people living peacefully cheek to jowl, in harmony of location and purpose.

 

Today I came across an opportunity to do something useful to aid the reconstruction effort in Iraq. The American University of Iraq, in the northern city of Sulaymaniya, is asking for donations of books.

The full text of the article by Christopher Hitchens (I know, and unlikely rallying point for liberal philanthropy) can be found here. To summarise the essence of the request though, the university is accepting donations of books on everything from foreign affairs to software engineering to history to social science.

The University was started with funding from the US Congress and the Kurdish Regional Government. It currently operates only in the Kurdish controlled northern regions which are relatively free of violence. It is a modern, secular academic institution, on a model that has already been tried in Cairo and Beirut.

To make you book donations, simply mail one or two new, current and important academic books to:

Nathan Musselman
The American University of Iraq--Sulaimani
Building No. 7, Street 10
Quarter 410
Ablakh Area
Sulaimani, Iraq
(+964) (0)770-461-5099

(It's important to include the number at the end.)

Thank you.