Just visiting. (no poem)

Wow, looks like I've dropped the ball on this one. I haven't been here in ages and my poem scrap book has a bunch of ideas in it but no poems. I'm not sure if I'll start "writing" again but maybe I will revive this blogspot site as a blog because I like the name so much. Or maybe I want to continue using this site because I still dream of being a poet or an artist or something of more coolness than what I am at the moment.

Flashover

Flashover

Flashover – the word that fire fighters fear most
Sudden flame and heat: too hot, too fast
Flash over – claimed the lives of two heroes
Flags Canada wide are flying at half mast

That was a really weak poem but when I watched this news story tonight, I knew I wanted to write a poem in tribute to the two fire fighter captains that died in a house on Sunday fighting a fire when a flash over happened. I’m not sure how accurate my numbers are but according to the news reporter, a fire can burn around 100’s of degrees Celsius but when a flash over occurs, the temperatures can very quickly reach 1000’s of degrees.

I’m not sure why, but I’ve been a little emotional lately. Especially today but I think it was because I was pretty tired. Anyways, when I was watching the story on the news, I already felt like my eyes were starting to water, but when they talked about how all the fire houses in Winnipeg are flying at half mast, that got me a little closer to shedding a tear. And when they showed that all fire houses in Canada had their flags at half mast that was enough to make a tear run down my cheek. Sigh.

The List

The List

As a child, she sat and dreamt of me on her tire swing
She is adorable while donning a fake mustache
Her antics make me smile from dawn to dusk
Her beauty makes me long for the night

She reminds me of a time in the past
When things were innocent and full of naivety
She comes from a time that never existed
When knights fought dragons

Yet another lame poem. The other weekend, I was watching Practical Magic starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. I watched it because I’m a huge Sandra Bullock fan since my favourite movie on paper is While You Were Sleeping. In the movie Practical Magic, as a child, Sandra Bullock’s character decided that she never wanted to fall in love so she made a list of “impossible” things that her true love would have and then she bound that list with magic. She wanted to make sure that her heart would never be broken. I don’t want to ruin the movie for you guys so I’ll leave it at that.

Some people would argue that I do the same thing. I make a list of stupid/impossible things so that I never have to date and therefore, I will never be hurt. Lol… and some other people would argue that I don’t have the luxury of making any sort of list. Only time will tell. Anyways, back to the poem… Some of my favourite people have told me that I have an old soul or something to that nature. I like that idea and that’s probably why they are some of my favourite people. I’ve always been fascinated by the whole King Arthur mythology. I long for the imaginary times where girls were either gorgeous or witches and the good guy got the girl in the end. As I write this, I’m looking at my favourite painting that lives on my wall in poster form. It’s The Accolade by Edmund Blair Leighton. Go redheads… perhaps in the future, I’ll write a poem inspired by that painting.

Charcoal

Charcoal

She sits there on the ground
in the hallway with a thin wooden board
on her lap studying the
walls – noting the angles and
observing the shadows.

Eyes opened wide
as they focus on the architecture.
Charcoal - her choice of
media today. Her hands are
smudged with it.

Her fingers move by
instinct as she starts to draw her subject.
Slowly the image is put on paper,
a construction of dark and light
as if by magic.

The other day, as I came out of my office at school, I noticed… actually, I was overwhelmed by all the people sitting on the ground with big boards drawing. It was instantly obvious that their assignment that afternoon was to draw with charcoal. I love seeing them. It’s such an amazing sight to see. In the summer, they are out in the quad. All of them are just sitting there quietly doing their thing. Some of them have headphones on. Others are holding their pencils up and squinting to measure proportions.

I was leaving my office to get some water and I made sure I took the long way around so that I could see as many works in progress as I could. There was one that was especially beautiful. The way that the charcoal was used to draw a series of windows was really breathtaking… at least for the few seconds I was able to look at it. The light reflecting off the windows was so beautifully captured. Sometimes when I see these flocks of fine arts students, I am tempted to just sit down and join them and draw. I’ve always fancied myself as an artist that has been too busy to do any real art. Sometimes I wish that I had taken fun courses in university. Other times, I am tempted to sit down and draw the fine arts students as they draw. Hahaha… that would indeed be funny.

Dreams

Dreams

I want to hold your hand
As we run in from the rain
I want to dance with you
When there’s no music playing
I want to walk you home
And take the long way

I was reading the forward for a book that I’m reading and the author discussed how he felt that every book has a story. He was talking about the content of the book but rather he was addressing the fact that every author has a story to why he wrote the book. I feel like my poems are like that as well. They come from different inspirations from my day to day life.

I know that I’ve been trying to write romantic-type poems and I know that they haven’t been very good. I’ve found some new inspiration so there will probably be a few more coming and hopefully they will get better with practice. I started out this poem in rather the same state of mind as I did when I wrote “April Shower” but this time, I managed to not go eerily depressing at the end. Of course the “question” I’m referring to is a marriage proposal… and no, I’m not remotely close to seeing anyone. I’ve just been thinking a little lately and I think I’m a marry-first-ask-questions-later kinda guy. Not that I’ve ever been married, but that’s how I see myself. At least that’s what I dream my story will be.

Old Melody

Old Melody

Miles and miles of forgotten song
In the hard drives of our youth
Longing to be heard again
Old melody, new truth

“Hoping I would find true love along the broken road”
“She crossed her arms and lowered her eyelashes”
“Many years have passed since those summer days”
“I’d give anything just to hear your voice”

Miles and miles of forgotten song
In the hard drives of our youth
If only I had remembered them
Because in them, they contain life’s truths

Lol. Could the last line be any cheesier? I might need to get me a rhyming dictionary at this rate. The inspiration for this poem came to me when I was procrastinating before writing my “School” poem. I was listening to some random songs on my computer hard drive. I realized that over the years I’ve accumulated a lot of music and with two sisters who are really into music as well, a lot of songs have a found a home in our iTunes’ folder.

When some songs came up, I felt like I had to stop everything and just reminisce about the days when I used to listen to that song all the time. It made me think of simpler times or even happier times. I’m not sure. It’s funny because I started wondering if my life would be different if I’ve never forgotten those songs. That maybe if I had listened to them regularly, my head would still be in the clouds and I would be even a more pathetic romantic than I am now. Some songs reminded me of certain girls or specific moments on vacations. I dunno. A part of me misses the guy who used to listen to those old songs, but I guess we all have to grow up eventually. Hmm… I feel like I haven’t really done a good job explaining my thoughts behind this poem.

School

School

School is cool
When you take the time to rhyme
Life seems to sit there and wait
For you to finally attain a defense date

Finally, I’ve written a nice weak poem. I haven’t written in here for a long time because I felt that I couldn’t write a half decent poem. It took me a few weeks to remember that writing “good” poems was not my goal in this blog. My goal was to use “weak” poems to introduce something I wanted to talk about. Maybe if I keep that in mind, I’ll be writing in here a bit more often.

Anyways, no, I don’t have a defense date yet. My poems are works of fiction. A few weeks ago, I was listening to my favourite science podcast called “This Week in Science” and they were discussing a study where the authors concluded that the more time someone spent in school, the longer they lived (in general). They showed that with every year someone spent in school, they lived 1.5 years longer than someone who did not have that year in school. So every year that I stay in school doing my grad studies, I’m actually adding half a year to my life. I was so relieved to hear that. It really picked me up. I really needed to feel that I wasn’t wasting my life away. I really feel that it was God telling me to cheer up.