Author: greg

  • Any Common Desolation (Marta McLaughlin)

    ANY COMMON DESOLATION
    by Ellen Bass

    can be enough to make you look up
    at the yellowed leaves of the apple tree, the few
    that survived the rains and frost, shot
    with late afternoon sun. They glow a deep
    orange-gold against a blue so sheer, a single bird
    would rip it like silk. You may have to break
    your heart, but it isn’t nothing
    to know even one moment alive. The sound
    of an oar in an oarlock or a ruminant
    animal tearing grass. The smell of grated ginger.
    The ruby neon of the liquor store sign.
    Warm socks. You remember your mother,
    her precision a ceremony, as she gathered
    the white cotton, slipped it over your toes,
    drew up the heel, turned the cuff. A breath
    can uncoil as you walk across your own muddy yard,
    the big dipper pouring night down over you, and everything
    you dread, all you can’t bear, dissolves
    and, like a needle slipped into your vein —
    that sudden rush of the world.

  • Sublime Sublime Sublime (Katherina Audley)

    Sublime Sublime Sublime (Katherina Audley)

    My fun spry ruckusy dear yank from vank anty mou Sarah slipped through the Lion’s Gate juuuuust as it shut during a solar eclipse last Wednesday, clever gal. Six planets lined up while the Perseids peaked and while we were all gasping in our dreams about it, she shot right through. Godammit. Oh, Sarah. She was my guide to the good life, my permission slip to non-convention. She cracked code to financial freedom and handed it to me like a delicious piece of chocolate. Her fluency around energy and multi-dimensional travel and her fearlessness about communicating psychically in dream and awake states with dead and living made me a gutsy and curious traveler in those realms, too. Joan Halifax, Vickie Robin, Betsy Warland, my book shelves are riddled with her influence. Bold lifestyle experimenter, community centerer, body body body comes first, astrology numerology the enneagram oh Sarah every time I dove in with you I came up hands and pockets full of treasures! She SAW me. She saw EVERYONE! Sarah dove in where others recoiled. She reveled in the sublime and most things were sublime to Sarah. A beach, a mushroom, a lush tree, a bite of pasta arugula or mouse, a sip of wine a swimming pool any body of water a dance move a bike ride and art piece all sublime sublime sublime. Not that she was a turd polisher. When things were shit, she called it shit and when she was deep in the shittiness she didn’t pretend it smelled pretty. She listened to and trusted her body and her gut and said what she thought while still somehow managing to be kind and direct and honest at the same time – how the hell did she do that? Brave bold bunny aries auntie Sarah, what I am going to do without you? I was supposed to come get old with you on Galiano! You were always in my back pocket and I was braver because of it. And that laugh! And how much she used it! And her eyes that bulged out when she got excited and how damn sexy she was when she got cozy or got in water or danced and how she couldn’t keep her hands off things and people. She was so curious and awake and interested in everything! And she was so learned! She could talk about anything. I became an artist because of Sarah. Got my first studio because of her. In my 40s having missed the bio kids window, I was able to see life without motherhood in the center of it as maybe actually a kind of great thing because of Sarah. I got brave about being suddenly single in my 50s because of Sarah. 20 years ahead how will I live without her trusty torchlight? Early on, I learned that one must build and nurture a female community around me – that’s Sarah who taught me that. And oh yes, she modeled the possibility of delicious nurturing lifelong male friendships for me, too. She sculpted a home around her body build to her and Sean’s specific wants- you sit there, I sit here when we drink our coffee and look out the windows and chat – the sunbeam goes here and so that’s where the deck should be and so on. I watched her grow and shink and grow and shrink with great Jupiter Sean through the ages. I got to watch her love him all the way through. And then I saw her dance with others. Gah – I don’t know how I am going to do this life things without knowing Sarah’s right there on the other end of the line, just a car ride away. I see her loving this new format – cloud spinning, turning on the radio, sliding into my pre-dawn DMs and hanging with me through my waking dreams. Her physicality was so unique and striking – I hope it will stay with me and not fade away. 10/10 on the exit, Sarah, but damn, am I ever going to miss you. Thank you for being my bestest auntie mou. I am grateful my life is littered with your creativity, communications and inspiration. Love Kat

  • Oh Sarah! (Marta McLaughlin)

    Oh Sarah! How could you leave us so soon? You’ve exited in the most loving way possible, no lingering, ducks mostly in a row, embracing all of us you could and sharing bits of your intentions and next moves. When we spoke at length the day before you died, you were looking to new adventures, but honestly, isn’t this a bit drastic?? We are reeling with the loss of you. We know you chose this rare auspicious celestial moment; maybe Sean had something to do with it. We respect your choice, but are bereft without you. You are deeply woven into our fabrics. How can we ever fill the huge gaping hole that you’ve left in our hearts?

  • Fire Hall Memorial (Greg K)

    Fire Hall Memorial (Greg K)

    Thank you – at the North Galiano Fire Hall