They mill about
Tourists, like myself
And not like myself
Clogging the frame
Until I realize
The shot is about them
As much as it is
About the mosque
They mill about
Tourists, like myself
And not like myself
Clogging the frame
Until I realize
The shot is about them
As much as it is
About the mosque
PEI
As French as steeples
As English as potatoes
Unceded by the Mi’kmaq
“Lying in the Water”
Epekwitk
Kindergarten
Five days a week
On Saturdays
His bicycle, or the pool
Hunting for frogs in the pond
Sunday mornings
He sits
Then stands
Then sits
Then kneels
Sits again
Rites and hymns
Echo in the vastness
And his mind
None of it makes sense
None of it ever will
Warped space
Surrounding one non-believer
In a continuum of faith
When the paths to exalted places
Seem paved with broken asphalt
Through blighted landscapes
I am left to wonder
A test of my resolve
To achieve exaltation
Or testimony
To the destination’s character
Raised beneath
Steeples and spires
Kneeling Sitting Standing
In pews row on row
First Holy Communion
Confirmation
Confession
Ash Wednesday
Palm Sunday
Incense and palm leaves
Midnight Mass
Now another confession:
Never a believer
Earliest memories
Saying what was expected
Doing what was expected
Praying aloud the lie on my lips
Though there were Pastors
Two at least
Who made as much
A philosophy of sermon
As theology
Who bespoke love
And compassion
Forgiveness
And kindness
As if these were as important
As believing in Father, Son and Holy Ghost
I kept the compassionate love
Discarded the trinity
And for a long while
Wanted nothing to do
With religion
Or the religious
Until I finally saw
The strength faith gives my mother
Courage, resilience, tenacity
Powered by compassion, love and kindness
All in God’s name
Now I understand
Something about the nature of goodness
And the many paths we may travel
To bring ourselves to the love
Which is its foundation
Poverty
Inequity
Subjugation
Though I rather imagine such a society
Would have little interest
In erecting such grand monuments
Perhaps such a society
Would be too busy building
On its commitment to
Love
Compassion
Generosity
And so I rise
In heart and soul
Astride the vision
Of an elevated spirit
Lost in the detail
Context and meaning
Evasive and fractured
I swirl in a sea of the minute
Fruitlessly distracted
Diverted from the present
By endless possibilities
So must I be alert
To the scale of perception
Find the balance between
A piece and the whole
A detail and its meaning
An event and its context