Waiting I’ve submitted my new poetry manuscript Music For Men Over Fifty: Songs of Love and Surgery, being called Love and Surgery for short. Now as the song goes “Waiting is the hardest part,” I’m also waiting for a prosthesis, first measurements on Friday at Lawson Prosthetic, 610 Ellice Ave. in Winnipeg. I’m also waiting
... read more.Music for Men Over Fifty: Poems of Love and Surgery
Doing, Not Being, There
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WHERE DOES IT HURT?
My left foot has been amputated. To my surprise, a great deal of my left foot pain has been eradicated. I didn’t expect it, and most health professionals, and 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 me
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PASSAGES JUNE 11
Several noteworthy deaths last week, including my cousin, two celebrity suicides, and two Manitobans who made a difference. Roland Penner, whose father was a communist and elected Winnipeg Alderman was originally from Gretna, Manitoba. His father and brother left the Communist party when they learned about Stalin’s atrocities. Roland Penner was an elected member
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International Jazz Day – Bemsha Swing !
“Charlie Haden was the bass player with the Ornette Coleman quartet. I saw them live in Vancouver at The Cellar (the original Cellar) in the early 60’s. Don Cherry was the trumpeter, but I cannot remember the drummer’s name. Don Cherry actually subbed for me on a New Year’s gig. He’d stuck around after one
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Cecil Taylor – “Dvořák in Reverse”
Cecil Taylor died on April 5, 2018, a connection to remember as the same day as my amputation. I’ve still not finished my hard bop essay, and the connection in the late 50s would be some hard bop sessions and performances with drummer Max Roach, and Taylor’s own hard percussive style.Taylor was regarded as one
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My Left Foot
“You’re pulling my leg!” I was heard to say in my happy state during my successful below the left knee amputation on April 5th, two days after my 63rd birthday. My 12th appearance in an operating theatre began with very good drugs, achieving a blissful state of relaxation I have yet to reach through meditation.
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PASSAGES
Having played Simon Stimson in our high school production of Our Town, it seemed fitting to become the choir director of the Glenlea Mennonite Church, pictured here. While this white clapboard structure wasn’t that different from most prairie churches, I always appreciated the windows you could look through, and as the sages say, they were
... read more.WHY?
From the heyday of the sixties, actually the early seventies in Winnipeg, there’s an oft repeated story. A philosophy exam had only one question. “Why?” Everybody got to work, except for one student who made sure his name was on the exam paper properly and wrote “Why Not?” The prof awarded him an A. Another
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CUT IT OFF
February 4, 2017 My left foot offends me I say cut it off, I’ll take my chances with my remains propped up by phantoms, prescriptions and prosthesis, I will never be any more lame. Give me a bounce like Tigger, a dance like Calvin’s, and a song like bp nichol, just leave me one leg
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MY LEFT FOOT
I turn 63 on April 3. I’ve always been precocious, but I never realized what that could mean once I hit 60. My below the left knee amputation is scheduled for April 5, 2018. I haven’t had too long to wait, nor do I have a lot of time to Brood. Unlike the novel or
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