"halifax" poems
Ignorances innate wove curtain of veils
Cut usunder heretofore obscuring
Bodhicittas valedictory wintry gloom torn
Of enlightenments will factioning the
Silenced mammonish city kingdom truced
As the wings of Azrael clinch
Earthly thistles; monolithic raiments
Deposed Hull, Hell and Halifax parcae
The willowing of light unfettering Fenrirs
Durance, howling aconite psalms suspiring
Suffrage relict paving with mewed stars
Redemptions tithed talents bequeathed
Of Heavens sinister prayer burning
Acinta dusts thine ashes threading
The wilful sword of Gods destruction.
ELEETE J MUIR.
Jan 13, 2012
Jan 13, 2012 at 8:44 AM UTC
Sounding like some wild soundtrack
to a Spaghetti Western starring
none other than The Clintster,
it were rolling in good vibes
with the peeps taking selfies
with the band for a backdrop.
Two horns poundin' out
a happening grove,
with a bass player all of
four foot nothin'.
with a cool round sound.
It was cookin' alright,
hours after midnight,
a Halifax sextet hinting
of Tom Waits and the The Bob man.
I yawned, I looked around,
all those sweet tarts in their skin tights.
I yawned again, shook my head
as the band was covering Ray Charles...
I yawned again and again
and realized I am too old to party hardy.
But still... 'I can hack it'.. the last thing I said
as I headed out the door, homeward bound
In a January breeze that had a hint of Spring.
end © 2014
Jan 12, 2014
Jan 12, 2014 at 1:53 AM UTC
I have friends who went,
to Bethlehem, to Paris, to Spain.
Left for London, Beachy Head.
Those friends came back,
back to Halifax, Portland, Bangor–
My friends go.
They go
to the bar for a pint.
They go
to the South for the summer.
They go
to plant trees in Alberta–
The friends who go
are the friends who went.
But I have friends
who are
gone.
Friends
who are
gone
cannot go
to the bar,
to the South,
or to Alberta.
Some friends have left–
through some door,
in the night, in the day,
in a car, on a bed,
on a stretcher, in the street–
and yes, they are
gone.
Where will I go when I am
gone?
Will I be with my friends?
Perpetually traveling
to the South, to Alberta,
to the bar for a pint?
No. I will not go.
I cannot go, once I am gone. When I go, I will be
gone.
I could go anytime,
night or day,
In a car, on a bed,
a stretcher, or street–
Yes, I could go. And when I go, when I leave–
I will be
gone.
So,
Friends who have
gone
where I cannot go,
they must know–
that we all will go, we all leave–
soon, yes, soon. Now,
in the pause
between
moments,
in the quiet space
of a last
breath–
we
all are
gone.
Jan 28, 2014
Jan 28, 2014 at 11:01 AM UTC
We've got bagpipes and buskers,
cannons, and clip.
Lots of marijuana, and tons of tall ships.
Plenty of seafood, and point pleasent park.
It looks pretty lame, until the streets become dark.
Weve got the Citadel hill, and pavilion kids.
lockups, and lockdown. All things that we did.
Plenty of days, where we fell on our *** ,
smokin dope in the glade, and layin on grass.
With colt 45, and 151.
Alexander keiths, and malibou ***
Weve all jumped a fence, and swam chocolate lake.
No other province could handle the risks that we take.
Cause were crazy,obviously, were maritimers.
Dartmouth, and spryfeild.. Hell, our schools are the worst.
But its halifax, Nova scotia.
We do it our way.
Live like the east coast,
Cause i do everyday.
Mar 1, 2013
Mar 1, 2013 at 3:43 PM UTC
who knows
who rows
a boat
afloat
somthing
is in my throat
i think its a boat
il just use the best medication around
oo is makin dat sound???????????
o wait, me just high as de sky
my could fly to Janice meri's ouse
but me wont because me to lazy
relax, it aint halifax
its remax
max get out of here mon
and take your stupid wax candle
me dont like wax candles
dis be a big scandle?
no mon its just me, raldal
sorry randal
dis tin look like a guitar
Dec 5, 2014
Dec 5, 2014 at 8:28 AM UTC
Five seconds of illumination
Is all the time I need
To pace the halls inside new walls.
I’ve found my place indeed.
You spring to life in dreams.
Four months of new sensations,
Planting pretty seeds.
Like a basket in the bulrush,
You nest in my mind’s reeds.
Three minutes of tantalisation
Danced a year in my eyes to the nth degree.
And now somehow you’ve found a home in me.
Two weeks with a shared sixth sense,
As patience made way for our wishful wings.
One life to live & learn. I love the way she sings.
Oct 8, 2021
Oct 8, 2021 at 6:42 AM UTC
(Happy 150th, Canada!)
Canada Day - Just One?
With love from an ‘umble Yank
But every day is Canada Day!
The afternoon plane lands in Halifax
When the hatch is popped, cool air rushes in
Even the fog is happy in Canada
The Muskogee never made landfall here
And so we pilgrimage for her, complete
Her voyage from ’42 to Canada
Wolfville, Grand Pre’, Le Grande Derangement
The Deportation Cross and beer cans
Well, God forgive the Redcoats anyway
Newfoundland
Is a bold
Anapest
The church spires in a line, the light is green
The bold young captain shoots the narrows wild
Can you find your way to your painted house?
To walk again the cobbles of Ferryland
And smell the very blue of the Atlantic
The sea-blown wind is cold in Canada
Blue Puttees and a mourning Caribou
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord
Good children sing “We love thee, Newfoundland”
Quebec – royal city of New France
May Le Bon Dieu bless the Plains of Abraham,
And may God bless
The signs an English driver cannot read
The Coca-Cola streets of Niagara Falls
Yanks laugh at made-in-China Mountie mugs
And buy them, happy to be in Canada
A cup of Toujours Frais from – well, that place
But to us in your southern provinces
Below Niagara, Tim too is Canada
Though Canada goes on, these scribbles must not -
Your grateful guest wishes only to say
That every happy day is Canada Day!
Jul 1, 2017
Jul 1, 2017 at 11:39 AM UTC
.
I survived Cameron and his band of hatchet men
remember when Thatcher took the axe to school milk?
but you ******* voted her in
as smooth as silk
but we see her now as the sows ear she was.
I won't vote for Corbyn
he never went and yet he's already a has been,
never seen that before excepting Jeremy and they named a park after him.
Thorpe.
Once
when I drew a breath in Toxteth
and the carnival was the riot
I got a bit
but that's censored.
Anyway
in Lancaster it's raining although it was cool down in Blackpool with the Duchess and only a slight breeze and a sneeze or two passing by Blackpool zoo.
Goodnight y'all
don't fall asleep
before you've said
your prayers.
Aug 3, 2016
Aug 3, 2016 at 4:45 PM UTC
I've both toasted and buttered
having been served equally well
with marmite and marmalade.
I've dinned in Brugge and Halifax
trod the true path of kings
in places of requisite legend
still flavour claret
in truer climes
and tried to sting like a bee
composite and true living
slight of hand yet self assured
May 19, 2014
May 19, 2014 at 8:03 PM UTC
I was bumming
around Halifax town,
it was dusk, or there about.
Getting cold and
in need of shelter,
I entered an old abandon apartment
that was toasted to in the worst of ways.
All to make room for progress.
There scrawled on
what would have been
the living room wall...
The words written in blood,
the funniest thing,
it read...
'Dyslexic's of the World.. Untie'
I knew I was home for the night,
no big deal, if the bleeder came back
at least he had a sense of humour.
Oct 13, 2015
Oct 13, 2015 at 10:47 PM UTC
this town burns like old tales of wet villages near Halifax
a hub of nowhere, lined to hubs all apart at travel-trap distance
undistinguished but cultured, the spec manifest of an always rolling boulder;
party party, debit card!
welcome to the corner of the world.
Mar 8, 2014
Mar 8, 2014 at 3:14 AM UTC
A place where people say goodmorn, and hum a happy tune.
Where neighbors say this rain is bad, i hope it gets nice soon.
A place where you can find the streets, and know which bus to take.
Yes every city has it's down's, but people here arent fake.
They may be mean and filled with greed but will always speak their mind.
And even in their shallow life, their heart you can still find.
We make an honest living, and help our dying earth.
We treat eachother with respect cause we know the human worth.
We drink alot I will admit, but thats how Scotia goes.
Will even drink on our death bed, that's somethin' you all know.
We love the sea and we'd agree, that fishing is the ****
A day upon the pretty rock while fishing is legit.
Im proud to be apart of this amazing ******* place,
and even some Canadians believe we're our own race.
But bottom line I'll call this home until my dying breath,
and even when it comes my time, im glad that here I'll rest.
Feb 29, 2012
Feb 29, 2012 at 8:07 AM UTC
Canada Day? Just One?
With love from an ‘umble Yank
But every day is Canada Day!
The afternoon plane lands in Halifax
When the hatch is popped, cool air rushes in
Even the fog is happy in Canada
The Muskogee 1 never made landfall here
And so we pilgrimage for her, completing
Her voyage from ’42 to Canada
Wolfville, Grand Pre’, Le Grande Derangement
The Deportation Cross and beer cans
Well, God forgive the Redcoats anyway
Newfoundland
Is a bold
Anapest
The church spires in a line, the light is green
The bold young captain shoots the narrows wild
Can you find your way to your painted house?
To walk again the cobbles of Ferryland
And smell the very blue of the Atlantic
The sea-blown wind is cold in Canada
Blue Puttees and a mourning Caribou
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord
Good children sing “We love thee, Newfoundland”
Quebec – royal city of New France
May Le Bon Dieu bless the Plains of Abraham,
And may God bless
The signs an English driver cannot read
The Coca-Cola streets of Niagara Falls
Yanks laugh at made-in-China Mountie mugs
And buy them, happy to be in Canada
A cup of Toujours Frais from – well, that place
But to us in your southern provinces
Below Niagara, Tim too is Canada
Though Canada goes on, these scribbles must not –
Your grateful guest wishes only to say
That every happy day is Canada Day!
Jul 1, 2018
Jul 1, 2018 at 9:35 AM UTC
Callow Crooks Cobblestone the name of man
in the sense that there is none to be spoken of anymore.
Catapulted his good graces out of the house to another realm where it's all whispers
of impish names and frozen as Halifax.
You can see the slander in the spumes of breath
Evident as they gallop along
Jumping on crystalline snow flakes.
Flailing, faltering, finally reaching floor too frigid to melt.
Dec 16, 2012
Dec 16, 2012 at 2:03 PM UTC
As it happens I did not buy this book
of collected poems in St. John, New Brunswick or
Charlottetown, P.E.I. I didn’t pick it up
in Yorkville on a long weekend in Toronto,
nor was I delighted to spot it in a window display
on a stop I didn’t make for coffee in Kamloops, B.C.
No doubt Halifax has its share of bookstores,
none of which I’ve visited on the road
to North Sydney to catch the ferry to Newfoundland,
where one imagines happening upon a salt cured,
weather beaten mom and pop clinging to life
quayside in St. Johns.
The border with sleep lies just up ahead
where soon I’ll be borne across
on thoughts of the boats of these poems
lifted on the rising tide of the U.S. dollar,
Billy Collins buttoned up for the night
inside a tent pitched upon the calm seas
of my chest.
May 11, 2017
May 11, 2017 at 8:48 AM UTC
As it happens I did not buy this book
of collected poems in St. John, New Brunswick or
Charlottetown, P.E.I. I didn’t pick it up in Yorkville
on a weekend spree in Toronto, nor was I delighted
to spot it in a window display when I stopped
for lunch in Kamloops, B.C.
No doubt Halifax has its share of bookstores,
none of which I’ve visited on the road to North Sydney
to catch the ferry to Newfoundland,
where one could imagine happening upon
a salt cured, weather beaten mom and pop
clinging to life quayside in St. Johns.
The border with sleep lies just up ahead
where soon I’ll be borne across
on thoughts of the boats of these poems
rising on the tide of the U.S. dollar,
The Rain In Portugal a tent
rising and falling on my chest.
May 10, 2017
May 10, 2017 at 9:34 AM UTC
Avertable impact
Ripped open lid
The fuse lit
And die they did
Imo
Mont-Blanc
The harbor a carcass
Their treasures sunk
Dartmouth
Richmond
Tufts Cove
One last gasp in the sun
Wretched captains
As kings who fought over
Duchess of Aquitaine
Everything to lose
Nothing to gain
"She may one day queen it
over that fair demesne..."
Aug 19, 2020
Aug 19, 2020 at 10:56 AM UTC
The flutter of lashes
smash through the air,
cuts to the chase and
she knows
I'll be there.
The smile says it all,
as I fall,
and her eyes liquid blue
cut to the chase.
Face touching face we
cut to the chase
and the lights go down
in Halifax.
Feb 27, 2015
Feb 27, 2015 at 10:01 PM UTC
When you have finished your work, I have something important to tell you all
Come in closer, closer, I remember walking down 54 street on a cold December in Manhattan
I had just finish with a job interview
a little frustrated but nevertheless
I have given praises to the almighty for allowing me to see another day
Never mind I was jobless, after two years of sending out my resume and making
Numerous phone calls to business throughout the city.
It was a cold day in December, I hit the pavement and was looking and praying to find myself a job
As I was walking down the busy street, I saw a queue from here to Halifax
So, I decided to join the line,
not even knowing what it was all about (nosey me as usual)
I never even asked any of the people on the line, what was going on
So, this white lady with a clipboard in her hands, came out of the building and was escorting A few people at a time, to come in.
I stood trying to be looking smart as I am, and waited
When it became my turn, this lady looks at me from head to toe
And said to followed her, I did as I was told
She led us into the room, and started to hand out a test sheet:
She said we half only twenty minutes to complete it
I stare at my test sheet he had like 40 questions,
And some math, and vocabulary sentences to complete
I finish the test in less than 20 minutes,
Wondering what is next to come with the lady
I got up she stare me down once again,
Took the test sheet and asked me to wait in this waiting room:
Once again, I did as I was told.
After another 20 minutes she came and got me,
He exacts words.
“We are looking for people to work in Macy department stores,
Throughout the city in all departments store
what hours can you work miss lander?
I sigh for a moment and say, the morning shifts
She said I ace the test; she took ANOTHER look at me again:
And spoke. You will BE BETTER OFF in the shoe department
Not the clothing, not the beauty counter, but the shoe department
I put my fake smile ON and thank her so much,
How dear she, after praising me on my test results
Because my *** was black,
she wants to put me in the shoe department:
I filled out the necessary paperwork for pay roll
And I shook my head in miss believe,
I came home, and I tossed the paper in the garbage
And never took the job.
My beauty is meant to be seen,
To love beauty is to see light
I might not have been beautiful to her, but
Beauty is happiness,
Racism is really a curse,
The advantages and the disadvantages of trying to keep a person down
They just can’t see beyond the color of our skin.
Rather than just saying we’d like to live in a more fair and equal society, we need to do our part to achieve it. (Quote)
Apr 23, 2023
Apr 23, 2023 at 11:53 AM UTC
XXIX
She has haunted my sleep for long enough, I fear-
My nightmares of ghost ships break the still night air
Too swiftly, too fiercely- the wound still stings.
In the night my heels and toes wander listlessly to the graves
Of those others have perhaps forgotten. I have not forgotten.
Fairview cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The blank faced child, whom no one claims,
I fear has entered the end of life without the warmth
Of a mother’s embrace. I would hold them. I would love them.
The graves climb the hill like cinderblocks, one pushing the other
Up towards some heaven
Some beautiful blue sky where their souls must lay
And though the trees are bare and the sky feels cold
The silence calms me; here, they feel no water. No collapsing
Floor.
One hundred and twenty one ladies and men and children
Will rest here forever.
Among the graves I lay down my funeral bouquet,
Along with my ghost ship nightmares-
The world’s pain, and mistakes, and visions of a darker day
May perhaps one day rest here too
And float up towards some heaven,
Some paradise.
Jul 2, 2017
Jul 2, 2017 at 1:05 PM UTC
XXVI
Some say I’ll see the edge of nowhere
When I get there;
Trees will grow their roots up,
Streams will run backwards,
The grass will be bright blue-
and my unborn son, born
to the grave.
My wife has nightmares
about crying children and
screaming and waves
and I hush, hush, there
my dear wife of Halifax
and tell her the end is nowhere
in sight
In the dead of night I stand on
the boat deck
and wonder what’s really out
there
in the grand, decent world
Because Lord, if there’s no
plan for me
no place, no job, no
family
then I’ll just go
Just please, Lord-
let my baby live
and make it home
Jun 3, 2017
Jun 3, 2017 at 8:47 AM UTC
In every interaction
a bit of sadness
knowing how far away
our transactions are made
Blush
eyeliner
and lipstick
fade
Sunsets on a city scape
I'd run there barefoot
if you'd only
meet me there halfway
Relax, relax, Halifax
It's only just a crush
But I keep your playlist on repeat
as days turn into dust
In the next life
we'll be neighbors
and meet when we're sixteen
I'll knock on your door
to borrow sugar
if you know what I mean
But for now
I die for your name upon my screen
In this existence
even at a distance
it feels so good to be seen
Jan 25, 2020
Jan 25, 2020 at 4:19 PM UTC