A Poem By P.K. Page (1916-2010)

STEFAN

Stefan
aged eleven
looked at the baby and said
"When he thinks it must be pure thought
because he hasn't any words yet"
and we
proud parents
admiring friends
who had looked at the baby

looked at the baby again.

Looking At a Baby (1966)

A song by the Vancouver band The Collectors.

A small room inside a bay window. A single bed, a table and chair, and a sink. I could manage something larger, with more conveniences, but I could never match the view.

All day long people have come and gone from the house next door -- some of whom I recognize as family and friends of the couple who live there; others, such as the midwife, more than once.

For over three days now, since the woman's water broke, a small inflatable swimming pool has sat in the middle of their living room floor. When the time comes, the pool will be filled with warm water and the woman will settle into it.

In the meantime, all is quiet, save for the roar of distant traffic, bird chirps, and every two hours, a slow, rising moan.

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The Garden of Earthly Delights (1503-1504)

Where "weirdness in art began."

The Miss Kim Lilac

Descriptions of the Miss Kim lilac (syringa Vulgaris) from the Honey Tree Nursery in Norboro, Prince Edward Island:

Miss Kim lilac is covered in stunning panicles of fragrant lavender flowers rising above the foliage in late spring. The flowers are excellent for cutting. It has dark green foliage throughout the season. The pointy leaves turn an outstanding deep purple in the fall. 

A compact garden accent shrub featuring showy panicles of light lilac-pink flowers in spring and crinkled foliage, impressive fall color for a lilac; upright and dense, an ideal garden shrub alone or in groupings, fragrance is overwhelmingly spicy.

Northwest Coast

Three days since my return to Vancouver. Naturally the garden is more robust now than it was when I left it. Missed the explosion of my "Miss Kim"  lilac, but was here for the first of what should be many edible nasturtium flowers.

I will spend the next few days working on my review of the Berlin Biennale for Canadian Art, peeking at what others have published, some of which I agree with.

After that I begin work on essays for Babak Golkhar's upcoming exhibition at Sazman Aab in Tehran and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun's exhibition at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. And after that, what I hope will be the completion of a manuscript, entitled 9x11.

Below is a photograph I took of Yuxweluptun's Downtown Vancouver (1987) at Dahlem, part of the Ethnological Museum's permanent collection -- and among the last things you see as you leave its "Northwest Coast" section.