{"id":11064,"date":"2022-12-29T23:07:45","date_gmt":"2022-12-29T23:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=11064"},"modified":"2022-12-30T01:27:15","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T01:27:15","slug":"goodbye-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=11064","title":{"rendered":"“FIRST COMES MARY”-SLAYING THE PATRIARCHY & SO LONG 2022!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>“If I’d been the Virgin Mary I would have said No.”-Stevie Smith.<\/p>\n

A pretty good year, aside from a certain amount of stress and chaos. I got to go on a long overdue book launch celebration tour of “Skookum Raven,” visiting long lost friends along the way; Victoria, Salt Spring Island, Winnipeg, Bowen Island and the Cariboo. Each event was like a reunion. Even sold some books!<\/p>\n

Partner-in-musical crime Keir Nicoll and I made our Pluviophiles debut in May at Massey Arts and recorded a bare bones demo with pal Jesse Waldman in June. Our tunes are available on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music and the others. We’re working hard to nail down a set and will seek gigs and festival appearances in 2023. I love our material! And it feels so good to be singing and writing songs again. It saves my sanity, nourishes my soul.<\/p>\n

Gawd I despise Old Man Winter. We\u2019re all enduring a long, bitterly cold December with record shattering temperatures and a lingering arctic front\/air mass which has evolved into “king tides” and flooding in Vancouver. I feel reluctant to emerge from hibernation but we are reminded of those pesky obligations and resolutions with each approaching new year.<\/p>\n

I was exhausted after two days of shopping, cooking and cleaning but enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Eve. Zoomed a visit with our Ferguson kin in Ontario. I wasn\u2019t thrilled with my efforts; cheesecake cracked; stew took too long in the slow cooker. Ha! I forgot to add the green peas, dammit. Didn\u2019t particularly like the new salad recipe and I had knocked over the juice for the dressing. Ugh. Menu too ambitious. Next time I will stick with the tried and true. I wanted a traditional turkey dinner but the snow storm and ensuing daunting logistics kiboshed that plan. Kids didn\u2019t notice, far as I could tell. Lucas and Ayana ate everything up and drank their wine.<\/p>\n

Hauled out some old photos for a trip down Memory Lane. It\u2019s weird watching my autistic son being affectionate with a woman. I\u2019m not used to PDAs. I liked her. She\u2019s beautiful. Charming. Asked if I danced? \u201cLucas doesn\u2019t know how to dance.\u201d They were cute together. Good natured banter and teasing. Happy together. I hope it will last.<\/p>\n

Christmas day I read,\u00a0 binged on leftovers-cheesecake impossible to ignore-and movies; American Splendor, Glass Onion\/Knives Out, Lost In Translation and Home Alone. Apropos I suppose. Got weepy. Christmas conjures up melancholia\/my inner Mick.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m enclosing my Christmas poem; well, it\u2019s more an ode to the Virgin of Guadalupe, written while visiting the Yucatan one year.<\/p>\n

FIRST CAME MARY<\/p>\n

Enchanted morning swim, matrix of turquoise
\nlagoon. Silver palometas, yellow damselfish
\ncaress my legs. Casa Ocio walls whitewashed
\nin cactus milk. Coconuts on the lawn.
\nPalm fronds bowing, rippling like sea anemones.
\nHeavy mahogany Hemingway digs.
\nGecko chirps from behind a gilt frame.
\nCool terrazzo marble pulls sand from toes.
\nDouble rain showerhead. Full throttle bottle bar
\nunder a palapa. I ponder the power
\nof local masonry to withstand hurricanes,
\nwhy it seems odd to name them after men.<\/p>\n

Beneath an arbor of pink bougainvillea
\nsit my dubious nephew, delicate girlfriend,
\ndoubts sinking slowly into the deep
\npurple cushions. We are going to town. To Playa.
\nSoft brown doves adorn neon.
\nTurtles bask on green tile mosaic. Red house
\nhosts a party tableau of orange Fanta, blue corn
\nflowers, flags of paper lace, chocolate pan de huevos.
\nWe smell agave, chili, vanilla, coriander and anise,
\nhear mariachis blaze a mighty La Bamba. Gobble
\npumpkin tamales, snow-white beach cooling our heels.
\nMongrels expire at the feet of professional urchins
\nsoliciting pesos. I will not cry, select a white handkerchief
\nfestooned with poinsettias embroidered by his mother.
\nNo, I can\u2019t buy them all. Though downcast he will not cry.
\nOur Lady of Guadalupe provides. Protects.<\/p>\n

Christmastime but it\u2019s Mary I see. Everywhere. To the faithful
\nthe forever virgin manifests in reefs, rays and schools
\nof gobies and fairy basslet. In the crystalline water
\nof a cenote near Merida. In the mynah\u2019s cry.
\nThey live in Mother Mary\u2019s shadow, warm as her embrace.
\nQueen of the Americas imperial as the iguana
\ngnawing hibiscus, sunning atop Tulum\u2019s serpentine stairways.
\nShe is wing carved into rock, three pelicans soaring above.<\/p>\n

Even Mary, standing on the moon, presiding over the jungle
\nin a cloak of stars, could not stop the calendar,
\nmarauding anthropologists or games to the death.
\nOn every altar she towers over the crucifix, candles,
\niron crosses, golden grapes. She is under their skin,
\nher miraculous portrait inked onto their muscles.
\nHammered in copper, in tin. On murals.
\nSanta Maria assures and comforts all
\nher Mexican children. Heals. Entirely and ever
\nVirgin Mary is the horizon, sea and sky colliding
\nin azure, cobalt blues. Sacred to all. Taxi drivers.
\nMarimba players. Deejays and charros. She waves
\nfrom the cruise ships, watches over fire dancing,
\nblesses the portrait of two young lovers lost
\nin a car crash. Her people feel the harbour of her arms
\naround them. Her mercy. Infinite. Close.
\nFirst comes Mary. Holy Mary. Mother of God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“If I’d been the Virgin Mary I would have said No.”-Stevie Smith. A pretty good year, aside from a certain amount of stress and chaos. I got to go on a long overdue book launch celebration tour of “Skookum Raven,” visiting long lost friends along the way; Victoria, Salt Spring Island, Winnipeg, Bowen Island and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11064"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11064"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11079,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11064\/revisions\/11079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}