{"id":1830,"date":"2008-09-08T11:59:48","date_gmt":"2008-09-08T19:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/onelife\/?p=62"},"modified":"2014-10-04T09:47:55","modified_gmt":"2014-10-04T09:47:55","slug":"wildnernesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=1830","title":{"rendered":"Wildernesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Blogoshphere. <\/em>I\u2019ve heard some bloggers refer to it as such. One intimated that it was a clan of sorts and my writing had better be good enough. Obviously, she doesn\u2019t know me very well. I think web logs are like the rest of the internet, as varied, unruly and undomesticated as its users and prowlers. Everyone gets in, regardless of race, religion, caste or education; precisely what is exciting about the internet. Its inherent democracy and populism is its nature. After all these years, it is still a wilderness, even amidst the rampant advertising. What you find is often astounding. Yeah, I know there\u2019s a lot of garbage too but you\u2019re on your own there, wading through and discerning what is pertinent. What is pertinent to me is what my blog is about, which is why I dubbed it One Life.<\/em> My life, which is as significant as any other. \u201cAll life is holy.\u201d Charles Darwin or Ed Ricketts? Neither? I will have to track down the source of that quote. Speaking of wilderness, here are some excerpts from the travel journal I kept during my recent trip to the Queen Charlotte Islands. I fear I am still under their spell, which might explain why I\u2019m having some difficulty getting back into the swing of things.<\/p>\n

Sept. 28, 2008<\/p>\n

In the ferry lineup, sipping a chai latte that tastes like coffee, trying to ignore the stink of SamIAm on my hands, having just dropped him off at the Dog Ranch with Brinda. We\u2019re flying to Haida Gwaii! Man, if it\u2019s this wet in the Lower Mainland, I have to wonder what the weather is doing up there. Are we in for a monsoon?<\/p>\n

Flight leaves at 12:50, is about 90 minutes in duration and costs around $600. round trip. Yep, you could fly to Paris for that. Well, I\u2019m glad we\u2019re finally going, have been telling Susan M for as long as I\u2019ve known her, about six years now, that we would visit. Josef said he talked to a dude who spent $1200. in ferry fees getting up there so maybe flying isn\u2019t such an extravagance. With driving up, one has to spend money on accommodations and food. We will have to rent a car though and they charge mileage, the bastards. So, there is no cheap way to get to the Queen Charlottes so I will shut up about it.<\/p>\n

Sandspit or bust! Guard at security was making lame jokes about our destination. Should I let him know spit<\/em> is just a term for a long finger of sand?<\/p>\n

So proud of myself! I left my (new) computer at home. Told my Facebook friends, *see* you next week. Going to do it the old fashioned way, with pen and paper, slow down. Need to in order to read my lousy handwriting, been typing mostly since 1989 and my first personal computer.<\/p>\n

I managed to tie up all my loose ends including an AURAL Heather submission to Pacific Contact for a showcase next spring. Fingers crossed. I was telling Roddy that not only am I proud of our work, I\u2019m confident after all our touring this summer. The Fearless Festival show went well, elicited a lot of \u201coaths\u201d and \u201cahhs\u201d and \u201cwow\u201ds from the audience. Roderick thinks it\u2019s our best performance yet. We worked on new material at rehearsal, an adaptation of First Comes Mary, a good Christmas poem set in Mexico about ubiquitous depictions of the Virgin of Guadalupe, how Mary worship really being goddess worship and how could there be a Son of God without a Mother of God, first? Blasphemy, of course.<\/p>\n

Man, these DC8s are noisy. Turbulence, ugh. I know it\u2019s just the air currents and akin to driving on a gravel road but it always makes me anxious.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the poem. More on Haida Gwaii nature and wilderness next time…<\/p>\n

First Comes Mary<\/strong><\/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<\/em>. I ponder the power
\nof local masonry to withstand hurricanes,
\nwhy it seems odd to name them after men.
\nWho are you going to meet at a resort?
\nMail carriers from St. Catharines. Chiropractors
\nfrom Winnipeg. Programmed amusements for fraught
\ntourists wary of beggars. Cockatiels. Street vendors.
\nThey recoil at pulque, mescal, even tequila,
\nunless it\u2019s frozen, goes down like a Slurpee.
\nThey tap into barrels of Corona or deposit derri\u00e8res
\nunder cabanas to read the latest Grisham.<\/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, pick 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.
\nChristmastime 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.
\nEven 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":"

The Blogoshphere. I\u2019ve heard some bloggers refer to it as such. One intimated that it was a clan of sorts and my writing had better be good enough. Obviously, she doesn\u2019t know me very well. I think web logs are like the rest of the internet, as varied, unruly and undomesticated as its users and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,12],"tags":[38,56,140,144,187,201,217,248,358],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830"}],"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=1830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2010,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830\/revisions\/2010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}