{"id":271,"date":"2010-01-21T22:23:41","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T06:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/onelife\/?p=271"},"modified":"2010-01-21T22:23:41","modified_gmt":"2010-01-22T06:23:41","slug":"evolution-from-urbanite-to-islander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=271","title":{"rendered":"Evolution, from urbanite to islander!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Island<\/a><\/p>\n

This poem from my new book, Three Blocks West of Wonderland,<\/em> inspired by our move to Bowen Island in the . . .<\/p>\n


\nYear of the Monkey<\/strong><\/p>\n

Full house. Madhouse. Ill-fated deejay,
\njester fixed to his back, grinding out tunes
\nin celebration of our new digs, life,
\nin the forest, despite the clear-cutting
\na hundred years ago. There is talk<\/p>\n

of the I-Ching. This will be
\nan extremely progressive time predicts
\na guest with faith enough to practice.
\nMonkeys are shrewd. Agile.
\nYou will find great success in 2004.<\/p>\n

Happy New Year! A toast. To the pileated
\nwoodpeckers, heard more than seen. Cheers!
\nTo the deer phantoms, droppings molding
\nin the front meadow. Where do they go
\nin the winter? Why don\u2019t I know these things?<\/p>\n

We make clumsy attempts at lighting a fire,
\nheating the house, woodstove couched
\nand cold-shouldered as a guerilla soldier
\nbrooding over such hatchet-challenged wimpiness.
\nWe brave the Jacuzzi though. January. Naked ape it<\/p>\n

on the deck, body sculpting with our bare hands,
\npale-faced moon playing peek-a-boo
\nwith the ridgeline, a breeze stroking our backsides.
\nAn owl hoots, hunting through lushness.
\nRed-eyed towhees flit through a labyrinth<\/p>\n

of sword fern, mist the only smoke around here.
\nDesires in the mirror,
\nsmudges of dread
\nsurfacing on its beveled edges
\nwhenever we\u2019re not looking.<\/p>\n

Twin cedar sentinels stand guard
\nagainst the cougar I saw mounting our pup.
\nWhen it began stalking the neighbour\u2019s pony
\nI knew I would need a rifle.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m evolving. From a dinky urbanite on all fours,
\nto a big, eagle-eyed, straight-shooting, cause-
\ncommitted, river-of-life channeling, chainsaw-
\nhung, 4 by 4 pickup piloting Homo Erectus islander.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This poem from my new book, Three Blocks West of Wonderland, inspired by our move to Bowen Island in the . . . Year of the Monkey Full house. Madhouse. Ill-fated deejay, jester fixed to his back, grinding out tunes in celebration of our new digs, life, in the forest, despite the clear-cutting a hundred […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[60,149,236,324],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271"}],"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=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}