Author Archives: janishaag

Not that it needs/wantsto be held, butyou might. So I put one foot in frontof the other, so slowly,so slowly, circle the perimeteras the labyrinth unfoldsits gifts to you, which you may or may notpick up—though your heartmight, collecting a … Continue reading →

You watchin’ me?I think it’s watchin’ us, dude. Don’t like it. Gonna stare it down. Make it leave.It’s not leavin’. Why’s it not leavin’? Wha’cha doin’, you guys?Tryna chase this thing away. Give it the hard stare.It’s not leavin’.I know. … Continue reading →

(Richmond, BC, near VancouverInternational Airport) Clearly in the YVR flightpath,walking around the lovely pond,I cannot miss the great jetsthundering overheadon their way into the sky. Why, there goes one now,winking and gleaming againstthe soft blue and puffy white. The wedge … Continue reading →

(Victoria, BC) As I look out on a familiar streetat the grocery as Sunday shopperspick up food for the week ahead,I sit at a table for two as one. I do not mind. He has been a good sport,sipped more … Continue reading →

(I stop my quick walk when,looking down, I seewords chalked in white,fading into sidewalk) Poem byHoneyValley (then a line of words in blue chalk,mostly worn away, unreadable,and three more lines) Do you hear that?the engine of your machinewhirring hard (good … Continue reading →

(In memory of Emily Carr of Victoria, BC,and Emily Dickinson of Amherst, Mass.) Emily’s Elephant does not seem big enoughto resemble an actual elephant,but that’s what Miss Carr calledthe small rectangular wooden structurethat the artist used as a traveling studio. … Continue reading →

(for Dickie) Though I have cut your hairfor decades, now, when wevacation in Victoria, you head to Sean, the James Bay barber,for a proper cut—not just ofhair but for a good trim of the caterpillars over youreyes, as Sean calls … Continue reading →

(at The Butchart Gardens, Vancouver Island, BC) It’s not to be,Hamlet,it’s two bee! 2Bs bee-ing,buzzing from blossomto blossom, picking up anddepositing floralrewards along the way. 2Bsare a blossom’sbonus, don’cha know,as the flowersmust, their intimate partsbee-ing tickledby bumbles dislodging pollenfrom male … Continue reading →

Fishin’, my father believed,did not necessarily mean catchin’,though catchin’ was nice, too,especially the tender little trouthe and my mother occasionallysnagged from the West Walker Riverhigh in the Sierra Nevada. Fishin’ rarely meant catchin’to my fly fishing husband,who’d grown up bait … Continue reading →

where, 64 years ago, youjust-minted high school graduate,decided to brave the waters of the Strait of Georgia, onthe coastal middle an islandcalled Vancouver, at a seaside resort calledthe Sea-esta, showing off,perhaps, just a little, for the teenaged daughterof the friends … Continue reading →