Alice Munro often writes about ordinary people in small town Ontario, where she grew up. She said, "People's lives, in [my home town] as elsewhere, were dull, simple, amazing, unfathomable—deep caves paved with kitchen linoleum." And she said, "I am at home with the brick houses, the falling-down barns, the occasional farms that have swimming pools and airplanes, the trailer parks, burdensome old churches, Wal-Mart, and Canadian Tire. I speak the language."

Poem: "what she was wearing," by Denver Butson, from illegible address. © Luquer Street Press.


what she was wearing

this is my suicide dress
she told him
I only wear it on days
when I'm afraid
I might kill myself
if I don't wear it

you've been wearing it
every day since we met
he said

and these are my arson gloves

so you don't set fire to something?
he asked

exactly

my assault and battery eyeliner

and this is my terrorism lipstick

my armed robbery boots

I'd like to undress you he said
but would that make me an accomplice?

and today
she said
I'm wearing my infidelity underwear
so don't get any ideas

and she put on her nervous breakdown hat
and walked out the door

Here's something that should bring back fun memories. And, by the way, I haven't seen either of the movies.


Spiderman, Spiderman,
Does whatever a spider can
Spins a web, any size,
Catches thieves just like flies
Look Out!
Here comes the Spiderman.

Is he strong?
Listen bud,
He's got radioactive blood.
Can he swing from a thread
Take a look overhead
Hey, there
There goes the Spiderman.

In the chill of night
At the scene of a crime
Like a streak of light
He arrives just in time.

Spiderman, Spiderman
Friendly neighborhood Spiderman
Wealth and fame
He's ignored
Action is his reward.

To him, life is a great big bang up
Whenever there's a hang up
You'll find the Spider man.

Here's something interesting that I found on a publisher's website:

------------------------------------------
Pieces of Intelligence: The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld

By Seely, Hart
Editor Seely, Hart

Until now, the poetry of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been hidden, "embedded" within comments made at press briefings and in interviews. His preferred medium is the spoken word, and his audience has been limited to hard-bitten reporters and hard-core watchers of C-SPAN.

Just as "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" were spoken aloud by many bards, in many variations, before Homer captured them on paper, the Rumsfeld improvisations have finally met up with their perfect editor/enabler. Hart Seely, coeditor of "O Holy Cow! The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto," uncovers the gems hidden within hundreds of hours of Rumsfeld commentary, in the form of Zen verse, haiku, sonnets, lyric poetry, and free verse. In addition, Seely's sharp sleuthing has uncovered two thematic collections: Rumsfeld's Songs of Myself, and Nine Poems on the Media.

The result is a hilarious and irreverently revealing book both by and about one of the world's most powerful men.

We had over an inch of rain in Saskatoon yesterday!

I'm busy getting ready to teach a workshop at the University of Saskatchewan on July 17. It will be a grammar refresher for ESL/EFL (English as a Second Language, English as a Foreign Language) teachers and will also include ideas about teaching grammar in an interesting way.

"It is not sufficient for religious people to be involved with prayer. Rather, they are morally obliged to contribute all they can to solving the world’s problems."

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

"The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it." - Rudyard Kipling

I agree that to truly understand a place, you need to visit it. I feel lucky to have been to 16 countries: Canada, the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China (including TIBET, which should be an independent country), Hong Kong (before it was returned to China),India, Nepal, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma (which I refuse to call Myanmar because the military dictatorship gave it that name), Laos and Cambodia.

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote, "Easy reading is damn hard writing."