trace and cut

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Originally uploaded by rhya.

we are so into crazy time at the factory, many many many monsters to be made.

"Giving the mayor comp tickets to Words Aloud 2 www.durhamart.on.ca/wordsaloud
He's going to open the festival by reading What We Love Here." liz zetlin

Elizabeth Zetlin is amazing, she is by far one of my favorite people and poets, so when she sent out an email asking what we love about the Grey County area, for an upcoming poem she was writing, which would be presented to and then read by Mayor Becker at a West Grey Council meeting, in support of Random Acts of Poetry Week; I was of course quick to share. Grey County, and more specifically, the little towns of Priceville and Flesherton are where I grew up, and I am still coughing up gravel roads.

So here is the poem she created, and below the poem is a list of all the contributors, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

WHAT WE LOVE HERE

The molasses dark eyes of cattle, fields
of goldenrod, coyotes howling at night.

The smells — warm mud as the snow melts,
baking clay under the summer heat, resting
leaves in the fall bush, clean snow-wrapped
evergreens in the cold night — not
sealed from scent by the city.

The blanket of people that, if you let it,
tucks you tight into the community.
Because a paradise without people
is not worth stepping into.

The blanket of quiet at sunset
that settles you into night.

The inner beauty of strangers who
take the time to greet newcomers like me.

The moon rising, especially the crescent
moon, out of the dark waters and sky
of Georgian Bay.

The sheer beauty of cedar
struggling in the cracks of the cliffs
towering above you.

How people work together, to make things
happen. Even people with big, conflicting egos!

Where poetry is becoming the 4th “P,”
along with Pipes, Pavement and Police.

The way fern and moss carpet you
with a green silence.

How time stands still on ancient limestone,
humbles you, makes you feel at home.

The rush from swimming under the raft
at Flesherton Pond. The great sausage cart at Eckhart’s Shell.

The Durham Art Gallery and the Words Aloud Festival
because we have the best audiences – they really pay attention!

How trees touch overhead and beckon
to secret lanes. At each bridge a different river –
the Rocky, the Saugeen, the Sydenham.

The way sky surprises on a ribboned rise.
Side-road applesauce and pies just
for the taking.

Endless possibilities at our doorstep.
You don’t have to go anywhere else.

What brought each of us here,
what makes us stay, is what binds us together.

This is the place where we leave
our memories when we are not
using them.

Contributors:

D. Akyurekli, Owen Sound
Bill Boudreau, Owen Sound
Jane Garland, Flesherton
Grace Glass, Durham
Bill Hawkes, Owen Sound
Anne Duke Judd, Port Elgin
Karen & Georg Maier, Durham
Cheryl Kryzaniwsky, Saugeen Shores
Donna Messecar-Miller, Grey County
Ruth Nielsen, Sauble Beach
Dawna Proudman, Durham
Barry Randall, Owen Sound
Geoffrey Shea, Durham
Rhya Tamasauskas, Toronto & Flesherton
David Turner, Flesherton
Judith Turner, Durham
Liz Zetlin, Traverston