Leonard Cohen

Joan of Arc

Now the flames they followed Joan of Arc As she came riding through the dark No moon to keep her armour bright No man to get her through this very smoky night She said, "I'm tired of the war I want the kind of work I had before A wedding dress or something white To wear upon my swollen appetite" Well, I'm glad to hear you talk this way You know I've watched you riding every day And something in me yearns to win Such a cold and lonesome heroine "And who are you?" she sternly spoke To the one beneath the smoke "Why, I'm fire", he replied "And I love your solitude, I love your pride" "Then fire, make your body cold I'm going to give you mine to hold" Saying this she climbed inside To be his one, to be his only bride And deep into his fiery heart He took the dust of Joan of Arc And high above the wedding guests He hung the ashes of her wedding dress It was deep into his fiery heart He took the dust of Joan of Arc And then she clearly understood If he was fire, oh then she must be wood I saw her wince, I saw her cry I saw the glory in her eye Myself, I long for love and light But must it come so cruel, and oh so bright?

Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) was born in Montreal. He was most well known as a poet, songwriter,singer and musician, but he was also a successful songwriter and novelist.

Many of his poems were also song lyrics. Joan of Arc is one of my favorites.

He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour.

Funny Friday - Dennis Lee

What Will You Be 

They never stop asking me 

"What will you be?--
A doctor, a dancer, 
A diver at sea?" 

They never stop bugging me: 
"What will you be?" 

As if they expect me to 
Stop being me. 

When I grow up I'm going to be a Sneeze, 
And sprinkle Germs on all my Enemies. 

When I grow up I'm going to be a Toad, 
And dump on Silly Questions in the road. 

When I grow up, I'm going to be a Child. 
I'll Play the whole darn day and drive them Wild.

From Garbage Delight, 1977

Dennis Lee was born on August 31, 1939, in Toronto, Ontario.    He is best known for his collections of cleverly-rhymed children's verse.                                                                                   Wiggle to the Laundromat (1970) was written for his daughters, and like much of his writing, drew upon his experiences as a parent.                                                                                       His other books of poems for children include Alligator Pie (1974), one of the best-selling Canadian children's books of all time; Nicholas Knock and Other People (1974); Garbage Delight (1977); and Jelly Belly (1983).                                                In much of his work, he uses Canadian place-names, local cultural idiosyncrasies, and environmental issues to try to communicate a sense of national identity, but his poems have proven popular among English-speaking audiences all over the world.

Margaret Atwood

DISEMBARKING AT QUEBEC

Is it my clothes, my way of walking,
the things I carry in my hand
- a book, a bag with knitting -
the incongruous pink of my shawl

this space cannot hear

or is it my own lack
of conviction which makes
these vistas of desolation,
long hills, the swamps, the barren sand, the glare
of sun on the bone-white
driftlogs, omens of winter,
the moon alien in day-
time a thin refusal

The others leap, shout

Freedom!

The moving water will not show me my reflection.

The rocks ignore.

I am a word
in a foreign language.

From The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970)

Margaret Atwood was born on November 18, 1939, in Ottawa, Ontario. 

She has written award-winning poetry, short stories and novels, including The Circle Game (1966), The Handmaid's Tale (1985), The Blind Assassin (2000), Oryx and Crake (2003) and The Tent (2006). 

Her works have been translated into an array of different languages and seen several screen adaptations.

April is poetry month (no joke)!

My readers may not know that, though I've lived in the U.S. for over 25 years, I'm a dual Canadian-American citizen.

Because of the current political climate, this year, for the month of April, I will be honouring  Canadian poets.

I'll be including well-known poets such as Margaret Atwood and Leonard Cohen, not-so-well-known poets like Joy Kogawa and Phyllis Webb, and writers you might not know as poets, like Charles de Lint and L.M. Montgomery.

Poetry Month posts will begin tomorrow, April 2.

Please read, (hopefully) enjoy, and let me know what you think!

March favorites

 

The Mudpuddle Manual of Natural Magic by Ciara Blume.  Dolce Villa Press,                                  1 October 2024.

The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes.  William Morrow, 4 March 2025.

The Perfect Passion Company by Alexander McCall Smith.  Knopf Doubleday,                               13 February 2024.

The Year of What If by Phaedra Patrick.  Park Row Books, 25 June 2024.

History repeats itself...

 The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes.  William Morrow, 4 March 2025.

Brianna Labuskes has become one of my favorite historical fiction authors.

Her previous two historical novels, The Librarian of Burned Books (2023) and The Lost Book of Bonn (2024) each made my "best of the year" list.  

The location of the most recent book moves from Europe to the USA.  

The story follows the lives of three women in the 1900s, and takes place primarily in Montana, where, at the time, "copper was king".

Millie Lang grew up on a ranch in Texas, an orphan who was raised by her aunt and uncle.  Desperate to get away from being treated as an unpaid servant, she ran away to seek her fortune, and ended up taking a job as an editor with the Federal Writers' Project, part of the Federal One Project.  The FWP produced the American Guide series, travel guides for each state.  After rescuing a colleague who was being sexually assulted (and punching the attacker in the nose), she's sent to Montana to work on that guidebook as well as to get her out of the line of fire.

Alice Monroe is the daughter of the wealthy Clark Monroe, an influential businessman in Missoula.  Having had health issues as a child, she is over-protected by her widowed father, but has managed to get a job at the local library.  Her father does allow her to deliver library books to people at nearby mining camps, but she must be accompanied by her Clark's right-hand-man, Murdoch "Mac" MacTavish.  Alice is frustrated that the number of camps she can visit is so limited, and vows to find a way to go further afield.

We meet Colette Durand in 1914, when she's 11 years old.  Her father, Claude, works for the Anaconda Mining Company in Hell Raisin' Gulch.  Although he supports himself and his daughter by working as a miner, Claude is able to recite most of Shakespeare's plays from memory.  His love of literature and storytelling is passed on to Collette, who runs freely around the tiny town.

In 1924, when Alice comes up with the idea of creating a library in a boxcar on the train that travels the network of railways that serve the logging and mining camps, the paths of the three women finally begin to intersect.

The themes of this story are very pertinent to the events unfolding in the United States today, and it is heartening to see that the "Robber Barons" did not prevail.

This book will definitely be on my 2025 "best" list!

March Releases

 I'm looking forward to reading these books releasing this month!

Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone. The Dial Press, 4 March 2025.

Grieving the loss of her best friend, a young woman’s life is turned upside down when she meets a grumpy stranger who swears he can help her live again, in this heartwarming, story by the author of Ready or Not.

Kate & Frida by Kim Fay. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 11 March 2025.

From the author of instant national bestseller Love & Saffron, this bright and comforting novel follows the surprising friendship between two young women in 1990s Seattle and Paris, illuminating the power of books to change our lives.

The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Labuskes. William Morrow, 4 March 2025.

Inspired by true events, a thrilling Depression-era novel from the author of The Librarian of Burned Books about a woman’s quest to uncover a mystery surrounding a local librarian and the Boxcar Library—a converted mining train that brought books to isolated rural towns in Montana.

Pomona Afton Can So Solve a Murder by Bellamy Rose. Atria Books, 18 March 2025.

A spoiled heiress must investigate her grandmother’s death in order to gain back her trust fund, all while discovering how to be her own person and maybe even in falling in love in this rom-com meets murder mystery.