Love - well, what else makes the world tick? So please find some Canadian expressions of this hottest topics of all :)
Oh yes, and don't forget to do something nice for your Loved Ones on Valentine's Day....
Oh yes, and don't forget to do something nice for your Loved Ones on Valentine's Day....
Image from: http://pixabay.com/p-34998/?no_redirect
Although this isn't a piece of poetry or fiction, I found the article, "To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This", written by UBC professor Mandy Len Catron for the New York Times, relevant to this post and particularly interesting because it applies social science to our understanding of love and breaks the process of falling in love down to a formula. Catron in the article examines Dr. Arthur Aron's study "The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness" which, seems to suggest that love is created from a level of deep emotional intimacy that can be generated with anyone, opposed to the common myth that falling in love is a natural and possibly inexplicable experience.
ReplyDeleteHere is the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/fashion/modern-love-to-fall-in-love-with-anyone-do-this.html?_r=2
And here is one of the sets of questions used in "The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness":
Set I
Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?
Would you like to be famous? In what way?
Before making a telephone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say? Why?
What would constitute a "perfect" day for you?
When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?
If you were able to live to the age of 90 and retain either the mind or body of a 30-year-old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you want?
Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die?
8. Name three things you and your partner appear to have in common.
9. For what in your life do you feel most grateful?
10. If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?
11. Take 4 minutes and tell your partner your life story in as much detail as possible.
12. If you could wake up tomorrow having gained anyone quality or ability, what would it be?
Set II
13. If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about yourself, your life, the future, or anything else, what would you want to know?
14. Is there something that you've dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven't you done it?
15. What is the greatest accomplishment ofyour life?
16. What do you value most in a friendship?
17. What is your most treasured memory?
18. What is your most terrible memory?
19. If you knew that in one year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you are now living? Why?
20. What does friendship mean to you?
21. What roles do love and affection play in your life?
22. Alternate sharing something you consider a positive characteristic ofyour partner. Share a total of 5 items.
23. How close and warm is your family? Do you feel your childhood was happier than most other people’s?
24. How do you feel about your relationship with your mother?
Set III
25. Make 3 true "we" statements each. For instance 'We are both in this room feeling ..."
26. Complete this sentence: "I wish I had someone with whom I could share ..."
27. If you were going to become a close friend with your partner, please share what would be important for him or her to know.
Tell your partner what you like about them; be very honest this time saying things that you might not say to someone you've just met.
Share with your partner an embarrassing moment in your life.
When did you last cry in front of another person? By yourself?
Tell your partner something that you like about them already.
What, if anything, is too serious to be joked about?
33. I f you were to die this evening with no opportunity to communicate with anyone, what would you most regret not having told someone? Why haven't you told them yet?
34. Your house, containing everything you own, catches fire. After saving your loved ones and pets, you have time to safely make a final dash to save anyone item. What would it be? Why?
A little late to have tried this on Valentine's Day, but an interesting experiment nonetheless!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aRKZFR5imM
ReplyDelete"Famous Blue Raincoat", written by Leonard Cohen is a poem/song of betrayal and the strange circumstances that are born out of such betrayal. We sense the reality that the worst part of betrayal is that it does not come from our enemies.
Leonard starts the poem off in solitude, amongst winter and the cold. He is alone and has left his home and moved to New York in order to create a new identity and world for himself void of his painful past. He writes a letter and sings it to his brother, his dear friend who has betrayed him so badly. This letter is metaphoric in the sense that both men are calling out to each other, through their personally evoked imprisoned solitude Leonard can feel his brothers sorrow and regret and one can sense a certain peace with this. Through such agony and separation, both men are at a loss.
He hears his friend has moved away to some desolate place, where he lives for nothing, permanently surrounding himself with his regret, his guilt and his pain. Leonard writes him to see if he has forgiven himself and asks, ‘did you ever go clear?’
Leonard speaks of Jane coming to him with a lock of his brother’s hair, a symbol of his everlasting memory. Leonard does not hate this hair, as he loves it ultimately and in a way reveres the nostalgia it holds and tragic situation it is associated with and is views it as a gesture of apology amongst his departure into the ‘clear’. Leonard simultaneously despises his brother yet reveres him, as he was able to take Jane’s sorrow away, something he could never do. Through this, Leonard loves and forgives his lost friend and the letter can be seen as a call to him, and echo through time, distance and space…
He sings of the last time he saw his brother remembers the pain that was riddled upon his face, the torture upon his soul. He speaks of, ‘Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder’. This raincoat was a symbol of identity and through the circumstance, his identity began to unravel (tear) forcing him to flee, in order to redefine his identity and reconcile with his guilt.
Leonard’s brother saved Jane and awakened a light in her. Leonard is conflicted due to this and thanks his brother for his betrayal as it lead to Jane’s awakening. He sings to his friend, ultimately forgiving him.
Leonard thanks his friend, as he took all the trouble from Jane’s eyes, something he could never do. This leads to forgiveness: the love for his wife and his friend surpass his own futile emotions, desires and needs.
Leonard has risen above extraordinary betrayal. However, he will never forget and can never forget as Jane is a living memory, ‘And Jane came by with a lock of your hair, She said that you gave it to her, That night that you planned to go clear’.
It is not clear whether Leonard’s brother is dead or alive, for what exactly does ‘clear’ mean? The feeling I get from the poem is one of a certain tragic nostalgia. It could be that the place Leonard’s brother has put himself in could be viewed as purgatory. I only say this because the feeling I get from listening to this song and reading this poem is almost an unreachable memory, fresh yet distant and foreign.
The poem is an epic story of love, loss, betrayal, awakening, isolation, solitude, self-imposed imprisonment, guilt, understanding and ultimately forgiveness and enlightenment.
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ReplyDeleteThis is the poem:)
ReplyDeleteIt's four in the morning, the end of December
I'm writing you now just to see if you're better
New York is cold, but I like where I'm living
There's music on Clinton Street all through the evening.
I hear that you're building your little house deep in the desert
You're living for nothing now, I hope you're keeping some kind of record.
Yes, and Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear
Did you ever go clear?
Ah, the last time we saw you you looked so much older
Your famous blue raincoat was torn at the shoulder
You'd been to the station to meet every train
And you came home without Lili Marlene
And you treated my woman to a flake of your life
And when she came back she was nobody's wife.
Well I see you there with the rose in your teeth
One more thin gypsy thief
Well I see Jane's awake
She sends her regards.
And what can I tell you my brother, my killer
What can I possibly say?
I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you
I'm glad you stood in my way.
If you ever come by here, for Jane or for me
Well your enemy is sleeping, and his woman is free.
Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never tried.
And Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear
Sincerely L Cohen
Habitation - Margaret Atwood
ReplyDeleteMarriage is not
a house or even a tent
it is before that, and colder:
the edge of the forest, the edge
of the desert
the unpainted stairs
at the back where we squat
outside, eating popcorn
the edge of the receding glacier
where painfully and with wonder
at having survived even
this far
we are learning to make fire
Talking about the challenges of marriage, essentially the poem goes into talking about how marriage is almost something that is primitive to humans and something that is not natural and needs to be worked at to succeed. The poem is written almost backwards, almost as if to symbolize that a marriage has to be worked from the ground, up. The fire in the poem likely represents the love as well as passion, which is something of a necessity to fuel a relationship, especially in a marriage. Interestingly, the word edge is repeated numerously throughtout the poem as if to say that a marriage is very hard to keep from breaking as if everything is on edge. "We are learning to make fire." This last line stands alone, likely to convey that the only thing that will sustain a marriage is passion and love (symbolized by the fire).
DeleteA Canadian "love poem" that I seem to keep coming back to is "Blues" by the, previously discussed, late Vancouver-based poet bpNichol. "Blues" could be discussed in both this section and the section concerning concrete poetry; however, I believe it deserves to be discussed here.
ReplyDelete"Blues" implements the concrete/visual style in order to display the erratic and disorienting nature of love. bpNichol intersects the word "love" with itself many times over, which suggests that all love is one, or in the very least that love affects all other love. Furthermore, he doesn't only spell love forwards, but also backwards, up, and down. This, non-linear/non-traditional spelling of love suggests that love is not one thing, but many different things depending on who it is attached to.
Of course, by crafting this poem in such a way as to not suggest any definitive meaning bpNichol brings forth the idea that love as an objective concept is indefinable.
A Canadian "love poem" that I seem to keep coming back to is "Blues" by the, previously discussed, late Vancouver-based poet bpNichol. "Blues" could be discussed in both this section and the section concerning concrete poetry; however, I believe it deserves to be discussed here.
ReplyDelete"Blues" implements the concrete/visual style in order to display the erratic and disorienting nature of love. bpNichol intersects the word "love" with itself many times over, which suggests that all love is one, or in the very least that love affects all other love. Furthermore, he doesn't only spell love forwards, but also backwards, up, and down. This, non-linear/non-traditional spelling of love suggests that love is not one thing, but many different things depending on who it is attached to.
Of course, by crafting this poem in such a way as to not suggest any definitive meaning bpNichol brings forth the idea that love as an objective concept is indefinable.
This is one of my favourite songs by her! I also like Comme des Enfants, Fondu au Noir, and Ensemble. Happy to know that my French skills haven't deteriorated quite so badly, though I suppose this wasn't a complicated song to translate haha.
ReplyDeleteEcholalia - Ian Williams
ReplyDeleteOnce one gets what one wants
one no longer wants it.
One no longer wants what?
One no longer wants what
one wanted.
-
A man and a woman want a woman and a man
or a man and a woman depending
on the man and the woman.
-
Once one gets what one wants once
one no longer wants it once
then one no longer wants it at all.
-
Yes then no. Yes and no? No.
Yes then no then yes and always
after yes comes no. Never always
yes, but always no. Always know
after yes comes no.
-
One wants what one wants
not what one wanted.
http://www.poetryinvoice.com/poems/echolalia
One poem I really enjoyed about love is "Variations on the Word Love" by Margaret Atwood:
ReplyDeleteThis is a word we use to plug
holes with. It's the right size for those warm
blanks in speech, for those red heart-
shaped vacancies on the page that look nothing
like real hearts. Add lace
and you can sell
it. We insert it also in the one empty
space on the printed form
that comes with no instructions. There are whole
magazines with not much in them
but the word love, you can
rub it all over your body and you
can cook with it too. How do we know
it isn't what goes on at the cool
debaucheries of slugs under damp
pieces of cardboard? As for the weed-
seedlings nosing their tough snouts up
among the lettuces, they shout it.
Love! Love! sing the soldiers, raising
their glittering knives in salute.
Then there's the two
of us. This word
is far too short for us, it has only
four letters, too sparse
to fill those deep bare
vacuums between the stars
that press on us with their deafness.
It's not love we don't wish
to fall into, but that fear.
this word is not enough but it will
have to do. It's a single
vowel in this metallic
silence, a mouth that says
O again and again in wonder
and pain, a breath, a finger
grip on a cliffside. You can
hold on or let go.
In this poem the speaker explains how the word is overused nowadays and something as true as "love" takes more than just a four letter word to explain it. The first stanza explains how the word itself is being overused and sold nowadays whereas the second stanza explains the feeling of love. You will often hear others say things such as "Oh, I love that show it's hilarious" or, "I love that girl she is too kind" but they aren't usually saying this from the bottom of their heart. People will often use this word just to show a fondness of something but what Atwood is trying to explain in this poem is that "Love" is more than that and that there is no universal definition of it. Everyone will experience love differently and deal with it differently because love is complex.
I really enjoyed this poem because it reminds us that our overuse of the word "Love" is forcing the word to lose meaning and even making us lower our expectations of it. If we are truly in love, it is hard for a single four-letter word to explain every part of it because there is so much more to it which is why this poem has become so important to me. In a time where divorces are seen as common and individuals are "falling in love" every so often, it is important to take some time to realize that love is not simple but it is complex. If we stop overusing this term and attaching expectations to this word to return it to its rightful meaning, maybe we will be able to realize what love truly is.
Both my fiancé’s and my favourite artist just so happens to be Canadian. Dallas Green is the musician behind City and Colour. Since he is the sole member, he is the vocals, guitarist, composer, and song writer. Dallas has written many love songs, some filled with love and desire, others with sorrow. This song, “Northern Wind”, is one of our favourites. I thought it also nicely describes Canada in the process.
ReplyDelete“Northern Wind” by Dallas Green
You're the Northern Wind
Sending shivers down my spine
You're like falling leaves
In an autumn night
You're the lullaby
That's singing me to sleep
You are the other half
You're like the missing piece
Oh my love
Oh my love
Oh my love
You don't know
What you do to me,
On me
You are all four seasons
Rolled into one
Like the cold December snow
In the warm July sun
I'm the jet black sky
That's just before the rain
Like the mighty current
Pulling you under the waves
Oh my love
Oh my love
Oh my love
You don't know what you do to me
To me
I'm the darkest hour
Just before the dawn
And I'm slowly sinking
Into the slough of despond
Like an old guitar
Worn out and left behind
I have stories still to tell
They're of the healing kind
Oh my love
Oh my love
Oh my love
If I could just
Find you tonight
If I could just find you tonight
Oh my love
I SHOUT LOVE
ReplyDeleteMilton Acorn
I shout love in a blizzard's
scarf of curling cold,
for my heart's a furred sharp-toothed thing
that rushes out whimpering
when pain cries the sign writ on it.
I shout love into your pain
when skies crack and fall
like slivers of mirrors,
and rounded fingers, blued as a great rake,
pluck the balled yarn of your brain.
I shout love at petals peeled open
by stern nurse fusion-bomb sun,
terribly like an adhesive bandage,
for love and pain, love and pain
are companions in this age.
June, 1958.
This poem is a little too negative on the idea of love for it to really be appropriate for valentines day—the “love is pain” idea tends to be a real turn off for most significant others on Valentines Day. But there’s something nice about it. The images are sharp, lyrical, and effective. I am left wondering just what happened to this pour soul for him to think in such a way.
This poem by Milton Acorn has a melancholy mood to it. The speaker in the poem is shouting his love to his loved ones. However, there is also the hurt that no matter how many times he shouts of his love, his loved ones could never hear him. The pain of his love not being heard leads the writer to view love and pain as companions. With love brings pain and with no pain there is also no love. Thus, this poem describes love in an alternative way. By describing love as pain, the writer is able to portray love as yearning to be with the person you love. Although the poem is not a typical poem that you would share on Valentines Day, I think this poem resonates to the readers in a way. I think that the idea of loving so much that it brings you pain that you can't be with them could also be considered romantic in a different sort of way.
DeleteTo draw from a slightly less romantic idea of the word love, here's a list of the Globe and Mail's 147 reasons to love Canada! While certainly not the Valentines kind of love, I think these do a good job of relating to our course theme of identity! They're submitted by readers and each one has a little blurb attached so they're actually quite good! Here are a couple that stood out to me as best identifying with the themes of our course!
ReplyDelete"8. ‘We’re building a country together’
I was to address the student assembly at Gordon Bell High School in Winnipeg. As I walked into the gym, I suddenly realized that I was walking by a 10-person, all-female, aboriginal group of drummers – and they were terrific.
After I listened to them for a while, I turned to go toward the mic and, all of a sudden, there was this tremendous crash and at the other end of the gym there was about a 20-person African drumming group – and they started to play and they were equally wonderful to listen to.
Then I realized that the two bands were playing in sync and off each other, and it hit me so hard, I could hardly speak. What a wonderful, wonderful sound this was – and what a wonderful picture it was of Canada. When I got up to the mic to speak, I could hardly get it out, I was just so touched."
"29. We care
I love how Canadians care about the world around them. From the @LuckyIronFish project to @WorldUniService student-refugee program, Canadians make a difference.
– David J. Hornsby, senior lecturer in international relations at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa
I have lived outside Canada for over a decade, but my country is still a reference for me. It is like a large thought, a place of common sense and intelligence in a dangerous and confused world. I work in international relations and diplomacy and, when I witness chaos and conflict, I bring to mind a quote by Pierre Elliott Trudeau:
“As against the ‘invisible hand’ of Adam Smith, there has to be a visible hand of politicians whose objective is to have the kind of society that is caring and humane.”
Fewer and fewer politicians enact this around the world, including in our country. Yet, our reputation in the world remains surprisingly positive because of this basic unstated perception. The idea is engrained in me, no matter where I live or travel, as much as my eternal wish that the Montreal Canadiens will again win the Stanley Cup.
– John Bell, former United Nations and Canadian diplomat and director of the Middle East program at the Toledo International Centre for Peace in Madrid"
And finally for the lovebirds:
"11. It’s where we fall in love
Childhood is a country one never leaves. It’s our first country, that we hold inside us the rest of our lives. This small poem evokes the summer when I was 8 on the banks of the Lorette River in Quebec. It’s probably the most beautiful river in Canada, because it’s the one where I played in my childhood. At 8, one can fall in love. My little neighbour, Nathalie (who lived in the cottage next door to my parents) was the same age. One day, as we were playing the woods, she came close to me and put a quick kiss on my lips. It was my first kiss, and tasted of candy. Of course, afterward we kept on playing because, at 8, it’s important to live in the world of our games.
“I remember her face / from the first forest / hidden in childhood / and her daisy lips / moving toward the unknown / can you imagine a light lovelier / than the long, long time / climbing to the self / and memory / building itself a nest / for the possible next day / because wind blows through memories/ a wind of clearing and girl / lost in the woods of origins”
– Michel Pleau, Canada’s parliamentary poet laureate"
What is a casino, how do I open a slot machine
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