A clip from the G20 Protest Rally in Toronto on June 26th

Direct link to Facebook, where I'm hosting this clip: G20 Protest March, Toronto, June 26th. 
I've made it accessible to everyone.


A clip from some video I took during the march, near the American Consulate on University Avenue. You can see the police have blocked it off to the public (it's on the right in the footage) and the march continues on the other side of the street south.

Yes, that worried and caring police officer was for real. And I took his advice, slipping out through the back streets, re-joining the crowd of protesters later and then avoiding a few spots of conflagration by slipping into walkways and back paths (I lived in the area for 20 years, old stomping grounds) before making my way home.

More violence ensued as the Black Bloc mob hit the streets, igniting a flare to distract (I passed that corner, missing it by minutes), burning police cars, smashing windows of banks and stores.

At the time of writing, it is close to midnight. Where I live in the city it is quiet, except for the constant drone of police helicopters.

All of the G20 leaders are in Toronto, having met earlier. They are safe, I dearly hope. Riots and violence continue through the night at various spots according to the papers.

Most of all, we Torontonians had wished for a peaceful demonstration of our solidarity. A peaceful march would have shown Harper's huge expenditure on security to be a colossal waste of taxpayers money. Out of the 10,000 who marched, the police estimate there were 100 or so troublemakers. They have caused a lot of damage.

Incidents of undue police violence have also been reported.

I don't know what the thrust towards violence is, but it's on both sides. Sadly.

The rally was great. Many people came, even in pouring rain. Our march was strong, caring, determined, and peaceful. Please remember that we were the majority.


a few stills from the video

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If I Could Write

direct link: If I Could Write

for JP

What would I write if I
                         could
                  write?

I reach over continents
                               and
                                       oceans
into the Parthenon
to find you pressing
the shutter on your camera,
the photograph
you sent.

Or ordered chaos,
                          but this is my life.

A leaf swollen with rain.
Sleeping in a hammock
in a barge with hundreds of others
on the Amazon River in Brazil.
Sun shining on metal.
How sentences
                                     fold 
                         in on each other
like white rose petals.

Days pass endless
waves in the lake.

I found her,
a spirit in the forest of the lake
in the Canadian terrain
where I fast for days.
She broke the spell.
Unexpectedly,
in the silvery leaves of the
maples standing in water.

Abandon logic for metaphor.

Speak in the tongues
                                     of the poet.
I burn the fire
on your eyelids
in my soul.

Those Ionic columns in the heat
of your Grecian photograph.

                         Mirrors
to hide behind.
My polished earrings,
necklace of reflective stones,
shirt sewn with tiny mirrors.
See yourself seeing me.

Clouds that form
a grammar of understanding
of the sky.

The wine
that sweetens your lips.
The dazzle of a sunset
the colour of
oranges.

__
Piano solo accompaniment: Roger Stéphane, 'Lointain,' from his album, Picasso, on Jamendo.

Response to Big Tent Poetry's prompt (where other entries are linked in the comments).

The recording, for some reason, took unexpected hours, and yet I feel strange including it and hope it adds to your reading of the prosepoem.

                                                        

An Ecology of Earth

direct link: An Ecology of Earth. Watch in HD if you can.

A visual poem. The central part, the mandala section, the core. A visual metaphor for earth, the energy of earth. Shot in natural colour.

An Ecology of Earth

we become
what we pretend

what we promote
becomes true

beware of
irreversibilities

earthquaking mandala

how do we evolve

in patterns that connect
without destroying

perhaps the earth is
a fertilized egg

_
I used clips from the last song in "The Dreamer's Paradox," by JT Bruce: http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/3317

The mandala sequence and the music matched with little editing, a synchronicity that amazed me. As I worked on expanding the piece, I added more clips from the same song.
_
This is the second video I have made from the same 20sec of original camera footage. It's of the tree outside my window and that is rooted in the urban clip of land that accompanies my apartment. I feel connected to that tree. The first video using the original 20sec footage, One Hand Clapping, a collaboration with AlphaCore, is so different to this one that you won't believe they're from the same clip.

(Soon I'll upload the original tiny clip of unadulterated, raw, unmanipulated footage, too. And post all three together.)

The poem, an edit of Relevant Knots, posted a week ago, is influenced by a reappraisal of the ideas of Gregory Bateson, particularly in Steps to an Ecology of Mind, and Mind and Nature: a necessary unity.

(I think I will use the tiny clip at the end as a 'signature' ending on my future videopoems - have to work on it a bit, see, if maybe, or maybe not, I do like it, though, and edited in the feel of a blinking earth eye.)

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A Sunshiny Solstice Goddess

Happy Solstice to everyone! It's my favourite time of year... may the sun shine on you with golden glorious goodnesses!

She's brightly coloured, in hot rainbow hues, but the neon filter makes her so sunshiny! I started working on her in my hammock yesterday... :-)

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