Category Archives: Holly Burke Poetry

August is the Ripest Month🍓🍑🍇🍋🍉🥭🫐🍒

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August is the ripest month…

when our fruit becomes heavy and round

and fully sugared ~

so full of yearning and heat and life

you don’t know what to do with it all

like the dusky hues of an August evening

my purple plum’s tangy skin hides the sweet and tawny fruit within

clinging to a stone 

and I realize

this is the pinnacle

Perseid meteor showers above 

and heat upon the land

nothing could be richer

deeper or more magnificent

than this moment in time

from amber – to umber – to ombre

August is the ripest month

HB 2024

Thanks for reading, friends.

Let me know if you enjoyed it!

holshouse@shaw.ca

Tofino Getaway ~ with new beach music 🐠🐚🌊

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Dearest Friends,

I am writing to you from MacKenzie Beach in Tofino, on the wild west coast of Vancouver Island. It’s cooler here than Vancouver, almost fall! The mornings are foggy and mysterious, the afternoons clear, and every night we have a fire! The finest of fine sands cover my toes… like palest green fairy dust made of moss and seaweeds and ocean floor water magic…

Happily by the fire I sit. 
Soot on my hands. Sand on my toes. While Runge works and I play on paper.
I brought us pine cones flecked with sap and garden cuttings of rosemary, oregano, and eucalyptus to add to our evening fire. And how warming it is!
A glass of red wine, a fire, and thou!

hb

 

 

Happy Valentino Day ❤️🐫🌹

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Dear readers,
A little poem came to me this morning.

With a stretch and a yawn
the new day dawns
towards a hazy tawny light

A blanket of soft cloud above
tucks us in and makes us right

And so we fall asleep again,
for one more lovely dream…

Of Rudolph Valentino,
chocolate kisses and cream

Of red red roses and cooing doves
and another day, another way and another chance to love!

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And friends if Valentine’s Day isn’t all that you want… or for any reason, I’d like to offer you my “Soothie” recipe. What is a Soothie? It is a deliciously soothing night time drink:

• Warm 4 cups of your favourite milk on the stove. (Any kind of milk will do – my favourite is vanilla soy.)

• Add in a tablespoon of vanilla and two tablespoons of Horlicks malted milk (it’s a Brit thing – but also works well without)

• Pour and share! (Or drink it all yourself while writing poetry and listening to relaxing music)

Haciendas in the sun and the Power of Quiet

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Thoughts of sunny haciendas and social media-ocrity sweep through my mind…

Hey aspirational! Hey blookup! Hey all you dog gone great followers and fans! Let’s Face-book it:

Oh yes, this is a truly virtual blog now! I talked to Mike.Brown and he creates the post. These are my words coming through him! Thanks, Mike. (You’re welcome! 😜 )

When I’m out with my love dove, Bill, we frequently have to contend with the horrors of corporate background music. Last night we endured two hours of repellant looped robotic music that only drinking could improve. Oh I guess that’s the point, isn’t it?

Hey, come on… We’re human beings… We want to feel! To be touched… To imagine! It’s sinister how corporate decides which satellite (sat-elite?) channel will hold sway over the diners and the rest of us can just lump it. While it’s true I’m extra sensitive and still recovering from my head bonking last December, I think I’ve always been sensitive. Silence – you know, the space between the notes – can be powerful. Then, I want to put in a video clip of oh no nonononononononono leave it it’s wonderful. We will find this on YouTube…

Can’t wait to play with my Naturals again! And also check out Randall’s splash cymbal on “We are Golden”! My camera did something cool and unusual.

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The late Canadian composer Harry Freedman said it best:

Are you an informed listener? Do you take the trouble to protect your ears and your musical appetite? Do you cancel your order and leave a restaurant if the manager does not turn down the Muzak?

It’s a Beautiful Day

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Did you know that we have one hundred billion neurons in our brains? As many as the stars above us. What does this have to do with sumac? I went to Bill’s gig at Kay Meek last weekend – it was Steve Dawson’s tribute to David Bowie – there were about twelve people on stage and the sound just got more and more massive! I found myself slinking down in my seat and putting my head down and my fingers in my ears in crash position and then I just excused myself and slunk out to the lobby… and who did I see but Dave Watson, the amazing emerg. doc. whose daughter I taught years ago! When Dave heard my concussion story he whipped out his phone and said, “look, I want you to go see this guy.” It turns out that both Dave and Brian Hunt are mountain medical emergency doctors. I saw Brian today and he was very encouraging. He advised me to meditate four times a day, avoid all screens, and reduce obvious stressors like driving in Vancouver! I have a lot to be thankful this Thanksgiving and I am wishing you all a tasty, yummy, colourful Thanksgiving. Best wishes to all!

Flames of Sumac

The fall brushed air swirls around my face and ruffles my hair

I see runes written in the moss that grows

Along the old stonewall by the lagoon.

There are dandelions still standing

Stretching themselves as long as they can

Toward the falling green and gold light.

Flames of sumac

Be inside it

We welcome the change

And the wind lifts these pages

Holly Burke, September 2015

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Bloggity Blog

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I think I’m getting better! I spent 12 hours yesterday on the set of “Wonder”, a film with Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson, among others. I had the great pleasure of chatting with Owen and meeting his radiant mother. This was the highlight of my triumphant return (lol) to “union film background” 😉 I made a new friend. A 79 year old woman named Elizabeth who was recovering from a stroke and was out for a day of work. She was a spritely spirit who could only speak a few words. We had wonderful conversations savouring these words. The word of the day was “beauuuutiful”. I noticed her difficulty with pronouncing “crazy” – her crazy came out as “crouuzy”. My inner ESL teacher came out and I was able to help her with her pronunciation so she could enjoy saying “crazy”. We put those two words together so that we could go around saying “crazy beauuuutiful.” It really was tremendous fun. I wanted to stay in touch with her but she was wrapped before me and vanished!

This is an interesting mixture of seasons… Isn’t it?

White morning glories popping out of tangled vines with red blackberries tumbling over a blue spruce. 

I am here
in my spot

thanking the sun for warming my back
a humming bird drops by to check up on me.

Damsel flies – a low hovering wasp
and dried grasses all around me
you can feel the fall this summer.

The young girl who borrowed her father’s oil paints and walked out into a field to become a painter one summer day is all grown up now and still enthralled by nature. I didn’t become a painter but I did become an artist!

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Here’s dad doing two things he loved – sailing and singing.

And here’s my tune, Seraphina, named after my flute. Let’s all enjoy this last part of summer! 🌞

It’s Cherry Blossom Time!

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You’re invited to a delightful intimate performance I am involved with. This will be the world premiere of Haiku Mime, a whimsical physical interpretation of haiku poetry submitted from around the world. Weaving text read by yours truly around the expressive movements of Yayoi Hirano, I simply love the quick interplay we are able to discover as we illuminate these modern haiku poems together. Please join us and be a part of the blossoming of this novel cultural collaboration.

March 24th, 2016; 12:30pm-1:00pm at the courtyard above Burrard Skytrain Station.
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April 8-9 Sakura Festival

Vancouver Horn Players Blow Away Fog

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Fog Horns

The chilly Vancouver fog really is oppressive today
We quiet down like birds at night still stopped waiting
pondering which colour of tea would be most beneficial
green matcha, yellow camomile, red rose. we have all the colours.
you just can’t see them today.

How about this: I invite, entreat, any and all of the wind players in Vancouver to meet at Prospect Point to play today at 2 pm to play improvised communal tones together, to blow the fog away.

weather permitting

Vancouver Fog

Thanksgiving cosy sweaters and Ça Va Trés Bien

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Seasons change brings us closer than ever

putting on socks for the first time

that cosy comfort ~ these small sleeping bags for our feet

reach for your favourite sweater,  fine old friend,

here’s my moss coloured second skin now

it begins to sink in

 

as our landscape colours flame up in glory

and the sticky sap sinks down within

We are here

somewhere in the middle

 

Dear Friends,

Michael Creber have been having so much fun at the Café Ça Va. I guess you could say that “The duo

that goes where no duo has gone before!” got a promotion.

We’ll be playing the next two Saturdays , October 18 and 25, instead of Fridays. You are so

warmly invited to join us at this softly sparkling venue, with all the earthly comforts you could possibly

want. Thank you for being you 😉 Thank you for your shining faces! Also this weekend some wonderful

news; scratch DJ, band teacher and extraordinary pianist Jason de Couto will be joining me on the

piano. You can count on an evening filled with magic, mystery, and wit. Come and see us in real life (he’s

much larger) 1860 Marine Drive, across from west van florist. 8:30 – 11pm reservations 604 – 925-

2503, or just drop by 🙂

http://www.cafecava.ca

 

Jason De Couto

Jason De Couto

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a hush of cool rivulets brings a sigh of satisfaction over the land

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rain

 

 

Let the rain fall…

                              let it fall…

                                                   let it fall…

                             

 

                             

                           up                 

              reach

      you

as                                              and catch it in your ready hands

 

Open your mouth and taste it

clear and cool on your human tongue

dance round and round in delight like a giggling child

 

Let it rain…

                        let it fall… 

                                                 let it simply fall…

                                              

let it sink into you and disappear

bringing new life

clearing a new path

This streaming hush of cool rivulets

This sombre sweetening

That cools your fevers

and brings a sigh of satisfaction wide over the land.

 

 

H.Burke Sept.2. 2014