Celebrating Spring: A Poetry Showcase at VPL

Hi Dear Readers,


I’ll try to do better than that at my poetic maiden voyage April 1. Seriously though. Spring is going beserk without much coaxing from the weather at all. Yet there is…more light. Let’s move towards it!


I’ll be reading selections from the collection I’m working towards entitled “Travelogue.” Come on by! there will be four readers. The Montalbano Room, 8th floor. 6:30-8pm. I would leuuuv to see you there!

May you have a Spring in your step, dear reader.

The Poetess of Lost Lagoon*

*(which is not lost – it’s right there on the map!)

(Artist: Simone Viegas, Portugal )


Click here for the full event details!

August is the Ripest Month🍓🍑🍇🍋🍉🥭🫐🍒

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

Bloggity Blog

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!

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 HiranoI 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