News, worries and gratitude
“In my professional experience, I’ve never seen anything like it,” the vet on Pender Island told me. He was talking about the two lumps on Kira’s neck, one on top of the other. They are not benign. I’d be grateful if you’d send good thoughts, my friends. Or prayer or healing energy, whatever you want to call it. Love is a beautifully potent force. Kira has surgery on November 1. That itself is a miracle, getting in so quickly.
I’m not going to write any more about this now; I’ll dissolve into tears.
In the great scope of things, wars, famines and the devastation we see in the environment around the world, it’s hard to keep a sense of hope. Kira makes me laugh many times a day. She is mainly beautifully behaved (trained) but she can be stubborn and self-willed. She’s also a thoroughly delightful companion. Living by myself, I talk a lot to my dog; I’m sure no one else does this!
In book news, Sigrene’s Bargain with Odin, with Ianna Publications, is now going to come out in January, rather than the October date they had initially proposed. I’m good with that. It gives me longer to set up some readings.
This unique, epic poem explores little-known Norse mythology and pays special attention to form, sound, and imagery. Sigrene’s Bargain with Odin contemplates the age-old quandary of where our loyalties lie, and how to act with integrity to find peace in a troubled world.
“With the beauty and clarity of a fairy tale and the complexity of an ancient Norse legend, we share the tests a hero endures for love of a friend, and of a horse… This books shimmers in content, style and power.”
—Kate Braid, author of Inward to the Bones, co-author of In Fine Form: The Canadian Book of Form Poetry
Would any of you like to review the book? That would be great! Please email me your details and I’ll send them on to the publisher who’ll send you a copy. zoelandale(insert@)gmail.com
If any of you live in Vancouver, I’d love it if you’d come on Friday November 17 and be a friendly face in the audience at the South Granville Senior’s Centre, 1420 West 12th Avenue. The Centre is in an old church and gets rave reviews from the volunteers who work there.
Lunch is at 12:00 and the reading will start at 1:30. I’ll be reading from Orchid Heart Elegies, McGill-Queen’s Press, which the reviewer in Aqua magazine described as an extended love poem/conversation with my husband who, as many of you know, died suddenly. As well as people asking me questions afterward, I might have a few of my own for the audience.
I’m honoured to be the inaugural reader in what is going to be a series at the SGSC!
Oh, other good news. I discovered a great review online of Orchid Heart Elegies that my publisher was unaware of. Listen to this! “In a collection of astonishing poems, after Rilke's beautiful Duino Elegies, ten poems for the survival of his annihilated soul, Landale advises us to invite emptiness. Her lifeline is the phenomenal world and the elegies that mark the stations of grief are angel commentaries that make her soul walk tolerable. Elephants may weep, but humans may translate the wisdom of Angels into plainsong so that we can comfort one another with the greatest gift from our ancestors.” British Columbia Review
Hah. “In a collection of astonishing poems. . .” That’s something to marvel at when I wake up in the middle of the night.
Life goes on, bumpy, challenging, funny, with the occasional terrific meal to make me thankful. If we’re fortunate, we have friends and family to visit with. Kira had some wonderful times in the last few days with her Bernese puppy friend who weighs in at a hundred and twenty pounds. He’s only nine months old. The puppy was kind enough to bring my friend Diane with him, so she and I cooked for one another and told stories as we’ve done for decades. When we first met, she was on a sailboat and I was on a fishboat. Here we are, still sharing tea and tall tales! We also asked ourselves, Do we like the direction this narrative is going? How can we change it? How can we keep up hope?
The Bernese puppy brought a toy for Kira and they traded it back and forth.
How do you stay grateful? How do point your own narrative in the direction of hope?
Please give Kira a BIG HUG from me + you can count on this friendly face on the 17th.
Much love and many prayers coming your way, Zoe, and on to Kira. I laughed the first time Kira and I met. I had come for a visit--my first time meeting you too, I think, based on a recommendation from a mutual friend, "You'll really like her!" As I walked down your winding driveway, Kira came charging at me, stopped, rushed back to the deck, picked something up, and then bounded my way again, almost sliding to a halt at my feet before dropping this sad-looking, bedraggled, but obviously beloved, stuffed animal. She's a charmer!