Holding cocktails, smiling and mingling
across from me and in the little corners
of this reading room
before the launch begins,
are some of the people who most know
all that burns and cools
within me
past and present
and who will likely endure
my deepest reactions
to future experiences


as we socialize with our local literary circles
and some national representatives
in a small, Hansard-roofed bookstore
in the Glebe on a warm May Ottawa evening,
we familiars
may only nod and wink at one another
through the crowd right now

but I stand here remembering
how much of me, naked, they have witnessed
and heard me pour out
sometimes in a voice shaking with the closeness
to my soul of the topic
other times drawing out a common laughter
during months and years of workshops,
my colleagues and my teachers
as I in turn, have of them
and how strange that this is
a norm for us, a given

I observe how innate
to the the writing life
are interconnection, revelation and trust

05/29/2005