Golden-crowned Kinglet

 

Such tiny head to hold a crown –

how was your coronation?

I hope you deigned to settle down

during the grand occasion.

Your fleeting visits come in spring –

and loyal subjects greet you.

In fall you're once again passing

although we wish to keep you.

And so, my little feathered king,

long may your reign continue.

Noblesse oblige is what you bring –

this virtue lies within you.

2021

(from the book Longing For The Light by Doris Potter)

© Doris Potter

Return of the Red-winged Blackbirds

 

With only remnants left of snow,

And cold and frost now letting go,

There comes my truest sign of spring

With scarlet epauletted wing.

His flash of red is nature's beacon

To say that winter's grip will weaken.

And when the air fills with his song

Of cheering notes so rich and strong,

I know that spring will not be long.

2019

(from the book Discoveries In The Dark by Doris Potter)

© Doris Potter

A Vegan's Lament

How can long-time animal activists fail

to see that consistency must prevail?

Not only the steer or broiler 

suffers under the knife.

The dairy cow and laying hen

suffer throughout their longer life ...

only to meet the same blade.

Pictures flash in graphic display

on computer screens, day by day.

Atrocities are not in doubt –

no, that secret's out.

But sadly ...

convenience trumps conscience;

preferences trump principles.

Those whose eyes have seen,

whose ears have heard, 

and yet can turn away

for a good night's sleep

with an egg and dairy meal 

the very next day,

fail in a most profound way.

2018

(from the book Discoveries In The Dark by Doris Potter)

© Doris Potter

Moon Bond

 

The moon – 

ever changing yet ever constant.

The overlooking mother.

In darkest sky is when her glow

is brightest on the earth below.

Moods respond to cyclic phases.

Blood currents shift in ebb and flow.

Tidal powers from long ago.

The moon – 

which drew me from my mother's womb,

now re-unites us in the night.

In darkest sky she'll always shine

upon my mother's face and mine.

And though apart, we are as one

where space and time just fall away.

And even when the night is done,

the comfort lingers all the day.

Note: after moving to British Columbia, at the end of each phone call with my mother she would say, "Ok ... now after we hang up, go look at the moon and I will too.  We will both be seeing it at the same time".

(From the book Discoveries In The Dark by Doris Potter)

© Doris Potter

Misassembly

 

Always follow assembly instructions carefully!

International Women's Day 2023 Let's Be Radical

 (This is best viewed on a computer)

I received the following from Vicki Van Linden, Board Member of Animal Alliance of Canada in an email today and was struck by the power of this woman's arguments and the poetry of her words.  I received permission to reproduce it here.

International Women’s Day is here again. And again, we see that women around the world are under threat. Women are still exploited, trafficked, abused, and denied basic human rights in too many nations. Even in westernized nations like our own, women are still underpaid, subjected to violence, and under-represented in positions of power.   There has been progress, but not nearly enough. And as we see unfolding in the United States, hard-won progress can be lost, far more easily than we might have imagined. This is what it means to be vulnerable. This is what it means to be impacted by political and economic systems that have been designed to favour groups that have been traditionally more powerful, more privileged.   Now, let’s consider the plight of the most vulnerable of beings, non-human animals. Beings who can never advocate for themselves. Can never march on Parliament. Can never go on strike. Can never vote.   Let’s consider too the extra burden of being a female animal who is exploited and confined in the animal agriculture industry. All animals suffer in animal agriculture, but surely female animals suffer more. It’s hens who are confined in cages so that their eggs can be sold to humans. It’s cows who are used in the dairy industry so that the milk that should nurture their own young is sold to humans. It’s mother pigs who endure the cruel confinement of gestation and farrowing crates so that the flesh of their babies can be sold to humans. We can widen our circle of compassion every day, including International Women’s Day, to include female animals who endure exploitation because of their reproductive abilities. It takes nothing away from women, does not lessen our resolve to stand by our own human sisters, to include these other female beings in our advocacy and care. Recognizing and acting to end the suffering of others draws on our compassion, enhances our activism, strengthens our commitment to promote equity, and ultimately makes the world a better place for all. We can work for the liberation of all animals while we support the full emancipation of human persons, regardless of gender. We can commit ourselves to working toward equity for all humans as well as all non-humans. We can ‘walk and chew gum’ in our activism. The complete liberation of all animals is considered radical by people engaged in animal-using industries. The liberation of animals is too radical for some, and certainly not easy to achieve. But every progressive social movement has been considered too radical. Every social movement that sought to advance equity aroused anger, even revulsion, in the early stages of its development.   International Women’s Day has its roots in the socialist movement of the early twentieth century in the United States. According to an article in National Geographic, a Russian refugee, labour organizer, and member of the Socialist Party of America named Theresa Malkiel, declared the first ‘National Women’s Day’ in 1909. European socialists later embraced the idea, and ‘International Women’s Day’ was born. In 1917, during World War I, Russian women marked International Women’s Day by marching to oppose Russia’s participation in the war, and to protest the shortage of food. The women’s march inspired men to join, and a massive workers’ strike soon followed. This women’s march is seen by many historians as the beginning of the Russian Revolution. Revolution. Socialism. These are radical roots indeed. Those of us who are women owe the improved status that we do enjoy to the work of people like Theresa Malkiel. We owe our very ability to vote to the suffragettes who endured persecution so that women could participate in electoral politics. We owe our improved opportunities to women who were often reviled and treated as unnatural aberrations in the earlier stages of the Women’s Movement of the twentieth century. These women were radical. And they were mocked and persecuted for being so.   We, too, can be radical. We can state with bravery that we want nothing less than the complete liberation of our fellow sentient beings, the non-human animals who have inherent value as independent beings whose lives belong to themselves. I’m inviting you to be radical with us. Let’s resolve to do all we can to drive our movement for animals forward, to work for nothing less than their complete liberation. Let’s share a day that is dedicated to human women, and fully embrace working for our sisters, and ourselves, and also embrace our non-human fellow beings within our circle of compassion. Through my involvement with Animal Alliance of Canada, I have seen again and again that it is financial interests that so often work against animals. Hunting generates license fees for provincial governments, and profit for commercial businesses. Animal research is used by manufacturers of products to generate wealth. Animal agriculture uses the very bodies of animals as units of profit. Exploitation is profitable. But exploitation causes suffering. So, let’s be radical and work toward a world where vulnerable beings, human and non-human, are no longer exploited. Is such a compassionate world possible? I can’t say. But I do say with certainty that our world can be better. And that in itself is a radical, and worthy, idea.

Night Air

The perfumed night air is heavy with mystery and promise.

I inhale its fragrance deeply into my lungs as if to fill my

soul with its essence.

What stirrings are these?

Haloed clouds drift by the moon and I am transfixed.

It is a delicious loneness –

not a loneliness of despair or disconnection –

but a loneness, a oneness

where the universe is drawn inside me

until my body contains it all.

All the stars, the seas,

and the long stretching land –

nothing remains apart.

The night air,

with all its dark and lofty secrets,

with all its heady magic,

makes this be.

1996

(from the book Discoveries In The Dark by Doris Potter)

© Doris Potter