Dark Matter: A Conversation through Dementia

September 3, 2013

in 2013-2014, Discussion Groups

Date & Time
Nov 21, 2013
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

 

Location
Vancouver Island Regional Library Gabriola Branch

Dark Matter: A conversation through dementia

A gathering where everyone present has valuable input:  not a lecture, not just a reading, but a discussion and an evolution of an idea and a process of expanding perspective.  General discussion will include much personal reflection about love, bereavement, and the dignity of expressing relationship through art.

Leanne McIntosh has been attempting, with language, to connect chronic disease and the health of the planet.  Thomas Berry writes of “wildness” as the wellspring of creativity and although he is referring to nature’s violent moments he does say, “This is the same inner tendency that evokes the insight of the poet, the skill of the artist, and the power of the shaman.”  He adds that an individual is not a victim, “but a participant in this wild event….”  Leanne sees chronic disease as a wild event and is attempting to participate creatively with the wildness.  She will read from her recently published book of poetry, Dark Matter, (Leaf Press) and from her more recent, unpublished work, Winter Heart.

The heart holds what the eye sees.  A socket of bone, a slant of light tipped off the rim of his glasses, his eyes an Arctic darkness where the faces of the dead are always beautiful, all sadness abandoned as if grief did not exist and yet, in the aurora’s green glow I draw close to my heart’s demand.  More, more.
                        winter moon
                        how long can it go on
                        spinning there
                                                from: Winter Heart

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