Debbie's grandparents outside of their home on 40 Euclid.
Eating a pear reminds me of her: my grandmother half a century ago in her stalwart putty-grey brick house with the pear tree in the yard at 40 Euclid; the sticky trickle down the heel of my nine-year-old hand and onto my shorts recalled as if it were today.
My drooping hydrangeas remind me of her: brisk scissors in hand reaping huge white blooms for her kitchen table at six in the summer morning from tall, straight stalks.
The smell, too, of my husband’s beer evokes her neighbourhood drenched in the scent of Seagram’s two streets away; recalls how when we visited the fragrance of yeasty hops, familiar and constant, seeped into all our unconscious perception like a baptism.
Debbie Sawczak has been writing poetry since high school and is an admirer of Hopkins, Donne, and Kenyon. Her poems have appeared in such publications as Crux, Arc, Writual, the U.C. Review, and the McMaster Journal of Theology and Ministry; online at McMaster Divinity College's "Poems for Ephesians"; and in the anthologies Adam, Eve, and the Riders of the Apocalypse and In a Strange Land. She has also enjoyed exposure through many public readings, including the Eden Mills Writers' Festival, community events, coffee bars, church liturgies, and most recently the Neilson Park Creative Centre in collaboration with Fellowship Church in Etobicoke, ON. Debbie's work as a professional editor and former bookseller has given her additional pathways into the beloved and stimulating world of text. She is married and has three adult sons.
I have a dream about youin which you are sitting on a bench, your bench,the one you have always sat on,at some distance from the sea off Scotlandbut close enough to smell and hear it. Next to you on the bench are your things:your book, a pair of binoculars,a bacon sandwich because it is almost…
What are the poets trying to do when they write their poems? I don’t mean the poems that are composed for birthday or anniversary celebrations, nor the short verses written for Hallmark cards. I mean the carefully crafted pieces that appear in poetry journals in language that is cut so close to the bone that you find it almost impossible to flesh out the meaning. If we are to believe Christian Wiman – former editor of Poetry Magazine and now professor of faith and poetry at the Yale Divinity School – they are looking for God.
Picture a still, quiet, spacious church late in the evening. The chairs have been rearranged, making open spaces and clusters of seating. In the centre of the sanctuary, there is an arrangement of candles, their collected light drawing the eye. Some people are sitting quietly and others walk slowly through the space, stopping at an…
For this duet-themed column, I invited my daughter Isla to sit down with me. We’re both dual Canadian-British citizens. We talked about an image from Isla’s art portfolio, about exploring identity through art and the complexities of choosing how we express our senses of belonging. Isla: My high school art project focuses on my identity…
I love a good question mark. It was a dismal, late winter morning when I saw the sign outside the Museum for an art exhibition called The Rules of Art? As it had been a very long time since I’d visited a gallery and I had some time to myself that morning, I stepped inside,…
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A beautiful way to capture and preserve heartwarming memories.