1. |
Winter's Coming (poem)
00:27
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I stand at the window,
myself, the music
and the snow
caught up in whirling eddies
round
and round.
I lean forward, warm skin against cold glass,
and listen to the ice crack
in the back of my head.
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2. |
Deriva
03:33
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3. |
Pompeya
02:40
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4. |
Variación
04:50
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5. |
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“I have been looking for Tina.
Have you seen her?” I want to ask
But the words
just won’t
come out
I think,
she went to that city with ashes on her lips
a firebrand scar of memory;
her father, beaten to death.
And I return again to the image of a girl
with her head half-shaved like mine.
Tina
dancing in the red dresses
on the trees at Bloor and Brunswick.
And they tell me it happened again.
Did you know, they say,
that the defense said
it was normal to throw things
at Indigenous people?
Normal to throw a trailer hitch
at a woman
walking?
“I have been thinking of Barbara
Did you know her?” I want to ask
But the words
just don’t
come out.
And yesterday, the student
who writes with casual hate
that the reserve is just like a zoo for people.
For Indians, he said, who don’t pay taxes.
And I want to teach about reading pain in ways
that have not yet been colonized by their textbooks.
And I wonder,
if some poet in Saint-Charles Borromee
had sung some nurses into witnessing Truth,
if Joyce Echaquan would still rise
from that sun-drenched rock
to embrace her children’s children.
And I have been looking
for Tina Fontaine, and Barbara Kentner,
and Joyce Echaquan.
And for the words
that will come
out.
Warriors, with the stars in your night-sky hair
You walk in the blood
of my song.
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6. |
The Corner
02:40
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Friend,
I have come to the city
with ashes on my lips
seething rage devours
hunger rips.
Forgotten by the corner,
I shake my cup this hour
your laughter a reminder
of the broken dreams of a tomorrow
of streets that once had seemed to narrow
the world receding in the echo
of your voice…
Friend,
I crumbled all those dreams
to sparrows on this street
my life tears at the seams
spills at your feet.
As night calls in the deep
your window steals my sleep
the past begins to reap
a bitter mockery of all my sorrow
a fate like death that seems to follow
the promise in the fading echo
of your voice…
Tell me,
as snowflakes gather on my cheek
tell me,
as ice turns into sleet
tell me,
what broken promise did I keep
tell me,
what angel haunts the deep.
Friend,
I have come to the city
with ashes on my lips
seething rage devours
hunger rips.
I crumbled all those dreams
to sparrows on this street
my life tears at the seams
spills at your feet.
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7. |
Fuimos
04:52
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8. |
If Not Today
03:25
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As night breaks in my glass
As light is clear and still
As fading shadows stretch
The hours that only dreams should fill
You sigh, and mumble in your sleep
Your fist against your cheek
Your kiss, a stolen mem’ry from the deep
Your hope, our last defeat.
If I should lose my way
This fateful day
Caught in this swirling tide
If I should ever leave your side
If I am torn away
Believe, in every waking day
You are my prayer
You are my breath
You are my song
And if this night must end
Believe, we had it all.
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9. |
YYZ
05:58
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10. |
El Adiós
04:06
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11. |
Charrúa
02:26
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12. |
The Dance (poem)
02:38
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As dusk turns
in the assurance
of arrowing geese
heading north over the water,
I have arrived intact,
ready to move forward
a stumbling step
in this dance.
As these rowdy sentinels
of winter havoc homewards
to warmth, and nests
of ancestral memory,
I stand before the evening
scathed and ready,
the prayer of a single heartbeat
on my lips.
In this place that has called me home
let me remember
the drop of hope that slid
from the dish with one spoon
into my waiting heart.
Let me resonate in hollow roundness
to hold the promise of this day
as it has been set before me.
Let me remember the mothers of
the Wendat, let me listen for their lullaby,
let me call back the true name
of my street from the Anishnaabe,
let me gaze in awe at the stars
of the Haudenosaunee
and remember the open hand
of the Mississaugas of the Credit
whose grace
was dishonoured by the lie
upon lie, upon
lie
of the colonizer.
And in the ringing laughter
of our daughters,
let me remember to seek justice
for every lost sister,
for every lost child.
As winters slips
before us
I hold steady
in human remaining,
just a traveller now
on this solitary shore
one step in the dance,
a breath,
and ripples leave the water's edge.
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Solidaridad Toronto, Ontario
Solidaridad was created by Aparna Halpé to create performance opportunities for marginalized tango musicians. We are the only all-woman tango orchestra in North America. Solidaridad quickly garnered international recognition with our project “Sos Lo Más”, which brings classic tangos to a virtual world. We are funded by the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. ... more
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