Alone on New Years

I try and try but cannot sleep
The thoughts of you straight back will creep
It’s lost our love, our love’s not right!
So I’ll be alone tonight

Amongst the people
Crossing paths
Wearing faces
Like a mask

Look into
Their great abyss
Which looks straight back
and gives a kiss

Meeting at
That very hour that
Serves for when
Our love went sour

Since it’s so
That every moment
I can’t help but think of you.

Light the candle
Hope it lasts
New years begun
A year now passed

But in my eyes
I see again
Those same sad thoughts
Pain makes us men

Sad because the happy’s gone
Gone with all my fun
I used to be a brighter man
But now I want a gun

Looking back
I’d change no thing
But search for something
New to sing

Changing tunes
Is hard at first
But once you taste
You start to thirst

Not unlike
re-finding youth
You give your
old age a new boost

Learn to feel
And to forget
Let go the ‘stop’
Bring back the ‘let’

Different faces, places, charm
Finding that it’s difficult
Trying out whatever goes
Try to avoid the harm

To be me is strange itself
It’s like I’ve taken a hot bath
And being used to having you
I come out with missing half

You can’t help but reminisce
Half a year was spent on this
Times we laughed and cried and hurt
My heart feels choked inside my shirt

Please come here, commemorate
My soul feels just like two flood gates
I feel lonely, let me hold
No let me kiss, let me be bold

No man can ever hold back time
Nor should he ever want to
So as the time progresses on
Relationships will slip through

As the time comes crashing down
It frees us from its cost
But I will be alone tonight
Because my love is lost

©Barrett Cressman 2007

Poetry

Deck the Halls

"Customer Contact Centre, *cough* *cough* how may I *cough* help you?"

The frankest answer would be: "Get over your cold!"

I work in a shared cubicle, where virus thrive off of computer keys, desk tops and telephone surfaces. The sounds around me are equally...phlegmy.

So I've been packing my pockets with cough candies and hoping for the best.

Stephen Sellout

This was avaaz.org's ad that was printed in Canadian papers on December 14th, the last day of the UN Bali Summit on Climate Change.

Getting Your Roast On

With all the snow and holiday hoopla, it might be difficult to focus on anything other than what to stuff your stocking with. But let us remember that life isn't all chestnuts roasting on a an open fire. Our planet is in danger of getting roasted out of space!

Deal or No Deal?

Imagine the world as a mystery suitcase. It's not. We know what we put into it.

The UN Bali Summit on Climate change last week seemed to be moving slowly but progressively towards some specific targets. Not surprisingly, the US was undermining those talks by blocking the conference. Then Canada (WHO SIGNED THE KYOTO PROTOCOL!!!), with just a few days to go, used that as an excuse to block other Kyoto countries from moving on, arguing that a deal without the US was no deal at all.

Can't Take My Eyes Off of You

That's why we can't take our eyes off our dear leaders or what they are doing. When Stephen Harper was elected as prime minister of Canada, he promised to make politics less corrupt and more transparent. Well, now we have to stick it to him if we expect him to represent our interests, not just the interest of the powers that be and corporate cozeners.

Luckily, outraged protesters managed to pressure Stephen Harper to eventually go with the consensus to reduce carbon emissions by 20-40% by 2020. The US also finally caved.

It is long way from specific binding targets but it does show that we, the people, still have some power over our politicians.

There's something wrong with Canada but it's not our belief in the purpose of the Kyoto Protocol.

We can't stay silent or else that belief will never translate into action, which is what the world needs more now than ever.

Environment

Death of a Furnace and The Big Bad Frost

Sit down children! Come round and let me melt the snow off your collar with a little tale:

Once upon a time there was a valiant old furnace. It burned day and night to warm the hearts and minds of its inhabitants. But the inhabitants were busy playing their instruments, having parties and messing up the house. They didn't have time to think about rising gas prices. They didn't have time to thank the furnace. They didn't even have time to fix a window that was broken! And it was winter time! They took the valiant old furnace for granted while its heat was being constantly wasted. Still, it kept the house as heated as it could, as a good furnace should.

Then the big bad frost came and things weren't the same but the furnace was only more inflamed with passion! It pumped and it pumped to protect its little inhabitants from the cold. However, when the furnace wasn't looking, the big bad frost got wind of the furnace's efforts, sneaked up behind the furnace and blew its pilot light right out! What could be worse? Try as it might, the furnace could not get a single spark of energy to rejuvenate its former fieriness.

It would be nice to be here right now.

Remember how in Season Pangs I suggested that people need spirit to get through this season, especially if say, their furnace were to break down in minus 15 degree weather? Well, it seems I've really jinxed myself because MY FURNACE HAS BROKEN DOWN! Meanwhile, it's simply a lucky coincidence that this comes at a time when I have a broken window and when the wind chill makes the cold even colder than minus 15.

So I bet you can guess that I'm not lazing around in my Hawaiian T-shirt.

The repairman will be by shortly to confirm that the pilot light is out, which apparently is normal considering the high winds that make it feel like it's minus 18 outside. Although I might be a master at hotwiring my thermostat with a paper clip, I'm not going to mess around with a machine that has the power to blow my house and I up. When the repairman comes, he will show the furnace the way, the truth and most importantly, the light, (aka a match to the pilot light), then my valiant old furnace will come back to life.

Meanwhile, I've been expressing my "spirit" by wearing my boots in the house, burning candles and watching my breath as I sip hot chocolate with marshmallows. I feel now as if I know what it is like to live in an igloo. The water in my toilet hasn't frozen yet though, which I take as a sign that maybe the spirit alone has enough in it to kindle a little bit of warmth.

When this is all over I'm going to hug my furnace.

Silly