The innie remains an innie (so far) although I am encountering depths of my belly button I’ve never seen before, my feet are swollen beyond belief, and I officially stopped wearing my wedding band as of yesterday when my mother-in-law had to wrench the piece of metal over my knuckle with dish soap and a lever made of dental floss. 

On the pregnancy note, I bring you this poem (of sorts) written in month three:

I am eating convulsively, though I find it repulsive.
It’s all I can do to sleep.
My boobs keep growing
and my nipples are SO sensitive
I scream in the shower
cowering in the corner –
hiding my chest away from
the faucet.

Yes. I am pregnant.

Calling all poets: a poetry competition from our friends at Comment magazine.

Comment magazine (www.cardus.ca/comment) invites poets to submit contributions in the form of a rondeau suitable for publication in our September print issue. This will be our fourth annual “Making the Most of College” issue, and the submitted poems should in some way be connected with that theme, or with the beginning of the school year. Our poetry judges will select three of the submitted rondeaux for publication and offer pre-publication editorial advice to the poets. One of the selected rondeaux will be published on the first page of the September issue, and its poet awarded a prize of CDN $50. Two other winners will be published elsewhere in the magazine. Email submissions or questions to dpostma@cardus.ca by June 15, 2009.

“There is so much to hope for. It’s our job to see everything, to point to the beauty and ruin around us. We are not afraid. Whatever falls from the sky will feed us, and we won’t come down until no one is hungry.”

- From Victoria Poet Laureate Linda Roger’s inaugural poem, Going Up

Michael and I have stolen away to Bowen Island to house-sit for a couple of weeks.

Our friends, the Cowpers, are away in Africa — first landing in Swaziland to tour Bulembu (an incredible self-sustaining community founded by Vancouver’s Volker Wagner, and led, in large part, by our good friend Jamie Woller. We just had the opportunity to visit with Jamie over a few days, at the To Change the World Emerging Leaders Summit, presented by Cardus, in Ottawa.) Then the Cowpers travel to South Africa and, finally Namibia.

People ask us why we’re here on the island, (it’s definitely not convenient.) But really nothing can capture our sentiments other than experience (right, Avital? right, Jenn?)

Waking to waves washing up on the shoreline, staring through forested hills as I wile away at the computer, ending our days by candlelight — well, those are a few of the reasons, for sure.

Here’s the view from dinner Monday night:

Do you see what I mean? ;)

Also, as a writer, I find new places and experiences inspiring. Travel, for me, is renewing. These experiences give new breadth to my work, spurring ideas, poems, articles, that wouldn’t have been there otherwise. For some, this is hard to understand, but for me, it is a way of life.

–

Tomorrow I will post a Bowen poem. They’ve been spilling out since we arrived Sunday. The first of many, I hope.