Thank you for the warm thoughts and wishes for my journey into the political end of things on beautiful Bowen Island. As many of you know, I have been "playing in the mud" for many years as an environmental activist in B.C. . For me, G-d's presence is most felt in the presence of trees. That's really what it's about for me. Bowen Island, like many of the Gulf islands, has had its share of bad decisions, poor planning, and environmental negligence and I simply couldn't carry on anymore as if nothing was wrong.... hence, the poet now has a seat on council... (all advice and words of wisdom are welcome!)

The poem that led me to this moment was written a few weeks before the election nominations opened and since some of you have asked, here it is...

B'Shalom,

kol tov,

lisa

A singular life

Sometimes when the moon swells beyond expectation

oozes white heat

she has the urge to get up from her dinner

turn from the clanking forks, glasses,

chatter, multiplicity

and make her way outside

without explanation.

She remembers a ravine in the calling

forest, hears the trickling water over

intertwined roots and stones

a birth canal teeming with movement,

stillness, eruptions.

She wants to enter the dark womb

make love to that which makes the water flow

let herself bleed into a singular life

bones disintegrating

inside merging with outside

no borders

no form

only song.

In the beginning

there was only song.

But the house is on fire

and the morning is crying.

She unwraps herself

from the moon's embrace

not now,

not today,

promises to return

when the work is done.

(lisa shatzky, 2005)

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