3 am

The craziest thing. I am up late reading a book of various poetry. I read one poem , then I flip the page. The next poem is called "Poem to Be Read at 3 A.M." by Donald Justice. I laugh knowing its late, and look over at my alarm clock which reads 3:o2 am. (It really was only about 2:40, but I keep my alarm clock 25 minutes ahead to trick myself into thinking I have more time in the morning.) I happen across a poem meant to be read at 3 am, and it is basically, 3 am. The words even seem to be written for me as I sit upstairs in my bed.


Except the diner
On the outskirts
The town of Ladora
At 3 A.M.
Was dark but
For my headlights
And up in
One second-story room
A single light
Where someone
Was sick or
Perhaps reading
As I drove past
At seventy
Not thinking
This poem
Is for whoever
Has the light on


It was me! I have a light on, and I am reading. Was it you driving past at seventy?

Cirque Sublime? Cirque Sublame!

Its unfortunate, but it takes a lot to impress in this day and age. I had the privilege of attending the Cirque Sublime show at the Wesbild Centre tonight and while the athletes in the show were all very talented, for the most part the show just didn't impress. It truly is remarkable that these people can twist like pretzels and fold themselves like origami, but with all that we are exposed to today it just isn't enough to knock one's socks off. One person balancing two people above their head while standing on a small box just doesn't wow a crowd. It might be more impressive if the combined weight of the two didn't barely equal that of an average person. We as a society, myself included, have become desensitized to really great talent. Besides a person spinning around like a coin stretched out in a giant hula-hoop, we expect the acrobat to be juggling flaming swords and eating a taco at the same time. Some of the acts, while they probably took months to perfect, looked easy enough for anyone to do. Even I have experience jumping in a Jolly Jumper. In another act a girl was twisted up in a piece of fabric hanging from the ceiling. She started out near the top and was twisting herself up and then unravelling down in epileptic like movements, like a bug trapped in a spider's web. While that should have been enthralling enough, one finds themselves thinking, "It would have been better if she let herself drop a little faster." The last act was two men showing their strength by lifting themselves and each other and balancing in difficult positions. At one point one guy went from sitting to standing while the other was balanced on one hand on top of the first guy's head. That did cause my jaw to drop just a little bit. All in all, it was entertaining, but I found myself thinking, Is that it? It didn't help that we were sitting about half a kilometre away and I found myself wishing I owned a pair of those opera glasses. Maybe the show would have been better if the people on the stage didn't appear to only be about the size of ants.