Posts in PAST ISSUES

The poet in me

can see you writing me

saying

I was afraid

I ran away

I’m sorry

I told you I usually run away, do you remember?

And I would

And I would forgive you with urgency

for it’s the most right

right has ever felt

so far

and I have ran from love more times than I would like to admit

I can see myself landing in Puerta Vallarta

in two weeks

with brown and blonde curls as big as the Indian Ocean

toppling over one another with excitement to see you

I can feel the trickle of sweat

Under a white shirt that is unbuttoned three times

bellowing in the breeze

that comes when you’re a poet and can paint it all at your palms

I can see you

and your glacier blues

waiting for me

there

you’re wearing that light blue shirt

and you are different but the same

hearts don’t age like cheese or nice wine

but we do

I can see myself laughing with your parents

your dad brushing the grey of his hair

your mother likes me

all mothers like me

I have a kind heart

you do too

I see us on airplanes

packing toothbrushes and laptops

telephone calls late at night when we are gone

we may go places

but it doesn’t

it

won’t

for when it is real

it vibrates and humms quietly in the night

through the days

over oceans and mountains and cities blowing black fog into the trees

Yes, I’m going there

I can see us on a small yellow float plane flying over the green and Blues

there’s a yellow large mop of a dog with a rusted collar

a blue fish beside some red fins

perhaps a fishing rod

I’ve never been fishing you know

My fingers loosely hold yours

I can see us sleeping in a green tent

in Fryatt valley

cold toes pressed against your legs

I would like to take you there

I would like to show you Canada some day

not right now

you’re not ready

but someday I would like to show you all kinds of things

drink coffee in a blue tin can and shower in the yellow and pink limestone waterfall

we will need to hoist our food up every night into a tree

for bears and Cougars

you’d like that

I can see you chopping wood

through a window that has seen twenty years of rain

I can see a wool grey blanket and a roaring fire

I can see my heart burning beside it

for you light a fire in me

I can see the back of your blonde head on a white pillow underneath a bug net beside me

I can feel the weight of your arm as you wake up and pull me inside you

I can even see you sitting next to me

on this blue seat

today

In 32 F

passing by the turquoise greens of Miami

watching white clouds and a world pass by

we would drink black coffee

and I would massage your right hand

that you hurt

as you are as hard on your body

as this is on my heart

the poet in me can see all of these things

for I have the imagination of Picasso and the fingers of Frida

I can go anywhere with my heart and these words

it is why I breathe

but you are right

there is only black coffee

and I am alone

missing you foolishly and sweetly

writing this poem.

Today we officially launch Issue Number 9 on the topic of Love. Of all the issues we have worked on this one has been the most challenging. Love is not straight forward. It’s contradictory and its definition is amorphous. There are also many types of love: love between two people, parental love, love of place, of friends, pets, sports, objects…oneself.

At first, the topic of love felt like a departure from the more pressing global issues we have been focused on for the past six years, but we soon discovered that at the root of both conflict and the potential for a resolution, is love. When we love someone or something so much we can also be afraid of losing them. Fear can drive people to do desperate acts. Love of land can lead to hating those who might destroy or steal it. The absence of love can lead to a world where unfathomable acts of violence take place in each moment – the world we presently live.

Yet love is sublime. It has the power to fill us with the most intense feelings of joy. It calls out from within us our very best. It gives us the strength when we find ourselves facing what others might see as impossible. Love is a great connector, bringing together people from all backgrounds and beliefs and is a healing agent throughout the world.

In Issue Number 9 we will embark on a journey together to get to the very heart of love. Along the way we will meet love in its many forms. This is our first issue open to our readers. We want to hear your stories and share them. This is our call to love. If you have a love story you want to share you can send it to us or post it directly to our Facebook Page. You can also join our movement on Instagram by posting images to #ExperimentswithLove. From the submissions we receive we will be choosing stories that stand out to share here on RedFlag.org and in our upcoming print edition.

The cover of Issue Number 9 has been in our files for several years. We knew the moment we saw it that it would be the cover for our Love Issue. It’s an image by photographer Rich Lam taken during the riots that broke out after the 2011 Stanley Cup in Vancouver. The couple in the photo are Scott Jones and Alexandra Thomas. They came to the scene of the riot out of curiosity and soon found themselves in the middle of stampeding fans and armed police. Alexandra was knocked down and Scott leaned down to help her up. Before rising he gave her a kiss. The image went viral and immortalized them as the “kissing couple”. The almost theatrical juxtaposition became a meme for “Love not War”. The couple appear to be unaware of the violence around them, but even with the backstory revealed there’s still great power in their choice to take a pause for love and tenderness when violence and chaos were forcing them literally to the ground.

There is a world where we can stand up together in the face of all that we perceive as “war” and choose love. We are going on that journey. Are you ready?