Passages: Remembering my father

On Monday morning this week, we said our final good byes to our beloved father, Bill de Alva.  We'd spent the last 11 days in a vigil by his bedside in the ICU - a heart-rending and rich time to be together. I'll carry memories of that time, of the stories shared, of the occasional smiles Dad had in response to the gathering of up to 25 family and friends that gathered around him.  Next week, we will gather again, to celebrate his life and memory.

(The photo shows four of my siblings when we were gathered together with him. From the left - brother Bill, John, me (Marti), Dad, and my sister Susana. Missing from this photo is my brother Paul.

In 2008, I did a StoryCorps interview with Dad, which if I can - I'd like to post here.  Hearing his voice and stories will be a treasured way of keeping him close.  (Hoping the uploader will accept an audio file in place of a video file.  Have not done this before....)

As it turns out, I've not been able to successfully get this interview uploaded.  If I find a way to add it later, I will.  In any case, I will be posting other memories as I go....

My brother Bill found a way to post the interview so that it can be listened to online at this link:

StoryCorps Interview of Bill de Alva Sr., by daughter Marti de Alva in 2008

Returning Song

white edges begin

to recede, days grow longer

robins' song is heard

Haiku Bones: 'Radiant'

After a very long absence......

Between showers, bare

feet in the grass, light dances

tiny miracles

Haiku Bones: 'Uncanny'

Contemplating the alchemy of inspiration and creativity...

Called out of time and 

memory, lines rise up and

spill across the page

 
www.haikubones.com

Inner Voice

"At the still point of the turning world.
Neither flesh nor fleshless;

Neither from nor towards; at the still point,

there the dance is,

But neither arrest nor movement.

And do not call it fixity,

Where past and future are gathered.

Neither movement from nor towards,

Neither ascent nor decline.

Except for the point, the still point,

There would be no dance, and there is only the dance."

TS Eliot, 'Burnt Norton'

I love the 'Inner Voice" prompt from OSI this week. One way I pay attention to my own 'inner voice' is by noticing what catches my attention in a certain way -- a scene that causes me to draw in my breath, a poem that lifts off the page. Experiences that catch the soul's attention, and stimulates an inner response, like a wind chime to a breeze....

My offering this week is not my own writing, but a favorite poem excerpt by TS Eliot, paired with a photo ('haiga') I titled, "Still Point'. This image is of one of my 'singing trees', -- a birch that treated me to seasons of birds, light, and leaf shadows that danced on my kitchen table. One foggy, wintry day, as the sun began to break through, illuminating the ice on the branches & leftover leaves (that 'forgot' to fall), I recorded this scene.

Saving Luna

This film by the husband - wife film makers Mike Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm is currently at the Cannes Film Festival.  This is an extraordinary story of a killer whale unmistakably reaching out to humans for companionship and...?, as well as the passionate responses it provoked from the people it encountered.  The film has received an impressive number of awards already, is now poised for its next breakthrough.  

You can view a clip here:  http://www.savingluna.com/

You are also encouraged to look at the Cannes Film Festival site, and leave any comments about the film, or your interest in seeing it: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Dispatch-From-Cannes.html

OSI - Prompt #59: Live Water

spilling down the canyon
through beavers' dam, tumbling down
over rocks and stones
into quiet pools
where trout linger,
huddled 'neath
birch roots, pouring out
in this gentle creek
where I sit, cooling my feet
listening to its song