Fogo Island
Artist in the wind and sea
Standing on the lower deck bow, the spray of the North Atlantic was cold but refreshing. It opened my mind and body to a new experience: an artist residency in Tilting Fogo Island, Newfoundland Labrador. Arriving, August 2022, this was a world barren but alive. It was home for 3 weeks. Late August it was cold and windy. The wind was constant. Its song was a welcome message. My brushes out.... It was time.
I wrote this poem on the last day on this subarctic perch in the sea. Substack was a vehicle to the rest of the world by way of podcasts every few days.
Fogo Island — An Ode To Time
Alighting on this island
Where the Beothuk fished
Roamed on the hunt
Here we are now
Hunting new ways
Singing new ideas
With tools to imagine
I stand with colours
Braced
Against an ocean wind
Mammoth rocks
Hard to my touch
Soft to my palette
Staring down time
Keefe stage (a stage is a building where cod are loaded from the fishing boats)
A red I don’t know
People of Fire Island
With stories to tell
Friendly waves and smiles
A new smile
Comes to this old face
This I take away
On wind and sea
A Reminder