Joy came to me in a dream with pen in hand.
She wrote and passed a folded note and waited
As all women do, leaning in for your answer,
Though they would swear they waited not at all.
Upon the note, a darting phrase: You must hold me
To have me. Without a word she turned and left,
For I knew not how to answer her strange riddle.
Days passed and ever in my mind her words turned,
And I upon them, my mood turning and all work grave,
Until I saw the fatal mistake, which all men learn too late:
Women ask no questions. They answer in quest.
A whisper came at once: why dream of me?
Todd Anderson (Stuff of the Rind, Sand and Sail, The Reluctant Prophet) writes the newsletter Mirth to share a behind-the-scenes look at his writing process as well as to offer readers the first fruits of his poetry and reflections. He grew up in the forests of small-town Ontario, contending against nature in all its beauty and harshness. His training as a literary scholar of Latin and English literature inflects his love of poignant turns of phrase, but it is the influence of his family and their myriad adventures together that infuses his story-telling and poetry with its substance and power. Todd lives and writes in Ottawa with his wife and six children. If you are interested in supporting Todd’s work, please follow the links below to donate or buy his books.
