nebulaflash's VirtualTourist Home Page

Just wanted to dedicate this page to my mother who passed away recently. She inspired me to observe the world and to appreciate beauty.

The Matsqui Trail by the Fraser River is part of the Trans Canada trail that will allow you to walk from the west coast to the east. Not sure whether all the links are complete yet, but it would take a long time to walk across Canada.

To get to Matsqui Trail - if you're travelling east on Highway 1 from Vancouver, you exit on the Mission Abbotsford 11 exit. Travel north and follow the signs to Highway 11, Mission. When you get to traffic lights at Harris Road, turn left and then right at the next lights. You will be driving through Matsqui Village. Keep travelling north on this road until you get to the end of the road and you can turn left or right to find parking. You can walk east or west.

For more information on the Trans Canada Trail visit www.trailsbc.ca/southwest_region/abbotsford.asp

This path is a circle
around a lake
smaller now than it was.

The path is identifiable
a margin between elders
a way worn by shoes.

The lake is something else
another picture.

It may seem that habits, like mountains, never change
that injustice is embedded like a fossil in the rock
that a single lifetime is too short
and those who dare to challenge are too few.

We have no way of measuring how our visions
affect the unfolding drama while we live
and after we die.

We have no way of knowing what this place
would be like if we weren't here.

So when overwhelmed by structures that came before
remember even mountains become tiny grains of sand.

Our influence is limited by time
but while we live we can choose
how to walk a way that outlives our hunger.

Come now and place your pebbles in this vessel
pour them into the river where the current
will take them to their next destination.

Trust the river. Trust the current.
Trust these pebbles to find their way
and one day they will turn into sand.

Some other fingers may run through the grains
or other feet leave their prints.
It's not for us to know what world these stones will inherit
only to play our part in their journey.

It looks calm but stratas of culture
beneath the surface fights
for a little light.

Silence hears them.
The muddy bottom knows
the struggle hidden from me
as though I am not ready
to be taken into their confidence.

Some mute green line
says "Wait".

I want gold trees to stay all year
but if they did, the buds of spring
would never appear

a leaf near death is more precious
than its colour.

The sun says stop.
Today is not the same as tomorrow.
Clouds can't be held accountable
for the patterns in your eyes.
They did not rehearse.
Neither did the thin branches.

The sun says stop because
it can't.

For anyone who is interested in the poem that follows my travel motto "love is the ultimate anarchy", go to www.nthposition.com and key in the phrase in quotes and you should find it. While there look at the thoughtful opinions and other poetry.