PPS Poets

Hugh Heffner Day

It's so cold that the clouds
over my head have frozen;
Like the tree branches, the puddles,
my breath. Even the time has thickened for me
As I sit here at home.

I'm one-of-the-lucky-ones.
My work is not so vital that I can't overrule
What common sense dictates;
Work will have to wait.

I mean: what's the point of getting myself killed?
I wouldn't be much good to the world then.
And I wouldn't be able to play hooky;
Take a Hugh Heffner day...
Wear my pyjamas all day
And eat and read and watch TV in bed.

Copyright © Nov 28/06 Shelley Haggard.  Used with permission

A HAND OR WORD

I didn't know you then;
in your days of youth,
didn't have a hand or
word in the shaping of you.
Now that I've found you,
and found how I fit with you,
I've taken root with you:
I will be your present
and your future truth.

You bend to your task
of re-shaping to me
with a vitality I've not often seen.
Everyone knows
that you flex more than me.
But you'll say it's what
you were born to do;
and who am --
the recipient -- to argue with you.

In time our shapes
will be found aligned;
entwined as the deep roots
of the transplanted trees
we have moved around this property.
This little plot of land we've
had a hand and word in shaping
manifests the love we're making.

Copyright © 2006 Shelley Haggard.  Used with permission

Shelley Haggard was born and raised in Fort St. John, BC; has since spent 12 years on Vancouver Island and has resided in the lower mainland (Abbotsford and Mission) for 6 years. She began writing at an early age. She is the mother of one grown child, her son Arlo. Her main creative support comes via her son and her mate Steve, and the MSA Poets Potpourri Society.

She had a poem 'If' published by The Poetry Institute of Canada in a 1995 anthology named Reflections by Midnight. Since moving to the mainland she has begun to submit more of her writing and has experienced some success. In 2002 she took an E-Commerce business Program with Sprott-Shaw Community College and learned much about marketing, selling and public speaking. She attended a poetry.com and ISP convention in Los Angeles in November 2002 and won second prize for her poem 'Depressionville Hotel'. She has had a poem, 'Bamboo Speak' published by Trevor Corolon of the University College of the Fraser Valley, in a project called: Down in the Valley: An Anthology of Writing From the Fraser Valley. She won the spring poetry contest in the 2005 issue of 'the rag': a progressive women's magazine with circulation from Vancouver to Agassiz with her poem 'Better Than'. She has had two poems featured on the Autumn Brook Gallery website and a poem accepted by the emagazine Descending Darkness. A couple of her poems were published in the group's 2006 Anthology Poetic Spirits of the Valley. Her poem 'The Tap' was turned into a skit by the Abbotsford Children's Theatre for the 2006 Abbotsford Arty Awards and resurrected in 2008 for the opening of the new art centre in Abbotsford, The Reach. In 2008 she won second place in the Elora Writer's Festival Writing Competition with her poem 'Don't Make Words You Don't Want to Eat' and has had several honourable mentions. Three upcoming antholigies will be featuring her poetry. She has been preparing a book of poetry for publication. She has video poems at www.youtube.com/shelleyhaggardpoems and interviews online at www.blogtalkradio.com/omegadawn

Shelley was secretary of the MSA PPS for four years, was the event coordinator for the Blue Moon Reading Series for several years, and helped Randy Burt create this website. She was the webminder from fall 2007 to fall 2008. Shelley's other interests include photography and water-colour painting. She works as a renovator and house painter.

Books & Stuff