Cockburn new town Vancouver Montreal bicycle Archives

Pacing the Cage

Bruce Cockburn has written many brilliant songs, but the one that is on my mind tonight is “Pacing the Cage” (1996, The Charity of the Night). He captures humanity’s angst well. Who can’t relate to this song in some way? We long for something more than this cage in which we find ourselves; we’ve lived…

Chained to the Rhythm

I have a confession: I like one of Katy Perry’s songs. “Chained to the Rhythm” is her latest single and she debuted the song on the Grammy Awards Show. Why do I like this song? The message of the song is aimed at the average person in North American culture, and the message is that…

Songbird

– by Lance Odegard She’d been flitting at the back and along the sides of the congregation for weeks— her calculated late arrivals working like camouflage. At the back, on the tables, she tends her many plastic bags (the smaller bags inside the larger bags, each tied with strong, tidy knots)—the evidence of a quiet…

Pacing The Cage

(Bruce Cockburn – 24 June 1995. Philadelphia.) (Watch him perform this song here.) Sunset is an angel weeping Holding out a bloody sword No matter how I squint I cannot Make out what it’s pointing toward Sometimes you feel like you live too long Days drip slowly on the page You catch yourself Pacing the…

Appreciation

Notes of appreciation to the Vancouver Police from the people of Vancouver. Click on the picture for a larger image.

My Beat

Past the derelict mattressand the overgrown pavementover the tracksand through the hole in the fencePast graffiti-bright buildingsand the junkyard alarm belland the screaming police carsand it’s all present tenseIt’s my beatIn my new townPast the drunk woman reelingwith her bag of provisionsDown through the tunnelwith the stink-fuming busOn to the bike pathwhere it’s something like…