Art is everywhere, if you choose to look.
Lately, as the weather becomes a slightly more pleasurable each day, I am taking the opportunity to get back out on the streets of Toronto to observe what really happens here.
Last Thursday, on the way to an appointment, I was fortunate to notice something I had never seen before.
Just about any day you’ll find Ross Ward hunched over on Yonge Street tending to his art. The ‘Birdman of Toronto’ has been a fixture on these streets in various locations for well over a decade, and during each day he crafts, and sells, palm-sized birds.
Once only a hobby — this is now more than whittling — Ward carves out shapes of common birds from reclaimed wood. There is always a piece in progress, and always a small flock for sale on his concrete workspace.
Perhaps in our day-to-day journeys, we don’t look close enough at all the people. We don’t often observe enough to see art just happening here and there on our landscape. I’ve wandered this street how many times and only last week did I notice the man. I saw him again on the weekend.
Appreciating the beauty of his work, I bought a bird as a gift for someone . . . or maybe a souvenir for myself to one day remember my time in this city.
Couldn’t we all use more memorable hand-made art?
The Confessor
I’ve been a caged bird most of my life,
Creating a melody I’ve kept to myself,
But there comes a time in each life
When a choice must be made,
To confess the secrets that confine,
Or not.
I’d waited,
Wasted
Too many years,
Thinking a time would come
When the holder of the key would return to me,
Then, I’d sing my song.
But that isn’t how it happened.
The melody in my heart grew too loud in my chest.
I had to escape,
Find a way to the one my tune was for,
Say all the words I’d locked away
For another person.
I sang my song,
Loud and clear.
I sang my song.
I’d like to say I received the same in return,
But my reward was little more than silence,
Silence and freedom.
©2018 B.L. Stonaker
B.L. Stonaker is an American poet, writer and editor living in Illinois, USA. She Studied English Literature and Political Science at The University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ. Her book, Between Athens and God, was published in 2016. She is currently working on her second publication.