A brief memoir of my childhood in the 1970's and early 1980's. All of us with Dad at Peckham's Lake, around 1986 or 1987. Photo by Mom. This must have been taken in early spring, judging from the snow pants and K-Ways. When I think about my early childhood I remember the long, sunny days … Continue reading Peckham’s Lake and Old Ugly
a radio play Listen to the play in the podcast This Black Bear has 28 Minutes, episode 5, published January 13, 2022: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-black-bear-has-28-minutes-episode-5/id1503358294?i=1000547813468
Photo credit: Diggers2004, Creative Commons license https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2017_11_25_142837_Vietnam_Hanoi_Ceramic-Mosaic-Mural_x_27.jpg Fragments In Hanoi, Vietnam, there is a Ceramic Wall so long it holds a Guinness World Record.A tall, muscle-bound, blonde, white man leads my fat tourist’s body through a jog. He explains the features of the Ceramic Wall. Nearly four kilometres in length, it flanks a thoroughfare packedwith … Continue reading Fragments
Inspired by the events leading up to January 6, 2021 Have you ever forcedyour own soundtrack overtop of the TV newsheadphones in earsblocking out assaultby political commentarymaking pundits movetheir lips in sync with the beattheir arms waving,their eyes shouting,their mouths, futile.They are tragic figuresof speech,Silenced. Published in Black Bear Review, December 2021.https://blackbearreview.ca/writing/poetry/soundtrack-by-gwen-higgins/
Life is the river your father drowned inWhen the tailings dike failed,Or his friend died in the mineshaft,Or some such thingthat your mother won’t say. It is lunchtime in the house that smells of cigarettes and mildewed laundry and damp basement, ashes wafting from the polyolefin couch and green sculpted shag carpet. Gott in Himmel, … Continue reading Downriver
Gwen Higgins 
