as I walk Toronto

When we tried to walk the Betty Sutherland trail

Posted: October 31, 2024 in general Toronto
Tags: construction, DOn River, East Don River, George S. Henry, Henry Mulholland, hwy 401, Lady of the Lake, Leslie Street, North York, path, ravine, redevelopment, Sheppard, trail

The best laid plans….

Tucked away on a dead end suburban street is a little park with a monument in it. A monument to a couple, Henry Mulholland and Jane Armstrong.

stone pillar about 6 feet high, with plaque, memorial for Henry Mulholland

Dedicated to the memory of Henry Mulholland and his wife Jane Armstrong. Pioneers of this district who emigrated from Ulster in 1806 and took out the original grant of four hundred acres from the crown. He fought in the War of 1812 and later returned to Ireland to induce further emigration. While returning was drowned in the wreck of the Lady of the Lake in the Straits of Belle Isle in 1833. Erected by the eight branches of their descendents, 1937.

The ‘Lady of the Lake’ sailed from Belfast on 8 April 1833. She was bound for Quebec with 233 passengers aboard – mostly immigrants. On the morning of 11th May, off the coast of Newfoundland, the ship struck an iceberg. Only a few people survived.

Jane was not with her husband on that trip, instead she was at home with her 10 surviving children, the youngest of whom, Henry Jr. was born in 1829. Two more children later died of smallpox.

Jane and Henry were married in Co. Monaghan Ireland in 1806 so they must have emigrated as newlyweds. Their first child, Mary Ann, was born in 1807.

The 400 acres that the couple were granted were Lots 14 and 15, Con 3 in East York (south of what is now Sheppard and east of what is now Leslie). They built a log house on an island in the East Don River. Fast forward a number of years, after a number of changes of ownership and many changes in the neighbourhood, Henry and Jane’s great grandson, George Stewart Henry bought the farmhouse and property at Lot 14 Con 3 (for $14,500) to bring it back into the family.

The name George S. Henry may be more familiar to some of you. There is a high school named after him, and a whole neighbourhood, Henry Farms.

The reason that I found the Mulholland cairn? It is located close to one of the entrances to the Betty Sutherland Trail, just north of the 401 highway. A few years ago I walked the south end of this trail (you can read about it here: Paths to ruin and a course, 2021). Now I wanted to walk the northern section as well.

below: An ominous sign, construction on the trail!

below: It wasn’t long before the trail ended. There were six signs to warn us. The end was at the 401 highway.

Rather than retracing our steps, we went down to the river’s edge.

The East Don River flows under the 401

We headed back north instead of south. …Over a piece of the path that had washed out in the August flooding.

below: stag horn sumac

below: pear tree

below: swamp bush sumac

below: North York General Hospital in the background.

below: The East Don River flows diagonally under the Leslie Sheppard intersection. The black and white highrise in the distance is farther north up Leslie Street.

below: Looking west along Sheppard towards railway bridge

below: Seen just outside of Leslie subway station (at Sheppard). We didn’t see any wildlife, just a lot of traffic.

Apples on the sidewalk, north side of Sheppard…. Seems to suggest that once upon a time someone lived here and planted apples.

below: Looking east

below: Teasels

below: Chinese Crab Apple tree

Now on the East Don Trail (north of Sheppard) where there is more construction. Also, a large number of new trees have been planted.

below: Strange artwork outside Canadian Tire, just west of Leslie

Getting back to “Best laid plans”….. You may have noticed that these aren’t the most recent pictures (wrong season!)…. This post was written back in early September and I thought that I had uploaded it. Ooops. Forgot.

the waterfalls of Cottage Lane

Posted: September 2, 2024 in alleys, old buildings, public art
Tags: alley, backyards, BC Johnson, construction, Cottage Lane, downtown, heron, ivy, laneway balconies, murals, redevelopment, residential, trees, waterfalls

In downtown Toronto there is a large waterfall mural painted on a brick wall – because of the bricks, the painting looks a bit more like water pouring over a dam. Still nice; still nature.

Another waterfall – a longer drop of water, this time on a door. All the murals here were painted by B. C. Johnson. There are five or six of them on different buildings, some waterfalls, and some landscapes.

below: Here a heron stands on a fallen tree beside the water. A birch trees is also on the shore. A waterfall is on the other side of the lake.

below: This building is overgrown with ivy which adds a nice touch to the scene. The door becomes a very thick tree trunk perched on a rock above the water.

below: Surprisingly, there is no puddle at the bottom of the steps (insert big smiling emoji here).

below: A real tree once grew here. I don’t think that it was a beaver that cut it down.

below: Where do you find Cottage Lane? South of Bloor, west of Yonge, then follow the signs… and the road less traveled.

I was not sure why it was named Cottage Lane since, to me, there isn’t much that is cottage-y here. The answer – there are 10 rowhouses on St. Nicholas Street that were built in 1883 and although the architectural style is ‘bay and gable’, they are referred to as the cottages of St. Nicholas Street. As you may have guesses, St. Nicholas Street backs onto this lane.

below: Looking north towards Bloor. Buildings that face Yonge Street are on the right and those on St. Nicholas Street are on the left.

Back in 2021, I posted some pictures from Sandown Lane (Cliffside, near Midland and Kingston Road) where there are many more paintings by B. C. Johnson.

end of summer = Ex time

Posted: August 31, 2024 in events, people
Tags: Canadian National Exhibition, cheering, CNE, cotton candy, food, games, laughing, midway, people, popcorn, prizes, rides, stuffies, The Ex

As summer slowly winds down and August suddenly becomes September…..

Canadian National Exhibition, CNE: version 2024

Other CNE posts (if you’re not overwhelmed already!)

1. Around and around we go (2022)

2. Into the night (2014)

3. Afternoon at the Ex (2022)

4. CNE (2013)

infinite games, repeating games

Posted: August 26, 2024 in galleries, public art
Tags: art, Betty Boop, Cornelius Kreighoff, cow, Dahae Song, Deana Nastic, Francisco Valverde, galleries, James Verbicky, Joe Fafard, Lawren Harris, Nathan Mabry, painting, Peter Triantos, photography, Ron Bolt, sculpture, sculptures, William Kurelek, Willy Verginer, Zhuang Hong Yi

Infinite games, repeating games – both kinds of games can be seen in Yorkville. For instance, we can start with the infinite…..

below: Sculpture by German artist Willy Verginer, titled “The Infinite Game”. It’s a boy all in white kneeling on 4 dark grey teddy bears. Meaning?

below: The words, “Life is a Repeating Game” are a predominant part of this piece by James Verbicky. The whole artwork is a large circle. Circles, we go around in circles don’t we? Plus, circles make cycles which we repeat over and over again.

Yes, this post is about art. More specifically, it is some of the works that caught my eye as I walked around the Cumberland-Yorkville area. Some are in galleries or in their windows; some are on the street.

below: “Hercules”, by Joe Fafard (the same artist who is responsible for the piece where Vincent Van Gogh’s head is inside a square, located on Dundas Street directly across from the Art Gallery of Ontario). No attempts at being profound here but there is nothing wrong with whimsy.

below: Francisco Valverde’s riot of colours in vertical stripes in an artform that he calls Histograms. There is an image in the background that is then covered with resin stripes of different colours. The title of this piece is “Apricity”.

below: “Cosmic Dust” by Chinese artist Zhuang Hong Yi. He produced this artwork by using acrylic paint on rice paper which has been mounted on canvas. The paint is added last. . The rice paper is folded and added to the canvas before the paint is applied.

below: Three paintings, oil on board, on a gallery wall – painted by Ron Bolt. They are images of rock formations that have been shaped by the ocean, and they are titled, Sea Carvings 1, 2 and 3.

below: d|azur A blue and white mural by Toronto-based artist Dahae Song on the corner of the Four Seasons Hotel. It’s title is “d|azur”.

below: This is “Raptor” by Nathan Mabry. Something like ‘Toronto Raptors meet the Toronto Blue Jays’ vibes going on here.

below: Large black and white photographs by Deana Nastic in the windows of the Izzy Gallery

below: Another gallery window, another female image but that is where the similarities end! Betty Boop and a collage of pop culture references such as The Beatles, Marilyn Munroe by Andy Warhol, bazooka chewing gum, Pac-Man, the Starbucks logo, and more.

below: Art on the streets, specifically on hoardings to hide a construction site.

below: Big coloured ovals on a black background, by Peter Triantos.

below: Slightly different from all the other image here, but still art in my opinion. This image is from inside the Cumberland Terrace, a shopping center that has always struggled and is now facing demoltion (or total makeover, not sure what the plan is). The interesting tile design on the wall was defaced by a line of Bell telephone booths. I wonder how long it’s been since someone made a call here?

below: Gallery clutter. He’s watching you watching him. What does he see?

I am going to end this post with three artists (from different eras and different backgrounds) who have portrayed their Canadian experiences in their paintings.

below: First is the oldest, Dutch born and European taught, Cornelius Kreighoff (1815-1872), whose “A Trip to Town” (1865), is one of his many scenes of life in what is now Quebec. Kreighoff was a fairly prolific artist during his time in what is now Canada. He first moved to the Montreal area about 1846. At one point Ken Thomson (the newspaper/magazine publisher) owned about 200 paintings, many of which are now at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

below: Lawren Harris (1885-1970), of the Group of Seven, painted “House in the Ward, Winter City Painting No. 1” (Toronto) in circa 1924. A snow covered street scene with not a car in sight! Just lovely old trees and red brick houses.

below: And last, William Kurelek (1927-1977) “The School’s Woodpile” 1972, mixed media on board. Kurelek, son of Ukrainian immigrants, grew up on the Prairies during the Depression.

Previous posts about Yorkville Art:

1. The Yorkville-ification of Street Art.
2. A Yorkville meander with Captain Canuck

from a few alleys north of the Danforth

Posted: August 25, 2024 in alleys, doors, graffiti and street art, windows and walls
Tags: alley, backyards, chairs, concrete, doors, fences, garages, garbage bins, graffiti, lane, laneway, stairs, stickers, textures, trees, windows

cracks in the pavement,
weeds, shrubs, trees and other green things,
windows and walls, stairs and balconies,
infill housing and new structures, rooflines,
old textures and rusty hinges,
colours, graffiti, and peeling paint.
solitude

These are a few of the photos that I took as I walked alleys and lanes north of the Danforth, shown in no particular order.

Starting with, Hey Gwan!

walking River Street, mostly

Posted: August 20, 2024 in alleys, construction, graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: Adam Beck Box factory, Bevy coffee shop, Broadview, CN Tower, Cornwall St., DVP, graffiti, Joseph Lammirato, mural, Nigel Smith, Queen City Vinegar Co., railway tracks, redevelopment, Regent Park, River St., River Variety, Toronto Humane Society, uber5000

The general plan was to walk River Street. River Street runs parallel to the Don River (makes sense!) on the west side with the north end of the street just above of Gerrard. Transit on River Street is limited (is there any?) so I started the walk at Broadview and Gerrard, just to the east of River Street.

below: At the corner of Broadview and Gerrard is the Roman Coliseum mural that was painted in 2016 as part of ‘Around the World in East Chinatown’. It was one of seven murals and all of them were featured in a blog post back when they were new (seven new murals, August 2016)

below: Chinatown East mural by ACK crew, bacon, wunder, tensoe 2, and cruz1, on Gerrard east of Broadview. Chinatown East is generally Gerrard east of Broadview, but we’re going to walk west today and leave Chinatown for another day.

below: A long vacant lot on Gerrard.

below: Munro Street, south of Gerrard

below: On the north side is the site of the old Don Jail and its Governor’s House.

many yellow flowers in the garden in front of the Governor's House, with plaque in the garden

Governor’s House,1888, From 1888 until 1968, this was the residence of the Don Jail’s governor (chief administrator). Until this house was finished, the governor lived in an apartment in the central administration block of the jail. Designed by architect Mancel Wilmot, this house features a shallow pitched roof with a front-facing gable and double-height bay window that are typical of Toronto’s late 19th century residential architecture.

below: Bridgepoint and the old Don Jail with the red brick steeple of St. Johns Presbyterian church on Broadview in the distance. Bridgepoint Health Hospital was built on the site of the old Riverdale Hospital which in turn replaced an older building. The original House of Refuge was built in 1860. The Don Jail has been repurposed as part of the hospital complex.

below: Looking north from the bridge at Gerrard towards the green pedestrian bridge that connects the two sections of Riverdale Park. Beyond that is the Bloor Viaduct.

below: Northwest view

below: View from the Gerrard St Bridge (over the Don River and DVP). Looking southwest. The tall brown buildings are at River Street.

below: Miniature racer, art on a pole by Joseph Lammirato.

… and another! You’ll find lots more on his Instagram page (@joseph.lammirato)

below: Flower Power happiness

below: The north end of River Street (north of Gerrard)is showing signs that redevelopment is in the works.

below: If you are driving north on River Street, chances are you are headed down the hill to the Bayview Extension. The alternative route is a small street that swings left and joins up with Spruce Street.

below: It also leads to access to Riverdale Park. – there’s that green pedestrian bridge again. From here you can see Broadview Avenue on the other side of the ravine.

below: Back to River Street, and let’s head south.

below: St. Sava, Serbian Orthodox Church.

below: Walking past some of the older Regent Park brick buildings that still remain. The intersection of Gerrard and River streets marks the northeast corner of the original 1940s and 1950s Regent Park development.

About 20 years ago, redevelopment of the area began. The work was divided into five phases. Phases 1 and 2 have been completed while the third phase is either close to completion or has just been finished. There is a lot of information online so you should be able to find many more details if you want. I didn’t feel like going down that rabbit hole!

below: I was surprised at how much variety there was in the housing that I saw.

below: Queen City Vinegar Co. Ltd. factory built in 1908 and converted into lofts (residential) in 2008.

below: Stalled development (Dare I say arrested development?) According to the development notice sign, the original file dates from 2017. Even by Toronto standards that is slow!

below: Behind the red hoardings is just a vacant lot. Nothing seems to be happening here. When I said arrested I was not implying anything criminal…..

below: Of course the CN Tower can be seen here too! This is the view along Shuter Street.

below: Dundas, looking west towards River Street with tables in front of Bevy Coffee. The slightly darker brick building was the Adam Beck Box Factory where cigar boxes were once made. Like the Queen Vinegar Company mentioned above, this building has been converted into lofts (Tannery Lofts, mis-named as this wasn’t a tannery! But it does sound sexier than Box Lofts!).

below: Similar location, but from the parking lot and alley behind – brick building is the Tannery Lofts

below: 1930s view of Beck’s cigar box factory

below: Monsters ready to box

below: River Variety is no more.

below: No more gyros or poutine here.

below: At Mark Street, more old and new

below: Every child matters

below: West side of River Street, at Queen

below: Old photo from 1914, working on the Queen Street bridge over the Don River, looking westward towards River Street. The light coloured bank building is still on the southwest corner (see above photo). The red brick structure on the northwest corner is also still standing, although an additional storey has been added to it.

old black and white photo of men working on the queen street bridge over the don river

photo credit: City of Toronto Archives

below: Looking north on River Street from King. South from here River becomes Lower River.

below: Part of the mural on the side of Toronto Humane Society (Queen & River) painted by Uber5000

below: Parked in the bike lane.

Note: River Street is serviced by TTC bus route 121 that runs between Gerrard (just west of Broadview), then down River to Queen before heading west to the Esplanade and Union Station.

an evening out

Posted: August 18, 2024 in alleys, doors, graffiti and street art, people, stores, transportation
Tags: College St., couples, Dundas, graffiti, Jarus, Kensington, Kleeshay, motorcycles, mural, Nazare Snack Bar, Nick Sweetman, Ossington, people, posters, reflections, roam_t.o, Sankofa Square, tensoe2, tomatoes

This used to be Yonge Dundas Square (photo below) – soon it will be Sankofa Square. Or at least I think that’s what’s happening as there was some controversy over the name change. Although the name Yonge Dundas is very dull and unimaginative, that is what we’ve become accustomed to calling it. Some of us still claim that the Leafs play at the ACC or that the Blue Jays call the SkyDome home – yeah, we can be rather slow!

Whatever its name, that intersection is usually a colourful place on a summer evening.

So that is where I started walking late in the afternoon the other day. The walk was rather meandering, and did include a quick hop on a streetcar or two. The weather was perfect and the streets were alive. It was nice to see so many people out enjoying the evening. Many (all?) of the curbside patios were busy too.

below: Spiderman sits on a chair waiting for someone to hang out with.

below: Garfield is not amused (but he is shiny… or is that why he’s grumpy?)

below: On a balcony in Kensington, a war protest or at least a pro-Ukraine and anti-Russian statement. Lots of sunflowers fill the space and Putin (presumably) is hung in effigy.

below: August is tomato season in Ontario!

below:Buddha prays (meditates?)

below: A rare species spotted in Kensington – a rainbow tree

below: Shadow play on a Kensington graffiti wall.

below: Laundry time

below: This young man still watches over College Street (mural by Jarus).

below: Lord of the Fries!

below: A creative use of a few chairs.

below: Mural by roam_t.o

below: Where danger lurks around the corner, unseen and unexpected! (mural by Tensoe2 and Nick Sweetman)

below: Nazare Snack Bar

below: Taking a rest from riding on the broom?! Hallowe’en shopping done early!

below: A sign that claims that Ossington is the coolest neighbourhood. Any opinions?

below: Don’t text me!

below: “Freedom is a state of mind” (not just another brick?)

below: Graffiti, text on a poster, by Kleeshay, “All the fun things we did when we were kids never stopped being fun we just stopped doing them”

below: “We are taught to put emphasis on our differences because it would be too dangerous if we ever realized how much we have in common “

below: A third Kleeshay poster – “You might forget who you are if you’re surrounded by people who act like you aren’t who you are. “

below: Turtle Island, bald eagle

below: Locked up; behind bars

below: “Respect the Space”, an urban collage on a door in Keningston. “Baby’s first pistol” – yikes!

below: Another collage, sort of – I find it hard to believe that someone actually taped a coffee cup to a pole… but seeing is believing?

below: Nothing fancy here, but I was fascinated by the old concrete posts that are keeping this fence up. She walked in front of me as I slowed down for a closer look…..

below: This final picture is for the person who mentioned that they once thought of collecting images of all the shopping carts they saw abandoned around the city. Ever since reading that comment, I see shopping carts everywhere!!

below: What do you see when you walk around Toronto?

a common enemy

Posted: July 21, 2024 in galleries, history
Tags: history, humour, ink, Peter Borckmann, photography

One of the pieces on display at TMU’s The Image Centre is this is pen and ink drawing signed by “Fun & Borckmann” from about 1895. It is part of the exhibit, “Hypervisibility: Early Photography and Privacy in North America, 1839-1900.” The drawing is on loan from the collection of Stephen Bulgar and Catherine Lash. As you can see, across the top is the title, “A Common Enemy of Mankind”. If you start at the first panel on the top left, you might think it is etiquette suggestions for photographers, but on closer inspection, is it?

Let’s take a look!

Panel 1 (below): ” The amateur
Photographer
A cheerful sort of nuisance is.
Does it occur To him – or her –
He shouldn’t take what isn’t his

Panel 2 (above): A man whose life
Has been one strife
Against appearances of wrong,
Can’t kiss his wife
Lest lenses rife
On negatives his kiss prolong

Panel 3 (below) – along with “The other fellow’s girl!”
“Where’er one goes
To seek repose
Far from the city’s heat and din
Be cannot doze
In wooded close
But that a snap-shot takes him in.”

Can I call him a jaunty looking fellow with his striped blazer and the polka dot band on his hat?

Panel 4 (below): “Sometime mayhap,
A city chap
May linger in the moonlight fair;
He hears the tap
Of shutter-snap
And knows too well he’s pictured there.”

Panel 5 (below): “Or in the street,
If he should meet
A former friend of single days,
It’s not meet
His smile so sweet
Be captured in actinic rays.”

Panel 6 (above): “But in default
Of dungeon vault
In which to lock this modern pest,
A plain assault
Might cause a halt –
But then, perhaps, a gun were best.”

Life’s little indiscretions now preserved in little snap-shots! Please don’t shoot the photographer!

Extra litte note or two: Peter Borckmann was an artist whose pen and ink drawings appeared in the “New York Fun Magazine”. In the 1880s and 1890s, this art form became very popular as demand for humorous illustrations grew along with the increasing popularity of magazines and journals at that time. The “Fun Magazine” was published in the 1880s and early 1890s.

Oh, in case you were wondering about that word ‘actinic’. I looked it up….According to Merriam Webster: “of, relating to, resulting from, or exhibiting chemical changes produced by radiant energy especially in the visible and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum.” Sounds a lot like old-fashioned, pre-digital, light hitting chemically treated film, photography to me!

a short walk up Church Street

Posted: July 18, 2024 in construction, graffiti and street art, locations, old buildings, stores
Tags: Church St., churches, Gilda Radner Way, Lombard St., Metropolitan United, mural, Paint Your Faith, pawnbrokers, Piliriqatigiingniq, redevelopment, St. Michaels, stores, streetcars, TTC

Northbound, starting at King… where this large mural still shines. Piliriqatigiingniq was painted in 2015 (see link for more info)

below: A yellow parking lot attendant booth, a throwback to an older, less digital age. Back before machines and parking apps on your phone changed our lives.

below: Looking west on Court Street through to Toronto and Victoria Streets (and beyond). A wide range of sizes and styles all mixed up together.

below: The omnipresent condo construction and ubiquitous summer roadworks can be found here too!

below: Lots of glass on the northeast corner of Church & Lombard – This section of Lombard is also Gilda Radner Way.

below: The view on Lombard, looking east from Church. Lots of midrise buildings.

below: Crossing Lombard. Looking north up Church Street

below: Church & Richmond, northeast corner.

below: Church & Richmond again but from a different angle, south side of Richmond with McVeighs Tavern on the southwest corner.

below: Flags flying over the entrance to McVeighs (“since 1962”) – a little bit of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland & Labrador.

below: West on Richmond.

below: A stretch of Church Street was known for its pawn shops and many still remain. Here we have Simon’s Pawnbrokers as well as two “exchanges”, Five Star Exchange and Toronto Exchange.

below: Balconies old and new.

below: Can you tell where this picture was taken? A little bit of Toronto love on a mailbox on the corner of Church and ???

below: Peeking over the mail box above is the yellow of the old Shwarma King on the northeast corner of Queen and Church. It is now being demolished.

below: The side of Metropolitan United Church.

below: The north end of Metropolitan United with St. Michaels Hospital behind it (just south of Shuter).

below: More of the mural as well as St. Michaels Cathedral on the other side of Shuter Street. The mural is “Paint Your Faith” by Elicser, Chor Boogie, Mediah and Siloette

below: St. Michaels RC Church in the foreground, looking north along Church St.

below: Many more facades that have been preserved during redevelopment.

below: 205 Church Street with its green awning; Its neighbour may be feeling the squeeze, just south of Dundas.

below: Looking east on Dundas

below: Northeast corner of Church and Dundas.

below: Westward along Dundas towards the Bond Place Hotel and its tall blue mural celebrating health care workers and their dedication during the COVID pandemic (and since?)

below: mmm

silliness and more, in their words

Posted: July 15, 2024 in graffiti and street art
Tags: alleys, graffiti, poem, political, protest, Refaat Alareer, scrawl, text, walls, words

This post is a small collection of “text only” graffiti that I have seen over the past few months. They come from no particular place in the city. The authors, except one, are anonymous. Some are silly, others are poignant. Not all of them make sense. No matter what the sentiment, someone took the time and (very little?) effort to make their thoughts known.

below: “Wake up and smell the corruption!”

below: “I love her tho” along with “We’re probably gonna break up in 3 days”. Ah, life.

below: “Was I ever not crazy”, maybe a rhetorical question?

below: “In your pants” is not a good place to P.

below: “Sorcery not science runs your world.” I’m curious as to whether the writer is expressing their opinion as in “I think sorcery…” or if they are expressing a complaint as in “You think sorcery…”.

Someone’s reply is: “I am interested in your thoughts on how sorcery interacts with the urban planning process”

Which leads to: “Exhibit A: the streets of Washington D.C”

Totally makes sense, right? LOL

below: “I’m nosey because I care.” and “If only you could know me but maybe we’re meant 2 be lonely.” All around a bright red symbol for female, or in Egyptian hieroglyphs, an ankh, the symbol for life.

below: “If you read this, God bless you my friend”

below: “How many times I’ve to tell you God loves you, so smile.”

below: “free the white girls Let them eat cake”

below: Conversation (monologue?) on a vent goes something like this:
“U know when it feels exactly like drowning?
Yeah I do
I almost did almost drowning
[purple] was interesting and fun
I Don’t Recommend
will not try again”

below: “Anti-graffiti graffiti crew”

below: “Stay true to yourself and you will attract the greatest things the world has to offer”

below: A poem on a pole. Although it mentions Gaza, it would also apply to Kiev, or Kharkiv, or a little farther back in time, Aleppo.

graffiti, words, a poem by Refaat Alareer about dying in Gaza, making a kite

If I Must Die
by Refaat Alareer
If I must die,
you must live,
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth and some strings.
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking
heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad
who left in a blaze
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself –
sees the kite, my kite you made,
flying up
above
and thinks for a moment
an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale

***

Previous posts with many words:

paper words in the alley (2019)
positive words are never wrong! (2018) and
protests. advertisements. words (2021)

as I walk Toronto

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