journal features

dad's in town

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2013.09.06

My father and step-mother are in town. They came for a visit, struggling through the maze of construction that turned a five kilometer trip into a lengthy journey. My dad presented me with some mementos from the family, including a watch that his father gave him in 1956, the year they both came to Canada. I'm going to have a new strap put on it and shall wear it. To my recollection, it's the first watch I've ever had that I'll have to wind.

rand()m quote

Immature poets imitate mature poets steal bad poets deface what they take and good poets make it into something better or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique utterly different than that from which it is torn the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time or alien in language or diverse in interest.

—T.S. Eliot