Harbourwalk Poem W374

I can’t belong now –
So I will withdraw to work
To belong later–
For eternity later –
Where they don’t and won’t belong

08.13.19

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Copyright by Minh Tan on listed dated of completion.

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Notes to this poem…

Halifax is very friendly in a lot of ways, but very discriminating socially in others. It sometimes feel like descriptions of the old southern US where they’ll be as much of a friend to you as various limits they draw in the “social” sand. Now, those lines are not as obvious here as in the US, like buddies in bars and such where Blacks still had to use separate entrances, washrooms, and fountains, but it’s still disempowering here with the limitations of friendships and groups towards the majority here.

But, you know, the general people I’m talking about, their lives is just the social here and now. There’ll be  no legacy of them aside from their small circles and families momentarily being sad at their funerals and a few stories among themselves later. Me, I’m opting out to work on things that will be valued much longer, whether long shot things like these poems, painting, documentaries, free things the world can and is using, etc. Not that no one will attend my funeral, but no one would have to, and my impact on the world will still live on long after the impact all these people shunning me in life if I hit their threshold of closeness as friends that can only be described as discriminatory if it were something I felt were like a job where everyone were entitled to a fair shot at. But since I don’t, then it’s simply walk away indifference and use it as motivation to become more.

The W-series poems comprise mostly of haiku or tanka composed during walks I took on the portion of Halifax’s waterfront known as the Harbourwalk, during the warmer months of 2018 & 2019, when the Seabridge was in place.

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