still-life in the briarpatch...

The home of the 'patch

"leadership style"

It was a strange experience to have your "leadership style" dissected by a group of your peers, and even stranger to read their account of the encounter.

unmarked graves where flowers grow

"You make me feel like an old tattoo
something you once believed
but now you hide under your sleeve."
-- Danny Michel

I always said I would get a tattoo if I could ever come up with an image that meant enough to me that I could imagine carrying it around on my skin for the rest of my life. Well, I finally did, and have.



The tattoo is on my shoulder blade. The image is of a storm-swept tree cradling its one remaining green leaf, and the text reads

Tous les morts-nés forment une armée
Soon we will reclaim the earth

In English , the first line means "all the still-borns form an army." The words are from the song "Haiti" by the Arcade Fire, a song about brutal repression, and about hope -- a delicate faith that from many defeats and much suffering, eventually will emerge the conditions for victory and freedom.

(Incidentally, given the current and on-going Canada-backed persecution of Haiti's poor majority, the song is chillingly current. The entire song goes a little something like this:


Haiti, mon pays,
wounded mother I'll never see.
Ma famille set me free.
Throw my ashes into the sea.

Mes cousins jamais nés
hantent les nuits de Duvalier.
Rien n'arrete nos esprits.
Guns can't kill what soldiers can't see.

In the forest we are hiding,
unmarked graves where flowers grow.
Hear the soldiers angry yelling,
in the river we will go.

Tous les morts-nés forment une armée,
soon we will reclaim the earth.
All the tears and all the bodies
bring about our second birth.

Haiti, never free,
n'aie pas peur de sonner l'alarme.
Tes enfants sont partis,
In those days their blood was still warm


A rough translation of the second and fifth verses:

My cousins, never born / haunt the nights of Duvalier / Nothing can stop our spirits....
and
...don't be afraid to sound the alarm. / Your children have gone / ...

And incidentally, I'm not particularly concerned about Arcade Fire going out of style in a few months or years -- I find the words so powerful they transcend their pop music source. Though, that said, the Arcade Fire concert in Saskatoon in October (?) was hands-down the best live show I've ever seen, and their performance of "Haiti" was pretty powerful and moving.

And a big thanks to Anne for the artwork.