this rapture

a pairing: Vancouver Lights, by David McFadden

Night view of Grouse Mountain above North Vancouver taken from downtown Vancouver. I grew up at the base of the mountain, spent many an evening in my teen years skiing under those lights in the sky. (photo: Jarrod McKenna).

Instead of visual art, I thought today I’d pair my poem with a poem by Ontario poet, David McFadden (1940-2018), who once visited Vancouver and in his own way was mystified by the lights on top of Grouse Mountain. See his poem below, following mine, and a nod to 60s TV series The Invaders.

rapture at the dawn of night skiing

Those nascent nights, only the moon
might silhouette the mountain, 
foreground its looming mass above 
my bedroom window, crane thought 
to what lay beyond, a misty mirror 
of the known: ski lift descending, 
climbing from winding family homes, 
schools, road hockey and lit-up views 
of a city skyline. 

Then one late hour, I saw the light
break like a whale, the mountain
suddenly backlit, a radiance risen
to erase the stars, the mass in relief 
and that much darker. 

And what at nine years of age could I imagine,
but that the landings were underway, 
the unidentified finally arriving, bodies 
to be absorbed, children levitating, 
streets emptied of pickups, convertibles,
and for myself, a hope, 
to come with the dawn—

that with this interstellar foray, 
this whisking off, this rapture, 
all my pain and fears, all
my childish, moldering loves,
would be forever dispelled.  

       ---------------------------

Vancouver Lights
by David McFadden

George was driving me around town
we were heading
for some cultural event
involving Roy Kiyooka
and Gerry Gilbert
or no that was probably the night
we caught Christopher Dewdney
fresh in from London Ontario
reading at the
Burnaby Art Gallery

After the reading George came up to
Chris and said
I couldn't understand a word
of what you read
but I know it was good

And then he said to me I hope you're
keeping your eyes and ears open
because you're witnessing
the last days
of George Bowering

On the way home George was telling me
stories about the
way things are in British Columbia
the way they’ve always been
I was feeling very relaxed
and then I looked way way up
and said
Hey
what are all those
lights in the sky?

George laughed and said oh you people
from Ontario
that's not the sky
that's the ground
this is B.C.

I later found out the lights were the
Grouse Mountain ski lift.

the landings were underway (image from the opening sequence of The Invaders TV series, ABC, 1967-68, when I was nine years old)