dark things by J Leanne Padgett

I do not love you as if you were a daisy chain
or butterflies fluttering at my side.
I love you as certain dark things ar loved,
from the dank cellar of my soul
somewhere between shadow and light.

I love you as the beating rain
that smothers the sun
to feed the Douglas fir and water the elk,
and thanks to your love, damply within my body
your inspiration grows and survives
almost unseen.

I love you as delicate silk cherry blossums
that spiral to the concrete sidewalk
crumpled gossamer beneath each ponderous step.

I love you as the bumblebee
I keep in cupped palm,
dancing in dark confines,
its stinger hot with panic,
grazes my skin in searing want for freedom.

I love you as I love nothing and everything,
I love you simply and with difficulty,
I love you with fear and with abandon.

I love you as sacred places are loved:
the sand, the earth, the wind, and the cedar,
a love that has always been and will always be.

J Leanne Padgett
(written for Richard Lett and read at his birthday roast. It is also published in Leanne's book "ScrapPapers and SkyScrapers")

Ottawa fans, fear not!

Miss the show? No cash left to buy the CD?Don't worry, "At Least There's Drinking" can now be purchased at both Compact Music Stores(134 Bank Street and 785 1/2 Bank Street)! It is also available online at www.richardlett.com
Also, while you at my site, why not read a play or a story I've written? Or check out my photo gallery, or watch some video of my daughter and I on Granville Island in Vancouver or a set I did at StandUp NY - New York City.
There is more to me than this blog - is the point. Happy Surfing. Richard

CD now available in Ottawa stores!

AT LEAST THERE'S DRINKING is now available in two record stores in Ottawa. COMPACT MUSIC Inc. is now selling the CD at both their Ottawa stores at 785 1/2 Bank Street in the Glebe and at 134 Bnak Street at Slater. Retails for $14.99

a Canadian sacrifice

My friend Mike Holmes drove out to Kingston on Sunday to pick me up. I had left myself without resources, and he had to bail me out. Mike lives with his family in Ottawa and works for the Ministry of Natural Disasters (which makes him perfectly qualified to be my friend). Mike and I go back to the age of nine, but the real friendship developed in High School. We were both hockey fanatics, and we even teamed up with some other friends in grade ten to set the world record for road hockey at 22 hours and ten minutes. Some say the score was close till the end, and as the goaltender, I turned away some 450 shots. That record held until just last year, when a group here in Ottawa eclipsed it. Anyway, Mike and I graduated from Camrose Composite High School in 1978, and went off to the University of Alberta. He studied Political Science, me - Drama and English. He met Carol there, and they have three boys now and a great house with a pool. This is where I'm staying now. As I sit by the pool, having enjoyed three very restful days, with three squares a day (Carol's a great cook, and as you can guess, a good-natured and TOLERANT person), hockey with the boys, swimming with kids, and watching Simpsons from a lazy boy, I wondered about my choices. I have an ex-wife and a daughter, one car(which I share with Barry Greenfeld)and a great partner, all three thousand kilometers from here. Father's Day approaches, followed the next day by my partner and my mother's birthdays. And I will not be with them. I will be on a bus to Toronto, to crash at brett's or matt's. I don't have money to send gifts to them, or even buy something cool for Mike's boys, and Carol. And Mike: besides the actual cash he's fronted me, how can I pay him back for getting me to his home, and letting me recharge here. He knows the gauntlet I just ran is in preparation for the real work ahead. New York City...

The only way, now, that I can repay Mike, reward my daughter, and show I love my girlfriend and my mother, is by killing. Funny beats everything. Funny beats Rock Paper and Scissors. This sacrifice is a long one, and hard. And this doubt is daily. But I love my Job, and I love my country, and just hope that someday my country might love me back.

YukYuks in Ottawa

I'll be working this week (June 16-18)with Terry McGuerin at The Ottawa YukYuks on Albert. It is widely viewed as one of Canada's finest comedy clubs, so I'm really looking forward to it!!