I tend to live in seven-year-cycles. So, it’s no surprise that I’m returning to Saltspring Island this summer to research a new book. My dream dog, Puddy, came with me last time. It was his last trip. Puddy loved to travel, especially aboard the ferries. This summer, I’ll be taking Skaha along. Puddy was eleven—Skaha is ten-months-old.

Saltspring is the largest of the Gulf Islands in the Salish Sea. An artist’s haven, with an agricultural and environmental legacy, it is wildly beautiful and inspiring. Memories of 2011 below. What awaits us in 2018? I can’t wait to find out.

Sweet smokes seeps from your mouth to mine
Filling me, willing me, to come, with you
Shaman farmer crafter chef poet eco-warrior
I want to know you; grow with you
Dirty my fingers in fecund folds
Drop seeds, bulbs, words, deep in sea-rich soil
Then wait through sun and wind and rain
Gestating magic cradled by leathered hands
You are man and woman, yin and yang, androgynous lover
Mesmerized by diamond shrouded seas, sun-kissed hair blowing free
My flesh accepts your strong and briny light, your long and silent night
Braid my hair with gems and blossoms, bound fast with vines
Amber, sapphire, scarlet, peach, cobalt, pearly white
Scrape my skin with black slate stones transfusing flesh and blood
And when rootless I dance off, leaving only my bare footprint in your sand
Fill it with Byzantine light, a beacon to lure me back.