Mosaic

By Kyle Richtig

Mosaic is Kyle Richtig's second collection of poetry and fiction, chronicling the years after Jade Buddha.

Mosaic presents itself in four sections:

Open - the collection of fleeting thoughts and desires that made their way into poems and stories. These items cascade with the blurry images of Richtig's mind.

The Journey - a collection of poems written through a painful life transition from the ending of a relationship. The subject is one and focused.

North - the view of Northern Ontario from the perspective of longing and reflection. North is a reminiscence of the feeling of the North, if not too idealistic.

Inscribed - the works of Kyle Richtig featured in the magazine Inscribed ~ A Magazine for Writers after the release of Jade Buddha.

Mosaic is the unique voice of one Canadian struggling to understand and interpret the world around him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 2, 2014
• ISBN: 9781304764386

Book preview

Mosaic

Mosaic

Kyle Richtig

Copyright © 2014 Kyle Richtig

All rights reserved under International Copyright Conventions. 

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Richtig, Kyle

Mosaic

For Chris, Joel and Mary. You have made the mosaic of my life a beautiful place. You turned me from one to one quarter. There is no other group I could lose myself in.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Open

A Day In Manspeak

Bajan

Compromises

Hobgoblin

Spires

Wombman

Under The Sky

on writer’s block

Rebuttal

Spare Change

Screen

The Road Taken

Perplexed

Organic

Silhouette

The Chordates

The Home Temple

Tapestry

Beautiful Tea Friend

First Credit

Haiti, Eye

Paving The Streets

And A Side Order Of Girl Guides

Passing On

Visitation

Twenty-five

Program

Elliott

Hoarder

The Journey

Blur

Neanderthal

Variable

Us

Incantation

Broken Halo

More Beautiful

Remember The Good Times

My Love Is An Ocean

Storm Clouds

Home Again

Only More Two

North

February Morning

Ice Fishing

Fluorescent Orange

Cornfest

Bon Soo

The Land of We

The Road To Thunder Bay

WPCVS

Inscribed

The Highlands

Yoga Boy

The St. Mary’s

Chalkboard

The Land of the Free

Cheated

The Last Yawn Of Winter

The Music

Completion

Minority Rule

Olivia Katherine

Grounded

Other Titles Available by Kyle Richtig

Foreword

A mosaic is a collection.  When we think of the classic mosaic, the single items or images come together to make a larger whole.  Whether that whole is succinct enough to become a picture, or becomes even less tangible, like being Canadian, it does not matter.  A mosaic is no less beautiful whether there was an intended picture or not.

When I think of a mosaic, I typically think of tiles.  I see bits of pottery on ancient floors.  I see pictures and abstracts.  I see what I want.

When bringing together the book Mosaic, I brought together many pieces that I never thought were to be set together.  In fact, each piece was written without the thought of publication.  They were for me, for the musings that floated through my brain at the time.

That said, there were a few themes that came together in my culling. 

Open is the absence of pattern.  The works are a mélange of items that I’ve written over the past few years.  Open is the hopper of poetry, fiction and essays. 

The Journey features songs I wrote during a blinding transition in my life.   It was a long and torturous road.  Yet as I look back over that time, it seems like everything fell into place effortlessly.

North collects poems I wrote about Northern Ontario.  All were written before I was able to move back to Sault Ste. Marie in 2007. They were written in yearning to recapture what I thought I had lost. What I learned, especially after moving back to Sault Ste. Marie, is that it is impossible to recapture what has already passed. What the North is now to me, is markedly different both in realism and in idealism.

Inscribed is the last collection of works I had published in the magazine Inscribed ~ A Magazine for Writers. Inscribed ~ A Magazine for Writers was first published in 2006, and had four volumes, (the first of my work to appear in Inscribed ~ A Magazine for Writers is in my first collection Jade Buddha). The Inscribed project was very successful, with contributors from all populated continents of the world. Inscribed spawned three other magazines: rtso (artshow), Ulterior: Alternative News and Stuff My Ear. I was sad to see these end; however, there was more work than funds coming in.

Mosaic is a collection of oddities like myself. Enjoy.

Open

A Day In Manspeak

Do you want to go out tonight?

Sure.

O.K.

*

Are ya ready?

Yup.

O.K.

*

Beer?

Sure. I’ll get the next.

O.K.

*

I’d tap that.

Go ahead and try.

Nah.

Pussy.

*

Are ya ready?

Yup.

O.K.

Bajan

She told me she was high yellow

of which I did not understand

for her Caribbean roots did not match

the vernacular of my northern ears.

And not until she explained it,

did I understand how she drew power

by marginalizing herself against racism.

To my eyes, which had witnessed the measure

of European and Native blends

the mysterious Bajan past – where mixed is majority

left me reeling.

And she, of Bajan roots and Canadian birth

was forced in youth to pick sides

and focused on securing a place amongst the Africans.

But that was she in adolescence,

trying for acceptance among the displaced

searching for herself amongst a half that

she no more belonged to than the pale faces behind.

And so she blossomed

blending high yellow she and pale he

into new life separate from damaged history.

And then alone she brought new life to be

stronger as maternal instinct supersedes the need

for placment amongst the people

and definition fades behind the dream.

Once again child redefines mother from woman

though all together subtly the change

allowed growth again.

To be mother first and woman second.

Compromises

I am not certain how my supernatural experience happened, as there are several items that may have contributed.  What I do know is that it did not only happen to me.

In the spring of 1999, I moved from my hometown of Sault Ste. Marie, ON to Toronto to find some better job prospects.  Most of my friends had already moved there, so finding accommodations was not a problem.

When I arrived in Toronto, I moved in with an old friend named Danielle and her roommate.  Danielle was living in a very old building, a Victorian home that had been divided into apartments.  We were not sure of the age of the home, but did know that the region of Toronto had been around for over two hundred years.  There were many people staying in this apartment, so it was hard to tell if any sort