The Vortex is Ready for You Now
A poem by poet laureate Zach Polis
We confess to improbable science. Yes, we’ve done it. A 32-layer blanket vortex. Winter is a black hole and so is our creation – of equal measure. The wormhole is active. Ready, purposeful. How many acres of inter-dimensional consequences remain hidden to us? My socks are gone. Your pants are gone. The cat is gone… Edward is gone. Edward! - ward! - ward! - ward! Tucked into the folds of the singularity, several muffled, unattended Kanopy films are binged. A quiet, low rumble: I’d hit snooze, if I could find my phone. No matter. Your soft voice rises from somewhere. Sufjan? I swear I hear the banjo in your voice, a rush of strings, a delicate, fluttering, methodical chaos. Your voice is honey, drawing me deeper. We meet under strata under strata under strata of super soft throws and thick wool, beneath all the hibernating bears. It’s a quiet place. The way the world vanishes after a fresh snowfall. All we hear is ourselves. Our breathing. And relaxed, tiny snores. I pull back a pillow. Edward! He’s with a good book. His chin rests on the cover, fast asleep. A low, delicate rumble. Outside, there’s the sound of wind-driven snow. But here, inside our infinite blanket vortex, we are dissolving into one long, droning note of warmth. The vortex is ready for you now.
“This day has been a long time coming,” suggested St. Albert Public Library director Peter Bailey during his opening remarks to officially open the Jensen Lakes Library on Saturday morning.
Welcoming in a sturdy crowd of more than 100 members of the public and library patrons, he noted the history of the downtown library’s space needs before giving a brief visual tour of the new space that was designed as much to be open as it was to reflect the Indigenous people whose traditional lands it now sits on.
“I hope Indigenous people coming to the library can look up and know that this library is their library. They are welcome here. Everyone is welcome here. We're here for you. We're here for all,” he said, before introducing knowledge keeper Hazel McKennitt who offered a blessing and some stories about the challenges of growing up on this land.
“If it wasn't for our first peoples’ nations, people would not have survived in these harsh conditions that they came to. This time of year ... this was the education time for our children. This is when we told our stories, our legends,” she explained, adding an amusing observation about herself.
“I still learned this time of year. You know how cold it is outside. We call it the time of the crackling trees. That meant it was so cold, you had to stay indoors. All animals stayed indoors. I still know I have the bear gene because I am lazier in the wintertime.”
The weather that day was still clinging to the extreme cold warning that gripped Alberta last week. Such a frosty day was perfect for all to come inside and check out books.
The branch location – which some have already dubbed the ‘mini library’ – actually opened its doors for the first time on Jan. 2. On that one day, approximately 1,200 people walked through those doors.
“Those numbers are clear evidence that this second library location is wanted and needed,” explained chair of the library board Janice Marschner.
“We've been describing the Jensen Lakes Library as a small location: a small place that will have a big impact. The downtown library has been running at capacity for years. Its annual circulation is around one million items. Staff are still putting together the 2019 numbers but in 2018 the library ran 1,423 programs with almost 60,000 people attending them,” she continued, mentioning other programs including the Makerspace series, résumé and career help, and the dozens of other community events and programs, all of which are free.
Starting next month, the mini library will start to offer a weekly drop-in storytime on Saturday mornings and a Mini Makerspace every Thursday after school.
“We're all excited to be able to deliver these programs and services to all of our citizens, including those who have trouble accessing our downtown library.”
Rounding out the speeches to the assembly was St. Albert poet laureate Zach Polis, who noted his own lifelong love of libraries.
“Libraries follow your adventures in life. I can never quite outpace the library. It's all there waiting for me to discover at the right time for me to discover it,” he said, before offering a new work paying tribute to libraries in general while drawing in images of the wintry polar vortex, wormholes through time and space, his cat Edward, “and the coziness of hunkering down with a good book.”
He read, “Outside, there’s the sound of wind-driven snow. But here, inside our infinite blanket vortex, we are dissolving into one long, droning note of warmth. The vortex is ready for you now.”
