Author: Kim Siever

I live in Lethbridge with my spouse and 5 of our 6 children. I’m a writer, focusing on social issues and the occasional poem. My politics are radically left. I recently finished writing a book debunking several capitalism myths. My newest book writing project is on the labour history of Lethbridge.

I’m also dichotomally Mormon. And I’m a functional vegetarian: I have a blog post about that somewhere around here. My pronouns are he/him.

Categories
Faith crisis poetry

Bubble Washing

  1. Tokens and handshakes to cut off the tongue.
  2. Pull out the ladder and destroy the rungs.
  3. Lock up the lectern and turn off the mic.
  4. Whitewash the bubbles and keep the guys tight.
  5. Speak to the forest but no chirp or hum.
  6. Expel the water and vanish wisdom.
  7. Hoist up the arrow and ignore the cross.
  8. Tread on the garments, and burn out the dross.
  9. Churn out the dictates from duplicate mold:
  10. Pages of zircon and parrots of gold.
  11. Lips made of zipper and teeth made of lead.
  12. Long live the silence and ignore the dead.

Categories
Poetry

Buried Treasure

  1. Treasure hidden deep within the fog, so thick and young.
  2. Guided by the music sweet of moistened lip and tongue,
  3. Beckoning with whispered pleas, alluring tender heart.
  4. Frosty palms and weakened knees no longer could depart.
  5. Lo, an emerald box is found amidst the mountain base.
  6. Call and search entwined and bound, the emerald box replaced
  7. By a box of fleshy lust unlocked with wooden key.
  8. Empty contents to entrust, transcend reality.
  9. It became apparent quick the treasure would elude.
  10. It was deep ’neath layers thick, much needed to extrude.
  11. Rich it flows and courses in the veins that eyes can’t see,
  12. Far below the porcelain and the mahogany.
  13. Golden footings, cornerstones; silver lights ahead;
  14. Diamond rooting, long since grown; ruby strength embed.
  15. Forged by flame of grief and pain, molded by joy and peace;
  16. Purified through loss and gain—its worth to never cease.

Listen to me read and explain my poem:

Categories
Faith crisis poetry

Clean again

  1. Standing in my grave, grey clouds all around.
  2. Life of signs and keys, with me in the ground.
  3. Shiver in the cold, blinded by the dark;
  4. Silenced voice and soul; empty, lifeless heart.
  5. Then I feel a drop fall upon my brow,
  6. Second, and a third—downpour on me now.
  7. Rain washes away caked-on grief and pain;
  8. As the raindrops cease, I’m made clean again.
  9. Ling’ring on the air, scent of wash-ed earth;
  10. Blossoms from the trees, fruit before their birth:
  11. Drifting through my lungs, richen every breath,
  12. Cleanse inside my soul; life replacing death.
  13. Mighty came the tongues rushing through the trees,
  14. Whirling ’round me now, mitigating breeze.
  15. Wind whips through my hair, wicks away the rain,
  16. Wraps my body whole, comforts and ordains.
  17. Sun upon my face, close my eyes to bask.
  18. Burning, tingling rays melt away the mask.
  19. Dipped in flaming pow’r. Dove perched on my heart.
  20. Wave goodbye to end, turn around to start.

Listen to me read my poem and explain its symbolism:

Categories
Heavenly Mother

A Mother’s Touch

  1. I walked with my first daughter midst life and knowledge grown
  2. To teach her truth and wisdom and lessons never known.
  3. I watched with anxious hoping as she took her first bite,
  4. Then under blade aflaming, I said my last goodbye.
  5. I sat there with the handmaid to calm her troubled heart,
  6. Allay her casted thinking, her fears to all depart.
  7. She could not see nor hear me; I reached inside her soul.
  8. For soon she’d hold my baby, and we would share a role.
  9. He stood in nurtured waters; I waited up above.
  10. By Grace, entombed and risen, and I sent down a dove.
  11. With still, small voice of whisper, I solemnly decreed:
  12. This is my son beloved, in whom I am well pleased.
  13. I beckoned from the pages to come into the grove
  14. The singing and the buzzing, his knees to them they drove.
  15. Within the fire column, I hovered as the sun.
  16. “Dear Joseph—My Beloved; hear counsel from my son.”

Listen to me read this poem and explain the symbolism and imagery:

Categories
Poetry

Liminality

  1. Whispering of trees
  2. Chattering of leaves
  3. Wandering of breeze
  4. Portending of freeze
  5. Lengthening of sleeves
  6. Darkening of eves
  7. Dwindling of weeds
  8. Burrowing of seeds
  9. Orange so deep
  10. Fireplace keep
  11. Blustery sweep
  12. Frost and chill creep
  13. Blistering weep
  14. Harvested reap
  15. Quieted peep
  16. Yawning to sleep

Listen to me read this poem:

Like my poetry? Send me a pledge on Patreon for as little as $1 per month. Get pre-release access, watch me write my poems live, and even access exclusive video of me explaining the symbols and metaphors in the poems.

Categories
Education

Why I took 15 years to get my bachelor’s degree

I went to college in 1997. I didn’t want to go to school.

In high school, I wanted to become a lawyer. I enjoyed debating, and I thought I’d be good at it. Later on, I thought becoming a doctor would be a good choice, specifically an obstetrician, helping babies come into the world.

But somewhere between 18 and 21, I changed my mind. Going to school for 10–12 years didn’t appeal to me. Heck, for some reason, I wasn’t even interested in an undergrad degree. I had these pie-in-the-sky dreams of starting at the bottom of some company, working my way up the corporate ladder, and eventually owning the company. I could become rich without going to school.

Continue reading “Why I took 15 years to get my bachelor’s degree”
Categories
Heavenly Mother

A Mother There

  1. The cool, gentle breeze, my tousling your hair.
  2. The silence of night, my calming your cares.
  3. The bubbling of brooks, my chuckling laugh.
  4. The falling of rain, my giving you bath.
  5. The crashing of surf, my humming to rest.
  6. The soft fallen snow, my dear heart expressed.
  7. The mountains so grand, my strength in defense.
  8. The rainbow so clear, my diverse love blend.
  9. The colours of dawn, my courage so brave.
  10. The swaying of boughs, my comforting wave.
  11. The thunder so strong, my clap in delight.
  12. The stars of black sky, my protective might.
  13. The warmth of the sun, my kiss on your brow.
  14. The sound of the leaves, my whispered sure vow:
  15. That though you forget, my child so dear,
  16. All these remind you that mother is here.

Listen to me read this poem:

Like my poetry? Send me a pledge on Patreon for as little as $1 per month. Get pre-release access, watch me write my poems live, and even access exclusive video of me explaining the symbols and metaphors in the poems.

Categories
Faith crisis poetry

Golden Falls

  1. The bellowed roar of golden falls has since become a drop
  2. That echoes through the empty cave that once filled to the top,
  3. Then rainbows pierced the cavern walls and drained the lake near dry.
  4. And now the houred drip can’t fill the empty storeys high.
  5. But through the holes left in the wall, a butterfly did come,
  6. And then a crow, and then a bee, and then a growing hum.
  7. Just seconds pass until the cave is filled with vibrant life.
  8. Now flocks of butterflies fill up the space where water rifed,
  9. And hymns of countless flying crows are roaring through the cave,
  10. While swarms of sweetly smelling bees soar black and yellow waves.
  11. The sun sends rays of pink and red and fiery orange, too,
  12. Straight through the holy apertures where wing and talon flew.
  13. The soul ablaze with sounds and sights of nature unrestrained,
  14. Baptized with light from sun and moon and twinkling stars unchained.
  15. Where once the golden lake had stood, the dusty words had fed,
  16. Is filling up with welcomed sounds of shining life instead.

Listen to me read this poem:

Like my poetry? Send me a pledge on Patreon for as little as $1 per month. Get pre-release access, watch me write my poems live, and even access exclusive video of me explaining the symbols and metaphors in the poems.

Categories
Poetry

Swapping Chains

  1. Break your iron shackles; replace with broken keys.
  2. Have a taste of freedom, but never really free.
  3. Bathed with flaming water didn’t bleach your skin.
  4. Cursed with myth and scripture, philosophies of men.
  5. Take your dimes and dollars to build the halls so grand
  6. ’Cross the traded ocean, but never in your land.
  7. No ticket for the mountain, no fig leaves for your waist,
  8. No oil for your forehead, no tokened hands embraced,
  9. No families forever, no broken bread or wine,
  10. No pastor, priest, or elder, and no empowered climb,
  11. No tongues or hands of healing, no prophecy or dreams,
  12. No chance for highest glory until the white man deems.

Listen to me read this poem:

Like my poetry? Send me a pledge on Patreon for as little as $1 per month. Get pre-release access, watch me write my poems live, and even access exclusive video of me explaining the symbols and metaphors in the poems.

Categories
Vegetarianism

Why I changed my mind about vegetarianism

Well, sort of.

Roughly three years ago, I publicly announced that I had become vegetarian. I had become a pacifist, and not eating meat as a way to avoid killing animals seemed a logical extension of that.

As I progressed in my understanding of anarchist and communist philosophy, I started to also critique the meat industry from an anti-capitalist perspective.

But I’ve changed my mind.

Continue reading “Why I changed my mind about vegetarianism”