1. disclaimer: do I believe in past lives? Hmm? I have had one of them so called "past life experiences"      let me tell you about it…

2. not Brian Goodwin. A Brian whatshisname, a young physician who was doing community health work in Katmandu, was back for a year in Toronto finishing his dissertation, and he put together these seminars.

3. further, whenever one offers an interpretation, one may be denying the patient the possibility of owning their own discovery.

4. I can't find the right adjective here. "Humanistic" is obscure. "New Age" is derogatory.

5. She was a friend, a confidence, not a lover. And I have changed the name.

6. I looked for the quote recently, and it seems to have morphed into a quote of John the Baptist.

7. I've heard it said that Hindus devised "reincarnation" to sugar coat the caste system, and on it's face that's a strong supposition.

8. a street person in the annex (here in Toronto) (8b)

8b. the Future Bakery, where I taught myself to draw (book one: chapter 8) is in the annex.

9. I wrote a poem about these "past lives" Francoise saw, but rereading it, I'm not sure that it is good enough to show here. Perhaps in a footnote? This is a footnote!

past lives

November still fosters
sun and dandelions
ragged like this parkette
in which I ply my callisthenics
Tai Chi hone me

below
leading to the street
is a tunnel of air
I could get lost in there
just walk into infinity

on the high street
crazy Francoise greets me
nice to see you
always nice to see you
but I don't open
ship in the night
no cargo to exchange
still coping with the last
do you remember
do you remember she says
how you used to sell water
in the desert
and how
the brass buttons
on your coat
shone
in Prussia

and there it is
that tunnel opening again
to magic
and to madness

10.

passing sonya's

sonya too is left behind
her fat father's to an early grave
mother weaves abstracts with some small talent
we all have some small talent
thank god the house is paid
sonya sings jazz
it sounds like one song to me
and the world's left sonya behind

ah here comes francine
of the street up the street
of the street and madness
will she remember her dream
of the brass buttons on my greatcoat
how they gleamed
no she looks right through me
and i too am left
alone
a sunny day here on the streets in bohemia
the city does not love its children
and sonya's left behind

11. in the thirties

12. among other things

13. Partly "yes", partly "we'll I guess I ought to say yes."

14. I've not met Ezra's mother. This was written in response to Ezra's comment that his mother "couldn't let go of the Holocaust….