He said, "Here, Dean! Sit here on this saran-wrapped bag of wet plaster and wriggle around a bit. I'm going to build you a guitar stool that’ll fit your butt perfectly!"

And I did, and he did.

He carved ash one by twos and laid them across the top of a steamer for a night, then whittled their long curvatures into a trio of graceful legs. He used the now-dry plaster template and a pair of calipers to gauge the carving of a slab of walnut laminate into a trapezoid no bigger than a man's open hand. Then he used emery and Swedish oil to polish the stool’s seat until the hardwood took on a deep sheen. An adjustable foot rest slid easily up or down the left leg of the stool to raise my knee so the guitar would stay put. A joiner's wedge at the back of the foot rest stabilized it at just the right height. I call this masterpiece “The Cat’s Ass”.

Which of us has not relaxed in the presence of a Kujaneck invention, touched the living hard wood, seen the thousands of tiny concavities his carving tools left as he sculpted and joined the chair, shaped the bracing or perfected the dovetail? Lucky we who have a Kujaneck rocker or deal chair, a coffee table, a hanging cupboard or head-board whose wood grains and finishes tell of great living woods and a great wood-worker whom life truly loved; one who loved life right back.

Bryan, carver and joiner of slices of life, is immortalized in his creations!

Web Design by Douglas Elves. Water reflection photograph by Linda Jennings.

Dean Morrison McKenzie

McKenzie's a kid from the village; it shows in his themes. His poetry, fiction, music, films and essays are laden with imagery gathered from the world that surrounds small prairie towns. So far he has co-authored two or three chapbooks, read his stuff on public radio and has had his voice used to record commercials and training films. McKenzie's first CD, "Prairie Hejira" was published in 2001 and on November 23rd, 2003, at The Yardbird Suite, he and the band released "The Silver Apples of the Moon". He also wrote the script for "Skipping Stone" -- the AMPIA-award winning film produced by Frame 30, and recently Michael Hamm screened McKenzie's "Night Benz", another short film based on the prose/poem included in this chap book. It was awarded a Silver Medal at the Houston International Festival of Independent Films in the category Jazz/New Age/Spoken Word.

When asked about life as a retired English teacher, he refers to it as a bus man's Holiday. "I've been editing the work of others all my life; now I'm smoothing out my own roughnesses."

Watch for his next chapbook, "The McKenzie Chronicles" and "The Jazz Poet" CD is just around the corner along with a loosely connected series of short stories about the "Urbaniginals". McKenzie is also working with MaxMedia to produce some poetry/art/music videos with the collaboration of Alberta post-modern impressionist Wayne Schneider. Wayne's paintings create moody graphics that reflect some of the darker aspects of McKenzie's themes; the corollary: McKenzie's poems reflect Wayne's angst. Andrew Glover's synthesized keyboards will accompany "His Recurring Night Terrors" in the performance poems.

The submissions in this electronic chapbook include pieces that you may have read, heard or seen elsewhere, but they were nearly all published on this web site or in the Stroll Archives before they made their way into recordings, public performances, hard copies or film scripts.

POEMS

Lysergia: The Day of the Ergot

INDIAN SUMMER HAS GONE

The Wild Cattery

A Dance Danced

John O'Winter

Equinox -- Long Beach

Modestly! Modestly!

Honouring Christian Bok

Shades of Another Time

Another Pedestrian Poem

Etching the Blank