Scott is a wonderful writer, at the same time as being full-time caregiver for his parents. His father has passed and now his mother is in her difficult, final chapter. Scott writes with acute truth...but, in his gentle way, he always gives relief in humour and fantasy at some of the hardest moments. As he gives himself some breathing room, his readers may pace themselves too.
I first met Scott at Jerry and Pam Libstaff's Words & Music, House Concert Series, last year when he read, and I was so very impressed with him. We now sit in the same writers group and I count Mr. Heffernan as friend. Look for his soon-to-be-published book, "Chasing the Last Banana."
Here follows a piece I wrote on Scott's reading in May, for Words & Music 2011.
Scott Heffernan
Audience tunes up
in familiar dissonance,
solo trumpet of laughter
drops descending notes
on cool silver night,
sunlight plops in big
golden spot upon
monochromatic
scored water,
drops
from burnished
cup in curling,
cumulus
sky.
Met him
inside
a seashell
she didn’t sell,
one that had
cracked down
to its interesting
parts,
edges
softened by sand
and pounding sea.
Heard him
reading to
driftwood damsels,
defining
high-tide line
with roar of his
laughter,
hear him
whispering
still,
inside
a seashell,
long after tide
has been pulled
to other side
of the world.
I breathe with him,
breath and timing
familiar to me now,
yes,
presses
two fingers to
pulse in his neck
racing,
breath,
now pacing himself,
champion of Elders
and other
fading causes,
he pauses
between hat
changes,
rearranges
older pieces
to read us.
Oh, what would
Scott do
but leave us
chasing
that last
banana,
not wanting
to waste
that last
banana,
would he care
if we had no
spoon?
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