Wednesday Poems

Image:  In the Woods, oil and cold wax on canvas, 12” x12” (sold)

January here on Pender has given us unusually glorious weather – crisp sunny days, perfect for walking in the woods.  We should be getting a big dose of our annual rainfall this month, but that’s not happening – which is a worry.  But in the meantime, there is much to enjoy.  All of which reminded me of my father’s love of nature and being in the woods.  A sentiment he expressed beautifully near the end of his 1936 diary chronicling his first job away from home on a tramp freighter during the Great Depression.  So, here is Land, from Waiting for the Albatross (Oolichan) – a collection of poems I crafted using segments from his diary. (For more about this book, check out my Books page)


Land

i.

A Bluenose type schooner sailed right by us this morning
and left us gaping.

Woke up and noticed we were lying off Cape Canso.
I could see land

outlined against the sky and three lights.
Gerry called me at 5.30 and told me there was land all along

the port side. I got up to have a look-see. Huge cliffs with a sheer
drop to the sea of at least 500 feet.

Quite thickly settled all along
the shores and a lot of the farms are still of small frontage but cut

straight back into the woods for several miles.
We passed Fame Pt. at 10 a.m. Fred and I were on the poop

watching a car speed along the highway; up and down hills, around
corners and finally out of sight

with the dust slowly settling behind him.


ii.

The smell of the woods is wonderful.
You begin to realize you are nearly home,
sighting Seal Island, Cape East, the Magdalens,
smelling the wonderful smell of the woods.

After supper, admired the scenery, how the hills
changed colour at dusk. I almost got the channels,
when I smelled the thickly forested shores
and began to realize we were nearly home.


To get the channels means to be excited and anxious to get ashore, especially after a long time at sea.