Best Alberta Poems
Winter's passed the snow is gone.
The weather's mild and sunny.
I dream sweet dreams of lazy days,
And eating clover honey.
Then suddenly the wind comes up.
First rain and then wet snow.
This morning it was plus fifteen,
And now it's ten below.
Welcome To Alberta
Alberta, is a province in Canada. It encompasses mountains, boreal forests,
six hundred lakes, foothills, grassland, parkland, and the Rocky Mountains.
A vast province full of picturesque scenery, fabulous cities, a tourist attraction
with so much to offer, until Covid-19 struck, that is ....
Covid -19, First detected Approximately in March 2020
Stats as of today but ever changing by the hour
Current Hospitalizations - 357 in Alberta
Current ICU cases - 68
Total deaths - 3,275 and growing
Active Cases - 4,182 and growing
Total Covid 19 Vaccinations administered - 7,147,330 and changing
One dose only of the Vaccine -89.2%
Population totally vaccinated -84.8%
State of Public Health Emergency
Masking Mandate
Handwashing
Don't touch face
Physical Distancing
Isolating
No travelling effects tourism
Loss of tourist income
School shutdowns
People lose jobs
Some people working from home
Stay at home orders
Covid - 19 Passports required
Residents and staff in nursing homes dying
Military called in to help
And in every province of Canada it is the same story. And a story we share
with the United States, for example ....
Florida, USA Covid hit in March 2020 also
It was the tenth state to confirm Covid-19 cases
Confirmed cases of residents
Confirmed cases of non-residents
Hospitalizations
Deaths - thousands and thousands
Texas, USA Covid-19 hit in March 2020
Total population 29.2 M
Deaths- thousands and thousands
And we could compare every province and every state and every country
as this is a story and a matter of worldwide emergency ..
_______________________
December 14, 2021
Poetry/List/Alberta, Canada- ATF
Copyright Protected, ID 12-1412-968-14
All Rights Reserved, 2021, Constance La France
Written for the Standard contest, Alberta, Florida, Texas
sponsor, Joe Maverick, Judged 02/28/2022
Third Place
The snow is gently drifting down,
Not like two days ago,
When it was blowing sideways,
In a heavy dump of snow.
All the snow had melted.
The birds are coming back.
The flowers just now breaking ground,
And this dumps in our lap.
My lilies were up almost a foot.
Now they're laying flat.
I put some paper over them,
Hoping they'll come back.
The paper bags I used were large.
I made for them a tent.
I propped them up and prayed for them.
Poor things were limp and bent.
It's now April twenty-fourth,
And snow is drifting down,
Covering trees and flower beds,\
And blanketing the ground.
The weather man said we'd have rain.
We got cold wet snow.
Guess when Alberta is your home,
You just go with the flow.
WELCOME TO ALBERTA
Winter's passed, the snow is gone,
The weather's mild and sunny.
I dream sweet dreams of lazy days,
And eating clover honey.
Then suddenly the wind comes up,
First rain and then wet snow.
This morning it was plus fifteen,
And now it's ten below.
Welcome To Alberta
Judy Ball
Alberta Texas Florida …
We call her Bert for short
Was born near the Alamo
And soon brought to Port
Salerno in Florida … duh!
Where she contracted Covid
And languished in the ICU
Lucky to find a respirator
To no avail, it was a zoo,
So they finally took her off
In a unit close to the Gulf
And she became a statistic
Ten thousand and forty-two.
Bert chose not to be jabbed
Like so many nowadays
But it made little difference
For she died … anyways!
SIXTH PLACE WINNER
written December 14, 2021
especially for "Alberta Texas Florida" Poetry Contest
sponsored by Joe Maverick
Cavan Lake, Alberta, that’s where I’m bound to be
You can’t beat the splendor of that wild serenity
Trees are all around me, there’s a robin at my door
And Cavan Lake is just outside, a hundred steps or more
Everywhere I look I see the big Alberta sky
And there comes Laura Lee with that sparkle in her eye
More lovely than a sunrise on the lake outside my door
Or the harvest moon reflecting off the ripples on the shore
Cavan Lake is calling me, that’s where I’m bound to be
In the big skies of Alberta, neath a rustling shady tree
Where the rainbow reaches shore to shore, and the big sky stretches wide
And the coyotes serenade the moon on the shores of the other side
I can see the lake from here, the water’s calm today
Gonna walk down to the shore and chase my blues away
If skipping stones won’t do it and the birds all fly away
I’ll have to take them back again and try another day
http://mike-martin.net/Cavan Lake
Spring is here at last.
The first buds struggle to rise.
A sudden freeze comes.
The new buds wither.
Birds seek shelter from the cold.
Spring in Alberta.
Temperatures vary
Warm, cold, freezing in one day.
Never a dull moment here.
Alberta has pulled me many miles,
her hoofs are placed one after another,
But on this night of Christmas Eve,
She pills a load of hay behind her.
So many young smiles with laughter,
Candles flickering in windows,
With snow deep upon the ground,
Alberta pulled all behind her,
With Christmas songs being sung.
Fireplaces lit with stockings hung,
Sights of snow drifting to the ground,
Carolers singing at each door passing,
With smells of turkeys cooking,
Apple pies on the windowsills cooling.
Alberta an old friend of mine,
A cold winter night but still she trotted,
Trudging through the snow,
All for the faces with glowing smiles,
She kept her hoofs moving until the end,
Then sat in the barn with wondering eyes,
her hoofs tender hoping that someday,
They will invent a gas-powered wagon
Whats in the news today
and how much snow is on the ground
they say in the paper there is 2 600 homeless people
in my home city
but word of mouth and the people who work in the centers
estimate its more like 5000
so I ask
is this a protest of a country who has been lied to
who was led to a war that did not concern them?
who demands to have their own backyard of chemical warfares cleaned up?
Is this a protest against war of I'll never pay taxes
but I'll humble my own country
turning innocent men into serial killers
who join the smuftee killing patriots levelling a country flat
firing machine guns at innocent men listening to dance music
not to mention the reports of raped thirteen year olds and arson
and parents being forced to witness the whole thing before being executed
So I ask
wanna know about terrorism
as winter approaches
and you know soon
you're gonna be walking amongst streets
of frozen corpses
because there is nowhere left for them to go
and the soldiers join forces with some other country who feeds you
lies through the television
and then your own backyard says were going in to peace keep and the truth
surfaces that yes it is an all out war and we've been lieing all along
5000 homeless
a protest?
a government abnormality of one city?
terrorism of chemical warfare
and we're told some government across the ocean
can't handle their own nightmare of terror and assassins
so we have to go in to attack them
even though 9-11 under rug swept from years ago through our books of lies
was an event they catapulted unto somebody else!!!
5000 homeless
are we under attack?
Is that why no ones worried about the seial killings
of hookers turning up in fields anymore that farmers keep reporting?
Is taht why every neighborhood is swarmed with druglords and junkies?
and the prison that houses 300 has more than 700 people in it?
and all i see in my head are frozen corpses
and now i'm wondering
do the professionals im amongst
helping me through this rough patch
are they on medication too?
did we point the finger in the wrong way?
Is it US or them
and what does that have to do with the price of tea in china ask the British?
but what does my underground know of saints
divine intervention and methods to madness?
FLAX FIELD IN ALBERTA
Suddenly out of the blue we come by
A lazuline flax field under the cloudless indigo sky,
Filled to overflowing with perfume dry.
In the steady warm air, the smell of linens
And the small delicate petals’ nutty fragrance.
As the breeze pushes lazy waves into motion
In a summer Alpine lake azure , we are on
A magic carpet afloat, a billowing pale blue blanket upon
A waist-deep ocean: each blue bloom a tiny sapphire.
We want to dive and swim in this ultramarine cloud entire.
Anti-social behavior is a trait of intelligence in a world of conformists.
~Nikola Tesla
I've never been
To Alberta, Texas or Florida,
No, I haven't been
And I don't intend to go.
It's not Covid
That keeps me home
It seems that will be with us
Until Eternity comes.
It's a virus you know
And will mutate
In dozens of ways,
Survival of the fittest...
I am an almost hermit,
I don't like most people
Except for Mom,
Of course.
I venture into town
Only when I have to,
Covid hasn't changed
Me much at all!
Like Twain once said,
"The more I learn about people
The more I like my dog!"
In fact, all five of them,
And a couple of cats.
For: Alberta Texas Florida Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Joe Maverick
Alberta likes to stoke up on some beer
That way, she conquers each one of her fears
She can fly, even die
Without batting an eye
But she still won't undergo a pap smear
Alberta…..they probably just shook their heads and muttered “ey?”
Texas…probably rode it down, roped it, branded it and sent it on its way.
Florida….they probably took it fishing... in the Everglades…’nuf said!
John G. Lawless
12/5/2021