If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes
Why live in the prairies? We have our reasons
At -50 you might say we hit our limits
Few places in one day, do you see all 4 seasons
Why live in the prairies? We have our reasons
Snow in June, and t-shirt weather in December
Few places in one day, do you see all 4 seasons
You don’t have to think too far back to remember
Snow in June, and t-shirt weather in December
A 30 degree temperature swing in under a week
You don’t have to think too far back to remember
Our ability to acclimatize is really quite unique
A 30 degree temperature swing in under a week
We’re always ready for when it really drops
Our ability to acclimatize is really quite unique
Make sure to bring your parka and flip-flops
We’re always ready for when it really drops
At -50 you might say we hit our limits
Make sure to bring your parka and flip-flops
If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes
Categories:
saskatchewan, weather,
Form: Pantoum
Don Juan In Saskatchewan
We had driven until the next new dawn,
We did find ourselves in Saskatchewan;
Lakes would love;
Mountains above;
Name of person driving was Don Juan.
James Don Juan Horn
If it was done by Juan,
Happened on an autobahn.
Categories:
saskatchewan, allegory, analogy,
Form: Limerick
LET HIM GO, SASKATCHEWAN
Let him go, Saskatchewan,
Send his spirit home to us
You have little use for his smile and wit
For you have endless horizons
And waves of grass and wheat.
Your silent silos stand tall and straight
And do not need his fixing.
Oh, let him go, Saskatchewan,
For he is so dear to us
He loved his satellite TV
And Rush, the rock band
But tools were his real passion
Drills and saws and building things
A true northern man.
Please let him go, Saskatchewan,
His family wants him near to us,
You have interesting places like Moose Jaw
And a city for the Queen.
Places where wild spirits dance and sing
So let us have him back again
To frolic in Muskokan fields.
Pray, let him go, Saskatchewan,
He was once a part of us.
A bit like his father, alone in the end,
So much like his mother, stronger than you think.
He’s applied for a new position, we understand,
Working for St. Peter as a heavenly handyman;
I guess that God just needs him more.
Categories:
saskatchewan, death of a friend,
Form: Free verse
SASKATCHEWAN SUMMER EVENING
Porch light spreads weakly out
Into the field and dissipates
In the buzz of grasshoppers.
Starlight and fireflies; crickets chirp.
Hot air shimmers the lights of the far highway.
Grain train pulls out, juddering
And clanging its slow way to speedy freedom.
Categories:
saskatchewan, life,
Form: Imagism
SASKATCHEWAN SPRING MORNING
Dawns another early spring day:
Garden is frozen on stillness’ edge,
Door crackles open as ice strips away,
White lawn, white branches, white hedge.
Warm breath clouds in front of face;
Don’t want footsteps to spoil
Cold freshness filling this tiny place
And perfection painted at night on soil.
Silent snow swirls all around -
Saskatchewan spring in my garden small.
Chill air nips new shoots on the ground,
Hidden behind my hedge and wall.
Beyond the hedge, a thousand miles white,
The prairies awaken from the night.
Categories:
saskatchewan, nature, nostalgia, spring, spring,
Form: Sonnet
Those big rolling plains,
as if the ground with golden sun is stained,
and that sky as if the oceans northward rised,
layed flat above:
the sky and earth are making love.
There, I breathe the air,
As if my final moments here, are laced with God,
a divine plot,
and the end is drawing near
Categories:
saskatchewan, death, nature, sky,
Form: Shape
THE WINDS OF SASKATCHEWAN
They blow miniature drifts of summer sand through your car door crack
They sweep up the fall leaves faster than any broom or besom
Their hiss in October tells you, “Hey, winter’s coming, just listen!
They send hard snow drifts across the road to surprise you on a dark night black
But
The perfume of the wind hints that spring is here, and flowers
The smell of the breeze after two month’s drought says, “At last, some showers!”
Categories:
saskatchewan,
Form: Verse
INCIDENT ON HIGHWAY 12, SASKATCHEWAN 1977
Black ice early morning
I heard no radio warning
Truck coming east at sixty
Me heading west at seventy.
Closing at two hundred feet
Every second of my heartbeat,
Ten seconds from now we will meet
At a finish line : dead heat.
Black ice is always a surprise
Unseen with the eyes -
Begin to spin out of control
Drawn choking into that black hole.
Try to correct - impossible,
The surface of treachery’s invisible.
Aim for the ditch? Brake?
I can do nothing but slide as a snake.
Hold my breath to think -
He’ll be on me in a blink -
I slowly spiral into the oncoming fate -
He can do nothing but jack-knife it.
A voice shouts out loud for aid -
I’m afraid it’s my voice. God isn’t afraid.
At that moment I uncovered
What I’d once believed and covered :
The pretended atheist dropped
His child’s toy unwanted:
I suddenly outgrew it
In a slow-mo second split.
I missed the truck by a yard or so.
About one fiftieth of a second to go.
I see the trucker’s helpless face.
Still makes me shiver, can’t erase.
Categories:
saskatchewan, life, me, , atheist,
Form: Couplet
north by northen
they live in villages of 8 to 10 people,
dont pay rent and make art out of multi
colored buttons and old bent tire rims.
they have warm smiles and icicle
beards that hang down in a
furrowed eccentric mess.
they are eskimos that write with
red ball point pens and speak french
fluently. except when they slip on the
ice they may curse and cry.
thier tears freeze into crystal cathedrals
with paintings of redemption
hanging along its walls.
they redeem us all.
Categories:
saskatchewan,
Form: I do not know?
Land of the living skies
Where the Saskatchewan prairie lies
Skies painted with every hue
Pinks, purples and shades of blue
The sun slowly sinks in the west
The land settles down to rest
Our prairie full of havest gold
Truly a site to behold
Feel the wide open space
Feel the wind upon your face
Our heavens hold the northern lights
Dancing across the sky at night
The rich soft soil of the ground
Beautiful nature all around
Summer, winter, spring and fall
Season changes we get them all
The beaver knawing on his bark
The singing of the bluejays and meadow lark
Gophers popping their heads above the ground
Having a look at what lurks around
The loon calls it's lonely tune
The snowy owl hoots at the moon
Deer and moose stand and graze
In the evenings cool misty haze
The countryside what a site
The prairies, my home, my delight
This place truly a hidden treasure
A pace of life you cannot measure
Friendly people to lend a hand
Hard working people on the land
This is the place that we love
From the ground at our feet to the stars above
Categories:
saskatchewan, nature, people, places, people,
Form: I do not know?