Short Saskatchewan Poems

Canada's hottest day, July 1937, out of sight
Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan, reached 113 Fahrenheit
Sizzling is an understatement
Must've begged for abatement
Phew! Walking round in undies must've been quite a delight...

Read More

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....

Read More

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....

Read More

"Buffy Sainte-Marie, You Are a First Nations Person to Me"

When you were adopted, your spirit told you so
and so you sang from the platform given
by the First Nations people who took you in
and you became one of them, Buffy Sainte-Marie
of the Piapot Band of Saskatchewan, Canada.
...

Read More

Louis Riel



My fourth cousin removed his name is Louis Riel
Was a visionary fiery leader but had met up with turmoil
Some of his kin were proud descendants of
French Canadian coureurs debois
A spiritual and political leader
For the Metis people of the Canadian prairies.





Louis Riel: Born Oct. 22/1844 at Red River Colony
Died Nov, 16/1885 at Regina, Saskatchewan....

Read More

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!”...

Read More

Lake Alma Hills
                              (near Weyburn, Saskatchewan, 1969

                        People are born here
					And people die

			Some live scarcely more
					Than a shadow existence

				Mere 
				Specters

			Tossed about
				In the speechless wind
					And sand that
						Sweeps across 
					
                                 The uneasy and lonely
							Beauty 
                                  Of 
			
                          Lake Alma hills...

Read More

LEAVING   INDIAN    HEAD    
                     

Hot dusty sunny empty street:
Dark interiors of houses and shop 
Where folks hide from the heat;
No hurry, plenty of time to stop.


Past the elevators, lumber yard, 
Dried-out ditches, freight cars, tracks.
Far-stretching  highway hot and hard:
Put pedal  to metal  and relax.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

NOTE

Indian Head is a very small, old-fashioned prairie 
town  45 miles east of Regina, Saskatchewan....

Read More