Friday, May 15, 2009

"Canadians" poem

Courtesy of classfellow R.H, an apposite poem by Miriam Waddington.

Canadians

Here are
our signatures:
geese, fish, eskimo
faces, girl-guide
cookies, ink-drawings
tree-plantings, summer
storms and winter
emanations.

We look
like a geography but
just scratch us
and we bleed
history, are full
of modest misery
are sensitive
to double-talk double-take
(and double-cross)
in a country
too wide
to be single in.

Are we real or
did someone invent
us, was it Henry
Hudson Etienne Brûlé
or a carnival
of village girls?
Was it
a flock of nuns
a pity of indians
a gravyboat of
fur-traders, professional
explorers or those
amateurs map-makers
our Fathers
of Confederation?

2 comments:

PeekFreans said...

left out the ending of the poem.

"Wherever you are
Charles Tupper Alexander
Galt Darcy McGee George
Cartier Ambrose Shea
Henry Crout Father
Ragueneau Lork Selkirk
and John A.--however
far into northness you have walked--
when we call you
turn around and
don't look so surprised."

question! when was this poem written?

courtney said...

1968