In 2002 I remember reading the work of an online poet that I admired in The Adirondack Review. I wanted very much to replicate the feat as I felt that their review (TAR) had some fine poetry. In the fall of 2003 they were kind enough to publish: "Place Du Canada", which I still feel is one of the better poems I have written. It's one of the few poems that I've penned which makes a political statement and espouses views which I still believe in. If any of you have read Mordechai Richler's now infamous (at least in these parts) article "O Quebec!" in the New Yorker: May 30, 1994 you might understand whereof I speak. Anyway "this is all she wrote":
PLACE DU CANADA
What might this town square have looked like
in another era - when this bench was not here;
its green slats supporting the weight of a culture
that we tried to bring with us, when we docked
at Pier 21, but could not fit in our suitcases
without handles. Now I sit in the mapled shade
and consider. Where would we have put it?
The plaque below the statuary is a reminder
that the Father's of Confederation had fought
for the sole possession of this land. When
Montreal fell during a revolutionary war,
Quebec's allegiances were for the taking,
but would not become another Cajun state -
the francophone roots showing through
the bleached bones of an English presence.
Our flag flutters above the tips of trees,
the red and white - minus the blue.
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First published in the “Adirondack Review” – Fall 2003 Vol. V, No. 2
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