The Winter Prairie #6

"With the noise of a thousand typewriters

We shall gallop over the roofs of town.

We are the the Sun's animals.

We stand by him in the West

And ready to obey

His most auburn wish

For Rain, Wind and Storm"

from The Sundogs

by James Reaney

McClelland & Stewart, 1949

Now is this Winter of our Discontent (some prophetic words from Howard)

"I do not recall distinctly when it began, but it was months ago. The general tension was horrible. To a season of political and social upheaval was added a strange and brooding apprehension of hideous physical danger; a danger widespread and all-embracing, such a danger as may be imagined only in the most terrible phantasms of the night. I recall that the people went about with pale and worried faces, and whispered warnings and prophecies which no one dared consciously repeat or acknowledge to himself that he had heard. A sense of monstrous guilt was upon the land, and out of the abysses between the stars swept chill currents that made men shiver in dark and lonely places. There was a daemoniac alteration in the sequence of the seasons — the autumn heat lingered fearsomely, and everyone felt that the world and perhaps the universe had passed from the control of known gods or forces to that of gods or forces which were unknown." 

from Nyarlathotep" by H.P. Lovecraft

Cataract Surgery has gone well.

Calgary, March 2, 2029 7:44 a.m. temp. -32C/-25.6F - WC -40C/-40F

The Winter Prairie #5 (Left eye done 20/20)

" he wanders, wonders
                                      through the play within the play

                                              knowing not
                            
                                                     which is the right

                                                                 the light

the star in the cold, staring sky,

       or the star reflected in a human eye. " 

from Double Entendre
by Phyllis Webb

McClelland & Stewart, 1956

The Winter Prairie #4

"It was the hand that caught in me
Sudden as a beast the blizzard
had whirled on us   was gone
as quick over the hill and howling
through the next village  whose spire
could be glimpsed blotting out now 
in a grey fury"

from Arrivals 
by Earle Birney

Mcclelland and Stewart, 1964

The Winter Prairie #3 (Right eye seems to have gone well)

"Past that frost-cracked rock step
twist yourself through
skew trunks and old coat-hook branches;
ground once dug and thought of and
never intended for those toadstools. "

from Old Property
by Milton Acorn

NC Press, 1975

The Winter Prairie #2

"We dream of the big world we cannot enter

and we have no money and we turn into winter;

when the next spring comes we will melt until

we run like rivers down the high free hill." 

from We are Sitting on a High Green Hill

by Gwendolyn MacEwen

Macmillan of Canada, 1974 

CPL book sale, the good old days.

The Winter Prairie #1

I am not taking a lot of photos at present. So I thought I would posts a series of photos I took earlier this winter on trips to and from Saskatchewan.

While in Saskatchewan I was also able to purchase some lovely books by Canadian poets that I want to feature as well. And maybe I will sneak in a few others from my shelves. 

"So all the photographs like children's wishes

are filled with caves or winter, 

innocence

has acted as a filter,

from Photos of a Salt Mine

P.K. Page

McClellan & Stewart Limited, 1967