Countless things put
together make us who we are
Perhaps what we’ve learned
or things seen near and far
True or false learned from
numerous varied sources
Or perhaps something seen
travelling many courses
It has been my great
pleasure to see some special lands
Majestic mountain vistas,
Alberta’s haunting badlands
The vastness of the
prairie with horizon never reached
The power of the ocean
from a shell strewn beach
I’ve crossed giant rivers,
walked beside the babbling brook
Seen the best and worst of
nature seldom pictured in a book
The crags of mountain
passes, topped by winter’s sparkling load
Miles and miles of wheat
the sun and rain has turned to gold.
Acres and acres of deep
green peas, topped by the pink of bloom.
Offset in midst of summer
with bright yellow canola bloom
A patch-work quilt from
nature and the work of many hands
Laid out in squares and
diamonds across a great productive land.
The history of Bedford
Basin, Louisbourg, Queenston Heights
Twenty four hours of
daylight, mysterious northern lights
Beaver pelts to England to
make all kinds of hats
And each spring the best
of sugar boiled from Maple sap.
A strong beautiful
stallion, head high, nostrils flared,
Eyes full of fire and
danger as he guards his heard of mares
Several hundred cattle
grazing the luscious grass
Or bedded in the shade to
let the hot day pass.
Hundreds of pictures we
catalogue as we go passing by
Let the good ones erase
the bad, or at least let them try
Some of it we saw and some
of it we learned.
Some good and some bad but
somehow always earned.
There’s always strife and
woe, you don’t need to hunt it up
Forget it, let it lay. You
know there’s the rub
You may hate this or that
but it’s all part of the way
You became who you are;
what you are today.