the lumberman

it’s winter down some back-road just

north of Quesnel, with steady hands

a lumberman falls another tree.

with this wood he longs to build

a house, to warm it, stand upon its roof

and know the strength beneath him,

shape a cane for when his back

has weakened, a chair to sit in,

a table to work from. he hopes

to carve a birdhouse from the

smooth heartwood of these trees,

whittle a family in perfect proportions,

toys for the children, a night stand

for a wife. he thinks of his father

while limbing the wood by hand.

Nessy

moving through landscape as though we knew
the pathways,
the folds and angles of cities,
tiring mountain passes and salty lowlands,
the in-betweens’ and those stories less-traveled

haying / 1966

forearms red, puffed at th hand
hay swung
flatbed at 1/3
th sun beatin' us down
till its done
th truck got no plates / no tunes
one in each hand, if
you're doin' it proper
setback at th next stop
th boys is strong as fuck
moose skin tied with bailertwian
on th back seat
diesel smoke black as crow

Part 5) advice as an end to itself:

assimilation -
is chain and teeth,
still spinning.

Part 4) no place for you here:

at times, a well disguised birch
will slip in among the pine,
take the dirt road
back to the city.

try to live the good life
amidst the cracks
and hustle-bustle.

Part 3) displaced (burning):

along with the fallen, the unwanted.

those which get in the way,
birch and poplar mostly -
if said to have a milled value
of less then the cost to get’em out -
stay behind.
eventually meeting the same fate
as all the other
inconvenient trees.

Part 2) the fallen trees:

having never been exposed
to a full, blustering wind
these trees are ill-equipped
to face the coming storms.

they won’t be trucked or milled, these trees …
they will be stacked and burned -
when the ground is hard and the adjacent stumpage
is padded with snow.

Part 1) and if i had his compassion:

a northern cutblock,
nestled into folds of old growth tree-line.
taught and rearing this place
is separated from the hustle-bustle
of city life by mountains,
by policy and intent, intenders
hell-bent.

here the tailings of last winter
still linger. holding on,
the newly exposed timber
pushes against the wind,
pulling at the knurled roots below.
heaving the boreal landscape
inward.

Falls - Cape Breton Island

Mother Mary - New Brunswick

From Field - Nova Scotia

Rural Nova Scotia

Coastline - Cape Breton Island

Done For the Season - Cape Breton Island

Confederation - New Brunswick side

Parade of Lights - Halifax

Light Snow - Cape Breton Island

Light - Cape Breton Island

Sparks - Cape Breton Island

From The Other Side - Old Montreal

Charlottetown

Boarded Up - Toronto

Warn

Warm