Previously critiqued in the Vallance Review, Poetry Life & Times (UK). February, 2002. "Archibald Lampman. Winter Uplands [Review]" Please click the Vallance Review banner for the review:
* I composed this sonnet after taking my Manx cat, Adoré, out for his usual nocturnal promenade. The crisp air, hovering almost breathless just at the freezing point, was redolent with the musky smell of forest pine. Since the breeze, as insignificant as it was, was trailing in from the East, it was coming from the Gatineaux Hills *, a vast forested realm just outside the City of Gatineau, Québec, just across the river from Ottawa. If I didn't know I lived in a city of over 1 million residents, I would have sworn I was in the middle of the Gatineaux Hills, where my friends Louis-Dominique and Claude and I had just gone for a long long trek in the woods on Sunday, when it was very warm out. Of course, Adoré accompanied us on that outing as well. In fact, he proudly bore himself, like any smart cat, on our shoulders, refusing to walk even a few metres!
Huffy-Puffy
Sonata in 4 Acts
(to the accompaniment of Ludwig
van Beethoven's Symphony no. 5
in C Minor, Opus 67 - 2: Andante
Con Moto)
Stage Directions: Actors must
scream over the music!
Dramatis Personae
Husband & Wife (anon.)
Our Seas and their Waves
Conifers in a gale
Siren & Disaster (anon.)
Act I prologue
Our Seas had thrown up ramparts cut in waves,
And all night rained all havock on our shores
In such a heathen rage they could not contain
They signed the moon licked walls and banged up floors!
Act II Siren
Against our panes we'd heard our conifers
Argue as they must with some Siren's squalls:
Youd heard branches yelp, some fragmented blurs,
As they, scratching, knocked, Someone on you calls!
ACT III in medias res
Will their plainsong ever cease, or their grief
For nights? Do you hear their lyres in their strain?
