as published in the AB retired teachers’ magazine. The contest theme was Travel.
Free
You’ve got a big wad
of gum in your mouth
that tastes like cherries.
Your gas tank is full
& you could drive
for several hours.
The roads are much better
than the weather report
& any tourists have stayed home.
The sky is unclouded, blue
with the mountains just ahead.
You’ve finished a good meal
& left your work
far, far behind.
There is a key in your pocket
for a cabin you’ve
never seen before.
Your friends have asked
for nothing in return
‘maybe a poem or a postcard.’
Yesterday’s storm has passed.
There is only a positive
sense of dislocation.
Where you are going
& when you will arrive
is up to you alone.
There are no more limits
to your freedom
as you climb to
the top of a hill
passing vans and other cars.
You are leaving Calgary
& the rest of your life.
There is only now
& maybe tomorrow.
There is only now
& whatever will
happen next.
……………………………….
Written about 1995 on my way to a film conference in Banff and a stay in a teacher-friend’s cabin. (ps/ they did get a personalized poem printed below). Every time I leave Calgary since for the mountains, I recall this poem and how I felt that glorious solitary winter day. It was about that time that I decided I would retire from teaching as soon as I could….
………………………………….
Banff (At Roy and Kris’s)
Down the long steps
to an unscheduled wood,
down to the feathered green
of mast-like trees
swaying high and significant.
An inland sea sweeps
deck and continent alike,
black and white peaks
a geography of snow:
one man, one solitude.
He was meant for this ground–
his presence a direction
his message a track.
He was destined for this
much meaning:
the boardwalk over pungent moss
the unseen elk and wolf
no tourists
and a safe passage home.
…………………………………
ps/The cabin poem still hangs framed there as far as I know.