Fire Tower on Nose Mountain

After visiting Vivian Demuth

Catherine said:
she lives in the sky.
Wait and see.

The tower is perched
on the summit,
spindly metal legs
stretching up,
grass neatly trimmed
around its base.

I stand at the edge
look out into sky,
then down:
a sea of trees,
the road a rugged chord
twisting its way up here.

Some of us climb
the tower to the top
or as far as we dare.

Later
we sit in her cabin
crowd the small table
eat take-out pizza
brought from town,
talk about writing
with this poet
who is more alone
than we have ever
dreamed of being.

At the end of the day
we drive back to town
to jobs and husbands
and children and
the multitude of worries
we let go only a few
brief hours before.

We leave,
wondering what we could write
if given such solitude.
What words
would find their way
to the page
through our pens
from the sky?

~ Angela Kublik

Angela Kublik never met Al Purdy but is glad his poems remain. She is an Edmonton based writer whose poetry has appeared in The Prairie Journal, Legacy, and FreeFall, as well as online at DailyHaiku.Org. In addition to being the editor of blueskiespoetry.ca, she is also the co-founder/publisher of House of Blue Skies, Alberta’s newest micropublisher, and co-editor of the best-selling anthology Writing the Land: Alberta through its Poets, with Dymphny Dronyk. The anthology is currently in its third printing.

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This poem has been posted as part of a tribute to Al Purdy, the man widely regarded as Canada’s first true national poet. The League of Canadian Poets has declared April 21 to be National Al Purdy Day. The “Purdy A-Frame Trust” has been started to raise funds to preserve Purdy’s famous home in Ameliasburg, Ontario. For more information or to make a contribution to the Trust contact: Jean Baird, 4403 West 11th Ave., Vancouver, BC, V6R 2M2. Phone: 604 224 4898 or email: jeanbaird@shaw.ca

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One Response to “Fire Tower on Nose Mountain”

  1. very GOOD!!! =)

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