Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 00:53:59 -0400
From: Ryan Whyte <ryan.whyte@UTORONTO.CA>
To: WRYTING-L@LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA
Subject: the fires (for E. Pauline Johnson)

>From out the west, where tomorrow floats,
The broken song swallows its broken notes.

>From out the west, thing return to thing,
Wind feeds with wind in eternal ring.

The moaning, roaring, sightless fire
Stacks word on word the voiceless pyre.

Over the drumlin and over the wold
It begins and translates the edge of the fold,

A dry swift breath of ancient air
With spectre's speech and pollens rare;

And now a papering of bleaching seas
The dry pale pages of sands and trees.

Then over sky and centre, grass and grain,
The stirring of clocks, waves on the plain.