Yes! Thirty poems… wow. In my last post I talked about a contest for National Poetry Writing Month I was participating in. Thirty poems in thirty days. And I did it! Edited by me, but no time for anyone else to take a look through them. I submitted them to the contest a few days ago.

My theme was “Walking in the World”. For the month of April, my world was Victoria, both nature, and the built environment. Of course, I took many photos, and occasionally a scene or experience would lead to a poem.

A destination I sometimes head to is the Ross Bay cemetery in Fairfield.

On one walk to the cemetery I saw a line of daycare children, so that image lead to this poem.

At the Cemetery

All these lives
each wanted to make a difference
to love, or be loved
to make the world better—
however that meant,
to leave a legacy
for their descendants

And I see them now
those descendants—
daycare children, two straight lines
hand in hand, just like Madeline

toddling, perhaps to the playground
in pink hats, broad brimmed
unaware of nearby ancestors
who worked so hard
logged and ploughed
sustained by the earth in which they lie
who gave so much
for their future descendants

and how will these children,
these successors,
treat what they inherit?
will they guard it,
the earth on which they walk?
the earth in which their ancestors lie?

***

So now I’m tidying up my office after all the poetic debris of April. Stay tuned!