To the Expositor:
When the doldrums of winter surround us, it is uplifting to remember how Manitoulin’s fair isle spreads its beauty and splendour around us through all seasons, picture…
Spring When blossoming fruit trees confetti the breeze Under both noon and moon shadows, While foraging rabbits stain their hare lips With strawberries and the petals of wild roses. Summer When choirs of bees raise hosannas to mead Through fields drizzled with dandelion honey, And spotted young fawns, gracing our lawns, Suckle “green-apple” milk from their moms. Early Fall When headlands and roads reveal colour codes Where woodlands swirl with yesterday’s leaves, While amid meadows, once green, farm folk are seen Immersed in the gold of their harvest routine. Autumn When a spotted tree frog and tortoise shell cat side-by-side nap In the dappled shade of our deck, As, with winter anon, shadows of migrating geese pattern our lawn To the steady dragon-boat beat of their throng. Winter When over plump fields above and white meadows below Dervishes whirl up sky-high pillars of snow, As come-to-earth sundogs with their auroras a shimmer Are omens of weather over wetlands and river. Deep Northern Winter When dark ravens departing their sauna through the mists of a stream On snowy white banks imprint “angel wings,” While upside-down winter brings the brightest light from below, Reflected off snow. Doreen Bailey Evansville
