Riverlines

'fall, snow: melt in the mouth
and speak of a river' - from 'Invocation'

"civic poet of a far-flung land",

Douglas Elves writes of the North Saskatchewan River.

Ranging from midstream to far watershed,
the Saskatchewan Glacier to Cumberland House and beyond, his poems are of those who have lived and worked on or near this river:
the coal-miner fishing in the foothills stream;
the little girl roller-skating in a hotel above the river;
the young farmers exchanging labour;
the fur trader following a moonlight-coloured horse;
the Belgian lawyer homesteading alone in Saskatchewan;
Doukhobors making linen by the river's Great Bend;
sons of Batoche threshing grain;
and so many more.

While most poems here are 'riverlines,' this book includes others, including some written in youth.

riverlines.ca...