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Article: HISTORY OF THE LOG DWELLERS.(Poem)
- Article from:
- Quadrant
- Article date:
- November 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Quadrant Magazine Company, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Day after day,
down the grand Saint Lawrence River
and the slow, mirroring pools
of the eighteenth century
glide these immense rafts of lumber
these homes made to be unmade.
For hundreds of miles
the dreamlike momentum of water takes them
each with its cover of green turf, its cabin
where a family is habitual in this livelihood
that drifts the great inland forests to market.
And as they pass whatever eye it is
you bring to catch their former light,
the verbs ignite for them.
Smoke from a cooking fire wavers like gossamer,
a woman thrashes her wash on a gleam of timber,
children invent play for a floating acre,
...