webphoto 013, poem 007

Poem 006, Walking Down to Sherbrooke, is the second of a trilogy "Three Poems of Brief Belonging," set in Montreal in 1987. The series begins with a reflection upon the peace of summer reading in a quiet walled park on the city's upper slopes near Parc Mont Royal. The poem of this memory, refuge, begins the trilogy. I came across this webphoto of Montreal schoolgirls on one of the streets rising up Mont Royal . . . (a smaller group) but reminiscent of the wall of youthful energy which disrupts my own subsequent Walking Down to Sherbrooke.

poem 007:

refuge
. . . . . . 31.04.87 – shady, warm, 3:00 p.m.

. . . 4 greystone walls . . . turning back the spring sun’s
. . . . . . . . emergent craze, and,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . together with bright leaves,
creating quiet; one bounded cool place (behind,
. . inside, rested) – I sat inscribed by infinite things,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .but governed by just some -
. . . .the sun’s set sets out words by Camilio Cela,
. . . . . . . . privileged within Percy-Walters Park,
. . . . the square of benches; the single
. . . . afternoon,
. . . . . . . ..alone and bounded
. . . . by walls and pages – I within the book’s removal,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .it’s third city of cover
. . . . Montréal, park, reading and page.
. . . . . . ...together under that simple sky,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .the warmth of spring
. . under the shade of civilizing trees,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . detained.