My Northern Lake
Come with me, I’ll show you beauty, I’ll show you life,
I’ll show you where the loon swallows the sun
and the moon sits in the eye of a snow-owl.
To where painted trees shimmer across the landscape,
setting the lakes on fire.
To where every stroke of our paddle
slices the water’s skin
and pushes away our daily wounds.
Come with me, to where we slowly undo
the knots of our everyday lives.
To where we set our stresses free
to float in fresh water and bundle up
at the mouth of some river,
like a well-woven nest,
cradling our anxieties in its broken fingered hand.
Come with me, and we’ll trickle through the dam
like blinking eyelashes in the sun.
We’ll meet the day together,
we’ll leave our past behind
and get baptized by the boreal.
I’ll stir your soul and you can stir mine,
until our muscles hurt, until the sun sets,
until our breath turns to frost and the water to ice.
Come with me to my northern lake,
where time drifts away on a youthful dream
and simply sets us free, for a while.
Thomas Leduc
Absolutely stunning writing about the northern lakes of my childhood in Sudbury.
Excellent poem Tom. I really saw these images in my head. Some of them are so close together when you’re paddling that I’m surprised you noticed some of them and didn’t dismiss them. As a Free Verse style poem it’s excellent in imagery and flow. I hope to write Free Verse style one day. I hope you find another trip worth as much one day. I look forward to that time tallied for it as well. Appreciate the read. Trevor