A Different Side of the lake - Campbell Parsons
As the wind brushed my cold cheeks
And as the snow crunches by each step I take
I feel something different
The Canadian winter is incredible
I have walked there in the summer
But on these cold days the lake shore feels different
Although the winter looks calm the creatures of the forest are still near by
The rabbit’s foot steps are lying in the light powder on the beach.
I feel something different
The forest still feels warm to me
As I walk along the beach I breathe in the fresh air
I feel the cold as the snowflakes fall upon my hair
I can only imagine the warmth of the hot chocolate I will drink later
But for now ill bask in natures great changesI feel something different
I winter is such a different placeI could stay there forever



Campbell Parson’s ‘A Different Side of the lake’ is sensually powerful poem depicting the Canadian winter. Clearly, the author has an acute sense of poetic communication. I personally enjoy the comparison of the Canadian summer and winter. Among the plethora of Canadian themes, I have always personally viewed ‘seasonal variation’ as fundamental. Although Campbell stress of visual description can be ascertained, he has extensively described feeling and sound as well. Having experienced this atmosphere, I am able to relate to the poem, and it’s acutely accurate sensory depiction brings me right to the chilly shore of a wintery lake. To me, the strongest images are those in which Campbell ‘imagines’ and ‘remembers’ warmth and security. When in this cold environment, one cannot help to hope for the sun, a warm drink and the indoors. I feel as though more effort should have been applied to writing a poem with a meter or rhyme scheme. Despite one’s natural repulsion from the bitter, hostile climate, the location’s natural beauty overpowers, leaving the visitor with a positive impression. Especially poetically, this phenomenon is difficult to communicate, but Campbell is effective in doing so.
-Daniel Mitropolsky

Fading Horizon

Fading Horizon is an Outdoor Sensory Experience poem, reflecting on the experiences of one's senses in the Canadian outdoors. Fading Horizon is a poem of four classical Haikus. Classical Haikus feature a 5, 7 and 5 syllable pattern, cannot rhyme, and should use second person pronouns and never first-person pronouns.

Fading Horizon is set in Canadian winter.

Fading Horizon
Wintery sky melts into lake
From which bare oaks rise!

Gliding, calling geese
Snowflakes cloaking rabbit tracks
Waiting for the sun

Her stinging embrace
Chokes, chars your throat breath by breath
Loss of consciousness

Stark arctic beauty
Placid crunching of the snow-
Is a symphony

Stung by potent air,
Painful summer memories
Isolating you

And just for fun...

Aliens invade
They vaporized my uncle
Now they come for me

Erasing my footprints

A Villanelle capturing the struggle, revelation, survival and fate of an early Canadian explorer.

I feel death’s cold white mask before my face
We venture onward with forgotten cause
The blizzard wind my footprints will erase

I race a mocking deer at her light pace
For rest would be the end and not a pause
I feel death’s cold white mask before my face

Her majesty- though last, I bring disgrace
For whom do I explore and reap applause?
The blizzard wind my footprints will erase

Having come so far I must embrace
The moose’s death to feed a crowd of jaws
I feel death’s cold white mask before my face

Surviving- on a scroll my route I trace
For every wolf and black bear; and because
The blizzard wind my footprints will erase


As bleeding icicles my limbs replace
With honour I shall let her win the clause

I feel death’s cold white mask before my face-
The blizzard wind my footprints will erase!

I met a man

A story of Multiculturalism, Immigration and Canadian stereotype.

Danny M.

With no true understanding of the man I am to meet,
I see a snowy figure crawling out of an igloo
Guarded by a polar bear, seal and narwhale fleet
Buried in a parka, spelling color with a U

In the roaring blizzard, freezing rain and violent storm
The arm stretched out before me is a ice-induced mirage
But when I stretch to grasp the palm the breeze I feel is warm
And holding hands he paints the snow a colorful collage

Shades I had forgotten stain the deadly sleet with life
Bursting bulbs of green and red spray hues of every kind,
From the sky blue páint rains like blood dripping from a knife
But still his porcelain Venetian mask is undefined

At times it’s black or yellow- and at others it is brown
His left eye is a Gulabjam, his right a Chinese lantern
Throughout his varying colors his lips never smile nor frown
His glove blends with my skin as I in him myself intern

Dark Pines Under Water

Celebrated by Canadian Poets as a profound, personal interpreation of Canada, Dark Pines Under Water paints the traditional, renowned literary perception of the Canadian Landscape, as well as analyzing the psychological and spiritual complexity of the early explorers' opinions of the Great North.

With a strong theme of exploration and environment, Dark Pines Under Water by Gwendolyn MacEwen, 1969, symbollically captures my fascination and faith in Canada.

This land like a mirror turns you inward

And you become a forest in a furtive lake;

The dark pines of your mind reach downward,

You dream in the green of your time,

Your memory is now a row of sinking pines.

Explorer, you tell yourself this is not what you came for

Although it is good here, and green;

You had meant to move with a kind of largeness,

You had planned a heavy grace, an anguished dream.

But the dark pines of your mind dip deeper

And you are sinking, sinking, sleeper

In an elementary world;

There is something down there and you want it told.

~1969

Canadian Poetry; Survival and Fate in the Cold

The Dying Hunter to his Dog

A poem about survival, struggle and ultimate death of a hunter in the harsh, violent Canadian north. By Susanna Moodie (1803-1885)

1Lie down -- lie down! -- my noble hound,
2 That joyful bark give o'er;
3It wakes the lonely echoes round,
4 But rouses me no more --
5Thy lifted ears, thy swelling chest,
6 Thy eyes so keenly bright,
7No longer kindle in my breast
8 The thrill of fierce delight;
9When following thee on foaming steed
10My eager soul outstripped thy speed --
11Lie down -- lie down -- my faithful hound!
12 And watch this night by me,
13For thee again the horn shall sound
14 By mountain, stream, and tree;
15And thou along the forest glade,
16 Shall track the flying deer
17When cold and silent, I am laid
18 In chill oblivion here.
19Another voice shall cheer thee on,
20And glory when the chase is won.
21Lie down -- lie down! -- my gallant hound!
22 Thy master's life is sped;
23Go -- couch thee on the dewy ground --
24 'Tis thine to watch the dead.
25But when the blush of early day
26 Is kindling up the sky,
27Then speed thee, faithful friend, away,
28 And to thy mistress hie;
29And guide her to this lonely spot,
30Though my closed eyes behold her not --
31Lie down -- lie down! -- my trusty hound!
32 Death comes, and we must part --
33In my dull ear strange murmurs sound --
34 More faintly throbs my heart;
35The many twinkling lights of heaven
36 Scarce glimmer in the blue --
37Chill round me falls the breath of even,
38 Cold on my brow the dew;
39Earth, stars, and heavens, are lost to sight --
40The chase is o'er! -- brave friend, good night! --