Happy Canada Day! Today, a poem, celebrating our Canadian flag.
Flag
“National flag of Canada
two by length and one by width, red
containing in its center a white square
the width of the flag
with a single red maple leaf
centered therein”*
flies majestic since 1965
over town squares
by cenotaphs and schools
from Cape Spear, Newfoundland
to Beaver Creek, Yukon
Alert, Nunavut
to Middle Island, Ontario.
Proudly raised at Olympics
wrapping the grim coffins of soldiers
feted on Canada Day
marched in to the skirl of bagpipes November 11th
this silk-screened symbol
stitches together
our experience and destiny
sea to sea to sea.
When so plentiful at home you no longer see
till it’s reincarnated into jester caps
umbrellas and wind socks
painted on faces, stamped on T-shirts
decaled onto mugs and beaver pens
abroad even one
grabs your homesickness
like the initials of a sweetheart.
Meet someone with your flag stitched on his pack
and you know he’ll understand Tim Horton’s
hockey, Z that rhymes with ‘bed’
loonies, toonies, Bruce Cockburn, Diana Krall
Circque du Soliel, CBC, Air Canada, O Canada.
Sorry, but how great is it to have found someone
who speaks your own language, eh?
© 2008 by Violet Nesdoly – All rights reserved.
*Description taken from Canadian Heritage: pch.gc.ca website, Canadian flag description page (this version no longer online).
In the last few months I’ve had fun painting miniature Canadian landscapes. Here they are spread across a map of Canada (placed approximately where they would be located in the country). All but one of these tiny acrylic paintings are available for purchase from my Etsy store. See the collection HERE.
Violet Nesdoly 