Paint By Province Poem by Salvatore Ala

(Essex County)

By mixing the sunset
With green farms
And black walnut,
A white horse grazes in a field.

(Cape Breton)

By mingling lake water
With white birch
And yellow leaves,
The sail of the sun floats into view.

(PEI)

By combining lupins
With red soil and green fields
The island sleeps
In the waves of its dreams.

(Chocolate River, New Brunswick)

By amassing sediment
The sun pans for gold
Like an old prospector
Knee-deep in the river.


(Rural Ontario)

By bonding the smell of snow
With wood smoke,
November sets its essence
In your mind.

(Lake Louise, Alberta)

By joining elevation
To compression and water
Mountains wash their faces
In their own turquoise mirrors.

(Gaspe, Quebec)

By linking the St. Lawrence
To an endless watershed
Of blue iris in bloom
Beauty floods the seaway.