Souwesto Home

By James Reaney

The poems in Souwesto Home are fresh, youthful meditations on such diverse subjects as the Little Lakes near Stratford, Ontario, the flora of Elgin County, the Donnelly feud, lichens, a Department Store Jesus, and so on. The collection ranges widely in tone and technique, from the lyrical to the satirical, from the direct and straightforward to the linguistically playful. As ever, Reaney’s signature voice, his inimitable combination of sophistication and child-like simplicity, may be heard in every line. Like his contemporaries, P.K. Page, Margaret Avison and Colleen Thibaudeau (his wife), he has lost nothing of his poetic prowess to advancing years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brick Books
• Release date: Sep 15, 2005
• ISBN: 9781894078955

James Reaney

James Reaney is one of Canada's finest poets and dramatists. He is the three time winner of the Governor General's Award and the author of numerous plays and poetry collections including: The Donnellys (Beach Holme, 1983), Wacousta, The Dismissal, Bees, Selected Longer Poems (Beach Holme, 1976), Selected Shorter Poems (Beach Holme, 1975), Colours in the Dark and many others. He lives in London, Ontario, an area frequently featured in his writing.

Book preview

SOUWESTO HOME

SOUWESTO HOME

JAMES REANEY

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Reaney, James, 1926-

       Souwesto home / James Reaney.

Poems.

ISBN 1-894078-43-8

I. Title.

PS8535.E24S69 2005       C811’.54       C2004-906083-X

Copyright © James Reaney

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP), and the Ontario Arts Council for their support of our publishing program.

The cover images are from photographs of the farmhouse where James Reaney was born. Photographer unknown.

The illustrations and clip art pieces are by James Reaney.

The book is set in Minion.

Design and layout by Alan Siu.

Printed by Sunville Printco Inc.

Brick Books

431 Boler Road, Box 20081

London, Ontario N6K 4G6

www.brickbooks.ca

To our two grandchildren

Edie and Elizabeth

Contents

LITTLES

Domus

Scripsit

Brush Strokes Decorating a Fan

Little Lake District (Where I was Born) Poems

BIGGERS & BIGGIES

Elderberry Cottage

Senex

The Wild Flora of Elgin County

Tell Us, Tellus

The Fan

The Duck

The Ship

Outside = Inside?

Maps

White Grumphies, white snow...

The Congress Café

Department Store Jesus

Entire Horse

Moses

The Birth of a Pome

Don Quixot de la Verismo

Descartes

Finger Games

A Field of Corn

Janitor

Film Credits

Lichen

One Stone

Lot

Ice Cream

Stage Door

Home Again

LITTLES

Domus

Scripsit

The cow, me cow

Mooed at the moon.

These cows mooed at the moon.

How kind of them

To match her mood

Get rid of this reader, I snapped.

              Redd it away.

              I will, he replied,

      When I have read it

For this title,

Care I not a tittle

I shall-

ow!

    Saidle

the Puddle

    Fat

    Was my fate

    Short cuts–

       Long cuts?

I deep

           end,

         Said the pond

I