Around the Red Land

By Larry Small

These poems span the gamut of life from love to death; a eulogy for a people, who for the most part, are no longer with us. Their evolution in rural Newfoundland has taken hundreds of years and there is a good possibility that we will never see their likes again. Full of knowledge, self-sufficiency, independence, pride and dignity, most of them, I think, would be deeply insulted by some of our contemporary characterizations of them. One could easily argue that this collection is a portrayal of the tyranny of progress, the displacement of people, the destruction of community or part of the natural progression of human history. Either way, one cannot help being affected by their demise and the transformation of people and place into a form of human madness. Therefore, these poems might be viewed as a lament for ordinary people who were the most extraordinary men and women whom I was fortunate enough to have known. It behoves us never to forget them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Breakwater Books Ltd.
• Release date: Feb 1, 2007
• ISBN: 9781550812756

Book preview

WHICH WAY THE WIND BLOWS

How well they knew the names of winds

That wound their mouths

Around their daily lives

Of work and play

Of twisted fingers

And backs that bore the burdens,

Too much for mortal man.

No phantom this,

Uncensored force beyond the land and sea

That they had learned from childhood…

The compass and the weatherglass.

They knew the rules and menus

Of maddening storms,

Their souls attune to sunsets

Of a thousand years,

And skies at night

When moons made love to earth

And dippers with their handles bent

Bade them look up

And listen to their tunes.

To orchestras of winds

They knew the language and the notes

And often sang the litany

Of lessons long ago,

(East be Nold / East nold East)

The dictum of its ways.

And easterlies with rains for fields

The drying winds for fish and clothes

And wells that bore the brunt Of summer suns.

For glutted fish

They prayed to the north,

And to the south

To shift the ice from land.

To lift the burden

From their master’s hand

The horses played their music with the