Near Tobermoray, Ontario
I look upon a blue cove
In August
With egg pebble beach,
Blue sky & cedar birch sides.
And I look upon the sisters four
Blue sky & blue water
Rock, pebble & earth
And the light I see it with.
Watty Blue has a drowned man
For her heart
And rain for food & wind
To crisp her thoughts with.
Pale Blue Airy has clouds
To mind & winds to sing,
Thunder to say, lightning to do
And birds to hold.
Urtha lumpily clogs
Her clotty feet,
Waves Aaron’s Rod & wears
Emeralds in rags.
But Light, you’re quite another thing.
Indeterminate,
You hold them all yet let them slip
Into themselves again.
James Reaney, 1963
“Near Tobermoray, Ontario” is from Poems by James Reaney, New Press, 1972.
