Who
Has Seen the Wind
The jacket,
tweed
I remember him
in St.John’s
a long time
ago, remember some words
a signature in my book
like a museum
guest.
Here, the
pipes, burning tires
factory outlets
the wind from
the north
dusty, like
Harmattan
the sand,
endless
forever
shifting
like sea waves
In this most-allusive poem, Vernon experiences a day in the Middle Eastern desert, where the wind brings back his days in West Africa and the winter Harmattan winds blowing in from the Sahara, and one of Canada's most popular novels, WHO HAS SEEN THE WIND by W. O. Mitchell, about growing up in Saskatchewan "with the ckickety of grasshoppers bunging in arcs ... and the hum and twang of wind in the great prairie harp of telephone wires." And the novel's title, of course, recalls the poem by Christina Rossetti:
ReplyDeleteWho has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.