Stony Plain has been twinned with Shikaoi since 1985. Then, as I scrolled through Facebook, I came across a post about our annual Japanese Exchange Program with the town of Shikaoi. I started to think about all the things that make Stony Plain unique – its home on Alberta’s prairies, its community, its history, its relationship with the railway (an interesting one!), but nothing was helping me to come up with a plan. I also work a regular job occasionally (I am a substitute teacher), I sit on three different non-profit boards, and I have a husband and two young children who like to spend some time with me now and then! I knew that whatever I decided to do would have to be small, because I have other projects to work on during my term as Poet Laureate. When I became Poet Laureate of Stony Plain, Alberta in February 2019, I was eager to acknowledge the town for its commitment to poetry and to the literary arts. In the winter and well past both our Decembers. That we will wade through the debts and the furies,ĭance in our flip-flops through the summer settling,Īnd find each other again in the fall. It is Valentine’s Day and I want you to know I will not think of my first Christmas without you. Of October’s first snow or the stillness in November. Spend more time together, even if we sleep in separate beds.īut I must stop there. In September, the children make their own wayĪnd we are back to worrying.
Children bask in summer heat,Īnticipating June, ushering us into shorts and flip-flops We plan vacations before we trust the length of days.Īnd then it’s May. In every fury of April in every doubt about summer, Spring’s daring our own fertilizing envy new debts. Of chocolates and candies, replaced with green: On, unfeeling, drenching us in Christmas debt –