Say the Names

[image from gotofino.com]

At Real Toads, Mary's Mixed Bag challenge really spoke to my heart this week. Mary challenged us to use the first two lines of a poem we like, and create our own poem from it. Immediately, I thought of Say the Names, by the well-loved Canadian poet, the irascible Al Purdy, who passed away in  2000 and whose voice is missed. He is known as Canada's "unofficial Poet Laureate", with a career spanning over fifty years. He wrote thirty books of poetry, plus other writing.


 I will post Al's beautiful poem, written shortly before his death, here, and follow it with the poem that came alive, singing, in my heart in response.


SAY THE NAMES
by Al Purdy


--say the names say the names
and listen to yourself
an echo in the mountains
Tulameen Tulameen
say them like your soul 
was listening and overhearing
and you dreamed you dreamed
you were a river
Tulameen Tulameen
--not the flat borrowed imitations
of foreign names
not Briton Windsor Trenton
but names that ride the wind
Spillimacheen and Nahanni
Kleena Kleene and Horsefly
Illecillewaet and Whachamacallit
Lillooet and Kluane
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
and the whole sky falling
when the buffalo went down
say them say them remember
if you ever wander elsewhere
"the North as a deed and forever"
Kleena Kleene Nahanni
Osoyoos and Similkameen
say the names
as if they were your soul
lost among the mountains
a soul you mislaid
and found again rejoicing
Tulameen Tulameen


till the heart stops beating
                 say the names


*****     *****     *****     *****
and my version:


Say the names say the names
and listen .........
these names that forever
sing through my soul,
that came alive for me
in the forests
and along the wild shores
of Clayoquot Sound.


Bedwell Sound and Lemmens Inlet
Fortune Channel and Sulphur Passage
those names ring through my heart
in kinship with those who put 
their bodies on the line
- and still do -
-No Pasaran!-
to protect this endangered ecosystem.


Drumbeats in the early morning
along the Kennedy River bridge
still tap tap tap in my heart
along with my passion
for the trees, for the wild shores,
for the curving slopes
of my wild spirit's home.


Hesquiaht, Ashousat,
Kakawis, Bay of Berries,
sound and resound
in my heart,
like the marine radio
my heart was once attuned to,
fishermen repeating the beloved names
above the static,
laughter and messages
and "Choo!" 
the Tla-o-qui-aht goodbye.


Wickanninish and Rosie Bay
and Combers,
Ahous Bay
where the gray whales
stop to feed....
riding out in a zodiac,
the seaspray in my face,
the eagle's cry in my heart,
blue herons on the rocks,
little puffins bobbing on the waves -
every inch of land and sea nd sky
beloved.


Rain slickers and rubber boots,
the endless winter rain, and gusts of wind
that bent us over as we struggled
across the streets in winter gales
and the wild wild roar of the waves
crashing on the shore,
while the foghorn mooed
at Lennards Light
and all the seabirds hid themselves
to ride out the storm.


Lone Cone standing tall, 
and Catface Mountain,
peeping across at the 
womanly slopes 
of Meares,
the sentinels and  guardians
of our village,
orcas breeching in the channel
to our joyous shouted  "thank you!"
and, across the bay, 
the twinkling lights of Opitsat,
little boats chugging back and forth
across the harbor,
heading for home at twilight.


Say the names of the wild Megin River,
carving itself through root-packed shores 
of cedar and salal,
and watch the wild wolves
pacing  down to drink,
a black bear ambling along the shore
looking for wild salmon.


Hear the eagle's call,
hear the waterfall singing
at Tofino Creek,
or point the bow of your canoe 
up the Cypre River.
Paddle hard for Browning Passage,
beat the tide,
or turn off along Tofino inlet,
when the tide returns
to cover the mudflats.
Pull into the cove at Windy Bay.


Say the names say the names
and my heart weeps with love
for the otherworldly beauty
and the kinship with the wild
that lived inside my soul
when I lived there


My heart will say
these names
for as long as I live
and, when I die,
say these names over me
and bury me on a windswept dune
beside the sea,
so it can forever sing
me to sleep
in my heart's home.


Say the names say the names
cherish these wild and pristine places
Stand against the mining companies,
and those who would clearcut and strip 
these beloved and necessary slopes.


Say the names, my friends,
before they all
are gone.