A Poem on Earth Day by Ray Alexander Fraser

The Coywolf Lopes at Night

by

Ray Alexander Fraser

The coywolf lopes at night:

Looking through your windows,

Looking through your dreams.

She eats your moon

And wipes her face with its beams

You think you can encroach?

Taking rivers from her land,

Giving her power to the south,

While starving her pack:

You can’t starve her at the mouth,

For she is howling strong.

And her call is returned,

Joined by coyotes, wolves and dogs.

We drown you out:

Irrelevanting your drove of hogs.

Hear us, call us, return us from glen to shore.

We stand proud, together, idle no more.

A Poem by Ray Alexander Fraser

The Highlands of Cape Breton are Whispering the Spring Thaw

by

Ray Alexander Fraser

The Highlands of Cape Breton are whispering the spring thaw: 

The seagulls squeak, the eagles screech and the crows start to caw. 

The wind shifts, the birch lean and the spruce stand their best, 

The Highlands of Cape Breton begin their slow chant of West. 

It rises up to Cape St. Lawrence across the melting seas; 

It spins with the tides, circles around and bends back to the trees; 

It carries through the flat harbour of St. Lawrence's Bay, 

Stopping at the Crosses, wailing West as it makes way. 

West. West. West. 

The Highlands continue their wail, continue their lament. 

West. West. West. 

The northern ocean rumbles, filled with discontent. 

West. West. West. 

The mighty whales thrash about the shore crashing to the sand. 

West. West. West.

The chant will not stop until you bring your clan to this fabled land.