“A Parrot’s Quill,” by Elizabeth Donaldson

Donaldson, Elizabeth. “A Parrot’s Quill.” Voices of Victory: Representative Poetry of Canada in War-time. Ed. Canadian Authors Association. Toronto: Macmillan, 1941. 53.

Another poem from this elusive author…

A Parrot’s Quill

Across my palm there lies
Consummate in colouring and tracery
A parrot’s quill;
Splashed with the blood of ruby,
Bluer than turquoise,
Greener than malachite;
A radiant thing
Beyond the skill of human fashioning.

So still it lies,
I hardly dare to breathe
For fear it suddenly
May gather wings in flight,
And so dissolve again in beams of light.

While I marvel so
I fain would know
From what ancestral cell
Was born this miracle,
That in the cradle of the sun
Found nurture for the pith
And colour for the vanes;
And I would know
Upon what ancient loom
The pattern grew
Slowly, patiently,
Till time evolved the whole;
Blending in delicate nuances
Rhythm and light together,
Counting a million years
To weave a feather.

“Study in Fragility,” by Louise Morey Bowman

Bowman, Louise Morey. “Study in Fragility.” Poetry (Chicago). 58.1 (April 1941): 22-23. Special issue: Canadian Number.

“Landlady,” by P. K. Page

Page, P.K. “Landlady.” [1944.] The Blasted Pine: An Anthology of Satire, Invective, and Disrespectful Verse Chiefly by Canadian Writers. Ed. F.R. Scott and A.J.M. Smith. Toronto: Macmillan, 1957. 62-63.

This poem, originally published in Canadian Forum (May 1944, page 43), is interesting in being one of only four poems by three women poets included in FR Scott and AJM Smith’s The Blasted Pine: An Anthology of Satire, Invective, and Disrespectful Verse Chiefly by Canadian Writers (Toronto: Macmillan, 1957). The other three are “Election Day,” also by PK Page; “Prairie Graveyard,” by Anne Marriott; and “The Hadleyburg Home Guard,” by Marjorie McKenzie.

“A Canadian Summer Evening,” by Rosanna Leprohon

Leprohon, Mrs. “A Canadian Summer Evening.” Canadian Poems and Lays. Ed. W. D. Lighthall. London: Scott, [c1892]. 255-56.