Yorkton accepted a challenge offered by the City of Regina to have a local poet open Monday evening's council meeting with the reading of her own poem. The initiative was held in conjunction with UNESCO's World Poetry Day which happens annually on March 21 and National Poetry Month, celebrated each April across North America.
Taking to the podium was local poet and member of the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild Joyce Bagley who read a poem she had published in the Saskatchewan publication, "Folklore."
Pemican and Saskatoon Pie
"With the long days of summer, they came and pitched their tent beside the Little Saskatchewan River in the poplar trees and Saskatoon bushes near my grandmother's farm.
Their grandmother wove willows into baskets; my grandmother bought one big enough to hold a line of folded clothes then they sat on the veranda for tea.
I played with Lone Star and Lost Eagle. We collected smooth rocks from rough river sand and watched two ducks swim silently. Their grandmother called, 'Don't play in the water the swift river current might pull you away.' My grandmother didn't believe in spirits. She said, 'Stay out of the water, there is a swift current you can't see.' It meant the same thing. We found a crayfish and a turtle instead.
We helped our grandmothers pick Saskatoons to dry for pemican to make Saskatoon pie. Then they took us swimming where the river is shallow and the river spirit doesn't go.
Our grandmothers are gone now; the Saskatoons are almost gone. My friends and I are on the opposite side of the river. The current so swift between us." - Joyce Bagley
The project was a partnership between the City of Regina, the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild and the League of Canadian Poets. Thirty communities from Victoria to Cornerbrook took part in the first challenge, held last year.
