Willows Revisited

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36 front. The editor, however, was quite willing to trade Sarah's Spring for a copy of Joyce Kilmer's Trees of which he had never heard and which on examination he declared to be "just about the same length."In Spring Sarah's natural exuberance takes over without anystress upon the more solemn political spirit which characterizes "Moonlight on Wasoana Lake" and is therefore more appropriate as an introduction devoted to poetry and culture of Saskatchewan. In Spring Sarah simply bubbles with joy. She catches that fleeting moment in which the seasons In Saskatchewan change from the dead of winter to the heat of summer. For spring in Saskatchewan, Is never a season; it is an event. It is a day like Christmas Day or Fair Day exceptthat it never comes by the calendar; It comes as a complete surprise. No one in Saskatchewan ever expects spring; - he hopes for It. Spring there is a matter of faith, not science, but faith there is always Justified, however late. Saskatchewan would be only too glad to celebrate the arrival of spring on a certain day much as the ancient Druids celebrated the arrival of the vernal equinox if they onlyknew when it would arrive. But Sarah catches it on the fly;SpringBy Sarah Binks.Its spring again! Who doubts the day's arrival, Peeks' not the thistle from the garden bed? And shrieks the robin not the glad survival Of cut-worm lifting up its vernal head?SuchIn swelling chords, full-throated to the weather, And strong of lung, once more spring voices sway �Alto and bass, the cow and calf together, Spring spring is here, peal out its passing day!
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37not already appeared in the Premier's message. (it also contained afinal recipe for apple cake which had been sent in very late by oneof the ethnic groups J The poem 'wheat was apparently meant to dealwith some of the farmers' problems in raising grain for the market,in this case the problem being that of the game birds and duckseating the grain before the hunting season opened in the fall. Nodoubt, in keeping with the Department of Agriculture's tradition,in the poemother problems were dealt with/ but these are not available andWheat, what there is of it, merely raises the problem without settling itWHEAT (Probably one of the later verses)Tweet-Tweet, tweet-tweet,The birds eat wheat, And wild ducks gorge the oat, And man must shout To keep them out, In words unfit to quote; Unless, of course, he feels his toil Must fatten them for fall, So that the man who raises oil, Can come and shoot them all.It is a pity that the rest of Wheat was lost. It is actually of a higher order than COW.COW(By Osiris Jones-Jones. S.O.M.)Throughout the ages, lo! the cow, Kindhearted, useful, good, Is oft forgot, we praise her now, We praise her loud � and should.The milk, the cheese, the steaks we eat, Are they not from the cow? And multitude upon the street, Are they not shod �and how?
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And though the sire, of puffing snoot, Lascivious, goggle-eyed.Is mean and shiftless, dissolute, And given to false pride,Let none decry the cow �but state That such is nature's way, Each living thing selects its mate, In beauty or in hay;And if, perchance the cow seem odd To crave such no-account, She still has virtues left to laud, The bounties from her fount;For even man may take to bed A one of virtue's doubt � At least the cow, when given head, Knows what its all about. .^(u.Willows Revisited in the Governments anniversary book followed the sections dealing with Oil, Industry and Education, and dealt with thecultural achievement of Saskatchewan, particularly literature. In additionto the space given to Sarah Binks and to the fame brought to her nativeprovince,the Government paid tribute to various contemporary ethnictowards thegroups for the contributions they were making towards the enrichment ofwestern culture in the matter of folk-dances, folk-costumes, and folk apple cake, and also commended them for their efforts to transplant the habits and customs of their homelands to the new country of their adoption. Particular reference was made to Purge Potatok, the New Canadian of Ukrainian origin upon whom the Saskatchewan Order of Merit was conferred for his poetry, and mention was also made of the translations from the German by Mathilda Schwanzthacker although no particular honourwas here bestowed. (See Mathilda, Appendix IV)The group of poets, which until then had been simply and somewhat loosely known as The Regina School was now, with the addition ofPotatok, given official recognition as the School of Seven and were to be regarded henceforth as Saskatchewan's answer to Ontario in the matter of culture, the hope even being first expressed here that some of these days Saskatchewan would be able to go Ontario one better. Moreover as a special honour to mark the anniversary year, upon eachmember of the School was now conferred the
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Saskatchewan Order of Merit, , an honour which carried with it the privilege of writing S.O.M. after the[name] The original intention of the government to institute a Saskatchewan Order of the Bath, was disallowed by the Dominion Government at Ottawa as being an attempt to restore hereditary titles into Canada Finally all seven of the poems which had been declaimed over Sarah'sgrave the year before on the twenty fifth anniversary of her death, were published in the chapter, "Willows Revisited," even including asa concession to modernity the poem recited by Professor Bedfellow and which John Swivel, who acted as master of ceremonies on that occasion had predicted the Department of Agriculture would never publish. But it was pointed out by the Minister of that department that "there is a place for everything in this country and on the whole the poems are as good as anything in Canada" which they undoubtedly are. The Minister mentions also the place and occasionwhich gave rise to the seven poems and states that "when it comes to shrines we here in Saskatchewan don't have to take a back seat to anybody."The reference, of course, is to the famous meeting place, WillowviewCemetery, where the School of Seven first met as a body. (See Appendix II)
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THE SCHOOL OF SEVENSOne and a half miles north of the little town of Willows liesthe acre and a half of light and sandy soil known as WILLOWVIEWCEMETERY. It is not visible from the town of Willows itself, being concealed by a slight rise of land^ Nevertheless it is appropriately named Willowview since from the top of the wrought-iron gate whichthe schoolboys in search of gophers are fond of climbing, it is possible to see the upper halves of the two elevators of Willows. There were once four elevators at Willows and at the time when Willowview Cemetery was named it was possible to see the tops of all four from the gates. In the earlier days of the western prairies the number of elevators in a town was always a measure of its importance and a matter of local pride, and it is probable that willowview was so named because it was felt that the departed citizens should not be altogether deprived of a sight which during their living days had always gladdened their hearts. Since only the tops of the elevators were visible from the cemetery itself the suggestion that there was a further reality "beyond the hill" gave the whole a kind of spiritual quality. This has been somewhat reduced by the loss of two of the elevators and even more by the erection within sightof the cemetery of a filling station, also called Willowview, andof Joes Eats at the correction line a half mile away. Adjoining the cemetery itself on the north lies the farm of Purge Potatok, a hundred and sixty or more acres of sand and alkali which no one has ever bothered to plough, crossed by many prairie trails and short cuts centering in a small barn and the shanty where Potatok lives.
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Since the historic meeting of the School of Seven in Willow-view the cemetery has been, to quote the mayor of Willows, "spruced up." It has been enclosed within a stout fence of barbed wire, the grass has been repeatedly cut, and the letters above the gate which had been dislodged by the schoolboys In their climbs have been replaced and soldered back into their original position. ( At least it is claimed by the local tinsmith who did the soldering that they are in the original position and who has, according to his claim, "the holes to prove it" despite the fact that two lettersI and E in the sign have been transposed and that it now readsWILLOWVEIW) In addition to such improvements as fence and gate, theconcrete obelisk which marks the last resting place of Sarah Binkshas been straightened since it had developed a decided tilt awayfrom the prevailing west wind, and was, in fact, in some dangerof falling over. A small sign has also been placed on the gate bythe Town Council of Willows stating that the lighting of fires withinthe cemetery is strictly fobidden and that violators will beprosecuted.Apart from the activity around Joes Eats on Friday and Saturdaynights, the scene around Willowview (or Willowveiw if prefered,) is one of great peace. And it is singularly appropriate that here in the quiet obscurity of a wayside cemetery, the great poetess of the prairies should sleep. She has been much forgotten. Fame, alas, is always a fickle jade and apart from such special occasions as Saskatchewan's semi-centennial celebration, she is remembered only by the poets themselves. And she is remembered particularly by those who gathered in Willowview to celebrate the twenty fifth anniversary of her death and to pay her homage in poetry of their own.
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Perhaps it is just as well that Sarah died when she did. If she had continued to live, the School of Seven might never have got under way, and we would have missed the fascinating diversity and variety of outlook expressed by the poets of the contemporary scene. Nevertheless Sarah has left her indelible mark upon the literature of Western Canada. One can never say, of course, that her mantle has descended upon any particular one of her successors, yet there is not one, with the possible exception of Wraitha Dovecote,but owes her a great debt. The poetic well from which Sarah scoopedher famous "Up From The Magma" still quenches the thirst of her followers. The poetic springs, once started, continue to flow even in the dry belt. The dream of oil, which in the case of Sarah's father's farm was to remain always a dream in spite of repeated drillings, may have become a physical reality in many of the farms of her home province, but those borings can never tap the streams of poetic fancy which Sarah tapped. Indeed, the contrary is true. Sarah's drillings reached only failure and frustration, but these taught her the great lesson of literature which she was to express in one form or another throughout her mature poetic life. "Literature is mostly doleful choral, and grief the poet's steady stock in trade," she was to cry when contemplating the "marble slab" or as it turned out, a concrete obelisk which was to mark her fame. And since not all of Saskatchewan by any means is underlaid with oil, those poets of today who have not access to what there is of it, must needs still dip their pens in the alkaline waters of the prairie which seeped into Sarah's pita well of inspiration. Certainly those poets of Saskatchewan who have, as they say, "struck oil" in one way or another, havefound their fount of inspiration emulsified to the point where it
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4-yno longer flows and they have disappeared from the lit rary scene. Itwould almost appear as if the frustration and defeat and non-re cognition with which until recently the poets of Saskatchewan havebeen faced, have also presented their own challenge and opportunity.Without them we would never have had that peculiar, intangibleno less thanquality of innerness, a spiritual no less than physical hunger which pervades so much of the School of Seven and which reaches its highest expression in the Vestal Verses of Bessie Udderton.The little group of Saskatchewan poets who gathered in Willowvlew Cemetery that hot and windy Dominion Day in 1954 to pay homage to Sarah Binks were not unaware of the literary significance of their meeting, more especially since the Government through the Department of Agriculture had signified ibia its willingness to publish their poems. Perhaps no one was more aware of this than the Great Dean of Saskatchewan letters, John Swivel, who addressed them, that evening in the Clarendon Hotel following the duck dinner. "This" he said, "has been a definite historic occasion. We owe it to Sarah Binks. Insofar as Sarah is remembered, we will be remembered. And let us keep in mind that whatever this day has meant to us -�and we certainly owe the Committee a big vote of thanks for all the trouble they went to in making arrangements for the dinner and things like that so thatit means even more tha^ we had originally thought it would �let us keep in mind that we are heirs of a great poetic tradition and ilia up to us now. Its unfortunate that we had that fire but I think weA complete account of this meeting together with a transcription of the tape recording of the proceedings made by Jones-Jones is given in Appendix if. The seeds of the Poem-of the Month project which was to spring into blossom twelve long years later were being sown on this occasion, but of this the Regina School was completely unaware.~f Met
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44can settle the whole thing for under five dollars or something like that and I think we can afford to raise it among ourselves especially as we know the Department is going to publish the things we did here today �at least six of them. Anyway you cant say I didn't warn you and I am sorry it had to be Miss Dovecote who was the chief sufferer because it wasn't her fault. Anyway, we really put it across today and those poems of ours, and I wont say they are all of the highest quality, are going to have their impact. After all, this Willow-Quagmire district is the premier's own constituency and Sarah Binks's monument is smack in the middle of it. And while I'm at it I might as well tell you that this afternoon while the rest of you were going over Mr Deepy's poems, I added the date of this meeting to those on Sarah's monument, because, as I said, this is a historic occasion and deserves to be rendered. We certainly owe a lot to her."The six poets who were joined later by Purge Potatok are those upon whom the Saskatchewan Order of Merit was later conferred. They are;John Swivel, (The Great Dean of Saskatchewan letters)Wraitha Dovecote.Mrs Martha Waffled (Bessie Udderton)Professor Baalam Bedfellow, Ph.D.Jordan Middleduck. Osiris Jones-Jones, (The Laureate;Purge Potatok, D.P. (Appeared later See Appendix I)Each of these poets had written a poem for the occasion in honour of Sarah or of her birthplace, Willows, and these were to be read and tossed upon a ceremonial pyre built on Sarah's grave. They are
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6-y 45each In keeping with the individuals own work and poetic point of view and are correspondingly of great interest on that account, But apart from personal temperament and individual differences ofapproach, there are certain characteristics of the School of Sevenas a whole which can be considered. Of these the two outstanding ones are those already mentioned, innerness, and the use of the cow as a symbol.From a literary point of view it has always been something of a mystery as to why the poetry of Saskatchewan should so often turn upon the cow as a central theme. Saskatchewan has never been a nam "cow country" in the sense that Texas and Arizona were cow countries. The Canadian prairies passed almost imperceptively from the control of Sarah's "The Red Brother", to the wheat economy of which thecow was a mere adjunct more for domestic comfort thai of economicsignificance. There was certainly no intervening perod of gunslinger and cowpuncher around which a people, as bardically inclinedas the Canadians, could have written the ballads and the heroicliterature which inspired the American South West. And yet it wouldalmost seem that no poet of western Canada, and certainly no poetof the School of Seven, can feel that he properly belongs unlesshe has written at least one poem about the cow or has made some passingreference to the cow as a poetic symbol. But it is just in thisvery symbolism that the attraction of the cow as a theme lies.Sarah Binks undoubtedly started it all. We need only go back toher very earliest poems to the calf, and her Song to the Cow to perceive that for her the cow was a symbol of domesticity. The cow, forher, represented farm and fireside. The cow's nose was plush-like andwarm its eye quick to perceive the best feeding ground, and it had a breath.like ale" all of which Sarah sumarizes In her commendation by, "
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46These attributes in a cow, I deem,Are the best to be had and win my esteem.Sarah loved the cow as one loves a fellow- creatu. of. any kind ableto receive and return affection, and she invariably clothes it inhuman qualities. Even in Hiawatha's Milking Co-boss , although perhapsa bit unwilling to yield something of her essential self to one whoin her opinion could represent no more than a past culture and acivilization which was already on the way out, is nevertheless sad.Her eyes are 'doleful" as well as am soulful and she sighs deeplybefore kicking Hiawatha in the pail. Such things reveal the cow asforstanding for the domestic virtues as well as for the security of the land of which Sarah always felt herself to be a part. And even in "Spring" where the cow and the calf blend their alto and bass in harmony of praise to the new weather, there is somehow or other a suggestion of a happy domestic scene like children singing together in the joy of Christmas morning.The cow, having thus been set up as a symbol quite unconsciouslyby Sarah, her successors have naturally followed suit. But not slavishly.For the different poets the cow carries different significance. Onlyin the case of Purge Potatok can we say that the significance of theslightlycow is the same as it was for Sarah, and even here it is slightly different since in Sarah s case it was colored by her femininity. But the"home and hearth" solidity which the cow represented for Sarah hasits counterpart in the mind of the New Canadian, Potatok, asstanding for economic security. For him ownership of the cow isheldnot spiritual freedom as some have held, but rather freedom from the grinding poverty of his homeland where tradition still maintained that only an archbishop or a Grand Duke or even the Czar could ever aspire to a cow. And like Sarah he has a deep personal fondness for

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