Poem: Ages

Grandma Maple, kids called her.

Manitoba Maple by an early site.

Planted, nurtured by those settlers?

Could be a seedling caught 

in a long ago wind?

Tough to know.

Many rocks under her boughs.

Not erratics. Gathered, placed.

Carefully. Perhaps lovingly.

Even reverently? A loved

herd dog? Barn cat patted,

spoiled in the house?

Some stones measure out 

large plots. How long ago?

Did those folks love Grandma,

honour her as much as us?

Folks interred with their pets?

She’s seen so much. Long back.

Buffalo rub on her young trunk?

Moose? Black and Grizzly Bears?

What wisdom she could speak.

Mandy, from a wee lassie 

Would climb into Grandma’s 

stout, comforting embrace.

Soothed in Maple’s old calm.

Not the first child to love that tree.

A legion of young adherents.

Buffalo, humans, deer, horses.

‘Course birds. Hatched, fledged. 

Uncertain wings with Grandma’s 

derived strength flown far, far

from her harbourage 

into the blue.

GEORGE GRASSICK was born just outside Regina in 1946, and, except for brief periods in Vancouver and Toronto, lived in the city or on the family farm until the early 80’s. He and his wife bought a section of native prairie by the south end of Last Mountain Lake then, and have lived there since, except for four years when they leased it out while his wife was attending University in Saskatoon.

George was raised in a storytelling environment that combined the old Scots-Irish traditions with his family’s experience on the frontiers of North America. These influences are still of abiding interest to him and strongly influence his own approach to performing and writing.

“people stories” shares articles from Folklore Magazine, a publication of the Saskatchewan History & Folklore Society. Click below to learn more about the Magazine and to find out how to get your story into the blog!