Courtesy of Canada Topo Maps
Crazy creeks break up grid patterns
Man has tried to impose.
Rattlesnake bogs, winding rivers,
Thundering world famous cataracts:
Water everywhere,
Natural courses and huge man-made ditches.
Roller coaster effects courtesy of the escarpment
Excite otherwise boring, like everywhere else, roads.
Weather splits there between Lincoln North and South
Cradling one, blasting the other in turn.
Home is the place you leave
But won’t leave you,
Having deftly intertwined your soul and mind.
From everywhere I’ve ever been
I can close my eyes and be in Niagara.
Source: Deborah Ranchuk published “Home to Niagara:” in Captured Essence: Niagara Poetry Anthology, vol. 11. St. Catharines: Canadian Authors Association, Niagara Branch, 1995
With thanks to Arden Phair who pointed out this poem by Deborah Ranchuk to the Niagara Falls Poetry Project curator.
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