Category: City of Niagara Falls

Stamford Collegiate Memories by Stephanie Vigh Nielsen

stamford
Stamford Collegiate 2021. Photo by G. R. Nielsen

When I was young, I would walk to school
In sun or snow or rain
I’d make a left at Montrose Road
And head up Lundy’s Lane.

As I reached the canal, I would stand and look
At the current moving fast.
Then head on quickly to Drummond Road
So I wouldn’t be late for class.

The first day I arrived at school
I was overwhelmed with fright.
Who would I know, where did I fit?
Would I ever feel all right?

But it didn’t take long before friends came along
Ones that attended my previous school.
We were delighted to find one another again
Joking around and acting like fools.

At lunch time we would congregate
In a basement room to eat.
And I would sing an Elvis song
While my best friend kept the beat.

Banging her hands on a garbage can
While the rest of us clapped along.
They were wonderful girls and precious times
Where we all felt we belonged.

Cadets marching in the back field
We enjoyed the discipline.
And the rifle range was a challenging sport
The blasts would make our ears ring.

The time has passed, I’m no longer young
But I still remember those years.
Academic classes and musical shows
Puppy love and all those tears.

I cherish the years I spent there
The memories are etched in my mind.
The friendships and learning that took place
Have sustained me throughout my lifetime.

So in ending this poem I want to give thanks
To my high school on Drummond Road.
My life has been happy – my goals attained
And that’s why I’ve written this ode.

Source: The author, 2021

Visit Stephanie Vigh Nielsen’s Niagara Proud website

Stamford Collegiate is located near the intersection of Lundy’s Lane and Drummond Road

Ode to a School by Stephanie Vigh Nielsen

school
The Former Lundy’s Lane School, April 2021. Photo courtesy of Robert Nielsen

There’s an old school in Niagara
It’s located on Lundy’s Lane
With front and back roof dormers
And windows of diamond pane

Ornate with decorative detail
In classical Edwardian times
Clean lines with a portico entrance
And oh how that old bell could chime

Just a short walk to Green’s Corners
I was only six at the time
And my heart would fill with excitement
As I joined my friends in the line

My teacher was tall and stern
Her hair tied up in a bun
But all the students loved her
Because she made learning so much fun.

Alphabet cards on the chalk board
Magic letters that turned into words
Oh the joy I felt when I realized
I had entered a whole new world

Fun with Dick and Jane readers,
Weekly spelling games
Reciting multiplication tables
In my school on Lundy’s Lane.

The old school is looking sad now
Wooden planks are covering those panes
Chipped paint and looking very unkempt
That sweet school on Lundy’s Lane.

Remember the importance of preservation
As our dear Ruth Redmond said
She valued the importance of history
It will last long after we’re dead.

Cherish our history forever
Like Europeans have done throughout time
Please can we all join together
And save this old school of mine.

Source: The author, 2021

Visit Stephanie Vigh Nielsen’s Niagara Proud website

Visit the City of Niagara Falls’ Heritage Property Listing for the Lundy’s Lane School

Robert Frost by atlantic

trees

The neighbourhood where I live
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡is surrounded
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡by
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡Trees.

So everywhere you look
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡There is a thin green canopy

A living, breathing enclosure
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡away from the bustle of
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡the city
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡and nearby highways.

I don’t know
‡‡‡‡‡‡about fences
‡‡‡but trees?

‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡Trees make good neighbours.

Source: The author, 2019

atlantic was born and raised in Niagara Falls, where he still resides. A selection of his work is available on Instagram

Also by atlantic:
•    Baby Steps IV
•    burgoyne bridge
•    carnival tunes
•    water child

Sorting Skins by Ryan Racine

coffee
Coffee Culture – corner of Queen St. & Erie Ave., Niagara Falls, 2015. Photo by Alannah Mason. Courtesy of Niagara Falls Public Library

Sunday afternoons consisted of pressing
five year old flesh
against puzzle pieces, constructing a
cardboard genome. Stuck in monosyllabic monotony
to keep childhood ignorance distilled
from ambiguity.

On Tuesdays, teen intimacies grew in the form
of Queen Street coffee shops, hoisting shy
ankles curled during untimely dates.
Couples waited for conversations to climax,
leaving sweat on lips to
taste like warm milk.

Forget embarrassment and
after parties where cold hands sunk into
heads, pulling hair back behind the ears so
stuttering saliva could cascade
freely into Chippawa porta-potties.
The guiltless eloquence of touch leaves a sensual
lore sliding with voluptuous syncopation.

 

Ryan Racine earned his master’s of English language and literature from Brock University. He is currently working as a high school teacher and college instructor in Ontario. His poetry can be found in The Steel Chisel, Pauses/Words/Noises, The Brock University Anthology, Pictures & Portraits, Ekphrastic, Joypuke, Weekly Poems, and PACE Magazine.

See other poems by Ryan Racine on the Niagara Falls Poetry Project website:
•    
•    

Worldly Wounds by Ryan Racine

ryan racine
Niagara Parks Commission Butterfly Conservatory – Interior View – Statue Of Boy & Dog, 1997. Photo by Reg Deacon. Courtesy of Niagara Falls Public Library

My dog is a narrative archivist,
unearthing the forgotten and
polluted histories that are
scattered across Niagara Falls’ ecosystem.

Like the bacterial intrusions that make
their way into his body and
cause biological mutations, the
city’s traumas enter and impregnate my mind.

Realizing that i do not have the ability to
recreate a preinfectious state,
i instead reflect on what it means to be
in a postinfection state where i see myself

as part of the problem.
All i have is my dog’s nose,
the bringer of light
that grants recognition to the unsaid.

Ryan Racine earned his master’s of English language and literature from Brock University. He is currently working as a high school teacher and college instructor in Ontario. His poetry can be found in The Steel Chisel, Pauses/Words/Noises, The Brock University Anthology, Pictures & Portraits, Ekphrastic, Joypuke, Weekly Poems, and PACE Magazine.

See other poems by Ryan Racine on the Niagara Falls Poetry Project website:
•    Flow State
•    Sorting Skins