Tag: Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls by Alan Dugan

Alan Dugan
Alan Dugan, 1923-2003

We saw it all. We saw the souvenir shops, and sitting
on the mist above the falls, the brilliant signs
saying hotels to love in, cigarettes to smoke,
souvenirs for proof; we give you anything you want,
even towels. Our disgust was as stylized as billboards,
and we suggested to ourselves that even our sympathy
for the ugly people of the off-season was outworn.
But here it was, nevertheless, the ferocious, spastic
enjoyment, the hotels like freight-yards or packing crates,
the lights that murder sight, and the community snicker.
The falls, of course, continued with great dignity.

Source:  Poetry,  April 1947,  p 12.

Niagara Falls by John Robert Colombo

(a found poem from the unpublished writings of Bishop John Strachan)

sublime niagara falls
Bishop John Strachan

My brother, after some hesitation,
ventured down the precipice;
and, having reached the bed
of the river below,
we were well rewarded.
It was now
that my expectations were realized:
the height of the rock —
the thundering of the Fall —
the spray forming in rain-bows —
the vast volume of water
rolling over the impending precipice,
produced a sensation overpoweringly
sublime.

 

Source: Colombo, John Robert; and Strachan, John. John Toronto: New Poems by Dr. Strachan Found by John Robert Colombo. [Ottawa] : Oberon Press, 1969.

From the dust jacket: The poems are taken verbatim from Strachan’s uncollected writings. They are poems by virtue of the special character of their eloquence. They are new in that they speak with fresh urgency and directness to a new age.

Click here to see a biography of Bishop Strachan from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography

WHAT GOES UP WILL ALWAYS COME DOWN by Shelby Forrest

Niagara Falls viagra

Though Viagra and Niagara may sound the same,
Not alike are the meanings at all.
To some, Viagra means ‘on the rise,’
But to everyone, Niagara Falls.

Source: The Author, 2001.

[Father Louis Hennepin] by Captain Flynn

Straight up Frontenac’s Northmost side
Ever a West he sailed,
Crossing in blessed Advent tide,
Landing on great Niagara’s shore.
South he turned to a sullen roar;
His Crucifix on his heart he bore;
Never his spirit failed.

Now Glory to God, whose hand did forge
This wondrous watery road!
On ragged rim of the fearful gorge
South he toiled through brambles and moss,
Past rapids roaring like souls atoss.
He blessed himself with the sign of the Cross
At the cliff where the torrent flowed.

His little altar was quick untied;
Small waxen tapers alight,
He said the Mass of the Sanctified.
Turning South through the wintry haze,
His eyes aglow, his heart ablaze,
At Chippawa’s flow, with a song of praise,
He made his camp for the night.

Source: Ray Corry Bond. Peninsula Village: The Story of Chippawa. Chippawa: [s.n.], 1964.

AGUJERO DEL DIABLO (Cataratas del Niágara) by Margarita Feliciano

        Las hierbas mustias rompen su crisálide,
        sus verdes apagados brillan entre las rocas,
    aún se oye en el viento el aullido del hielo.
                          Las aguas allá abajo
                vertiginosas giran sus despojos,
           mientras la niebla asciende
           hacia la desmemoria del tren funicular,
        aumentando el latido de cables temblorosos
                      que avanzan hacia el fin
                        de un cielo ceniciento.

                          Y así y todo, algún día,
        habrá también narcisos y otras flores
                          en este triste sitio;
               flores ajenas a mi vida de antes
             cuando el río indecible
                     fluíacon suavidad en la miel de su sueño.

        Y a través de los años retornaré a este sitio,
        siempre vendré luciendo una sonrisa
                       -diminuta y modesta-
                       esculpida en mis labios
                       cual signo de pregunta

Source: The Author, 2001