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Pause for poetry: Michael Hawkes /20

We Hadn’t Heard

A poem by Michael Hawkes

What happy heady times we had
when gasoline was really cheap,
back in the day when I was a lad
and hadn’t heard of global heat.

The mountain tops were capped with ice
the motorways had lanes to spare,
convertibles were half the price
and butterflies flew everywhere.

Though city smog was really bad,
air thick with coal smoke soot and lead,
our transports then were chromium clad
we didn’t need to see ahead.

The forests stood, the rivers ran,
top down, the wind in our hair,
the beaches gleamed, the fishes swam,
in luxury beyond compare.

What carefree touring trips we had,
those Cadillacs were hard to beat
when guzzling gas was not so bad,
when we hadn’t heard of global heat.

I must admit that I’m remiss
in the feckless way I sometimes miss
those reckless days when no-one knew,
when ignorance indeed was bliss.

14/01/21 – Hawkes


CAS hosts second poetry reading in English for 2021

Centre des Arts de Stanstead logo - WestmountMag.ca

 

On Saturday, January 30 at 2 pm, English-language poets Marjorie Bruhmuller and Tanya McIntyre will present an hour-long reading on Zoom with host Shelley Pomerance.

Everyone is invited to join the two poets on Zoom by visiting the Facebook page of the Centre des arts de Stanstead where they will find the link to participate. For more information, please contact Sharda Guptar at shardaguptar@outlook.com.


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Michael Hawkes - WestmountMag.ca

Michael Hawkes is an 80-year-old survivor of all the world’s wars. He learned (and loved to rhyme) by torturing the hymns he had to sing at school. A retired West Coast fisherman living in Montreal since 2013, he is an unschooled Grandpa Moses writing an average of five poems every week.


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