A Pastoral Poem About Canada Poem by Gayathri Seetharam

A Pastoral Poem about Canada
-Gayathri B. Seetharam
The dawn dawns beautifully in urban Toronto
With its rustic beauty collectively speaking its tongue in High Park
While the morning progresses, I muse on the
Niagara Falls splendour of the force of water
Making its presence felt
It is to be discovered with the might of a pen and a paper and a calculator
Whether the Navier Stokes equations can put an exact number on this force;

The birds chirp and sing with joy
For engineering comes to town
But I, a poet also, ponder on the absence of the sun
Which has chosen to hide itself on this day
If on a grey morning, it promises a mellow outdoors,
On a mild morning, it is a trailblazer
Bringing its golden sunshine and optical activity;

While Toronto basks in the mild warmth of the golden sunshine,
And the butterflies "flit and float and fleetly fly and fly"
The bees in Port Colbourne suck the nectar of four leaf clovers
And make clover honey
Which brightens my coffee in Toronto;

I look for four leaf clovers in the gloxinia pots
But my eye detects only three leaf clovers
Which blend in nicely, in the pastel pink of the profusion of flowers
The red geraniums with their velvety texture
Will bring out the magic genie onto the porch for a smoke;

But the rose plant has a third bud right at the top
And with the brown umbrella plant and the hostas in another pot,
Welcomes the blue of the skies into its unfolding beauty
And I see love shining forth in my heart for the city of Toronto
Which can be toasted with an orange martini drink
That is symbolic of the pastoral landscape of Toronto
Combined with its "mechanical music" and "locomotive breath" with moving velocity.