Happiness falls,
I said to my Prairie friend,
who thought I was quoting Rilke.
And maybe I was,
though now I see
it had nothing to do, as some believe …
Poem, in its entirety, is available in the printed version of the current issue.
From the author:
“Ebb Tide at Little Hirtles” is an elegy written for my friend, the poet E.D. Blodgett, who died in 2018 and with whom I shared a love of Rilke and landscape. I am sure Ted would have been delighted to share in turn the landscape of the poem with Joan Harcourt, a wise and discerning Queen’s Quarterly editor with a wicked sense of humour, whom I came to think of as a dear friend. Joan knew that happiness falls, but that sometimes it needs a little push. Now that she has passed away, her many friends will remember with thanks and warm affection the happiness she brought their way.