The View from Salt Spring Island

From the weathered wooden dock,

the lake lapped, serene in dreamy sparkles,
and intoxicating breezes – spirited and free:

conferring young-as-sixties peace

upon the glorious day

– and I am carried away –

back, to the beginning of time,

when bliss was bestowed in the fervent lyrics

and deep, highly anticipated kisses

of exuberant youth.

The bitter-sweet moment, as mystifying as:

 

looking down upon my long lost

macramé headband and puka shell beads

plucked from the bottom of a drawer,

to be held in old hands,

or, the sound of Cat Stevens

coming from the battered transistor radio

through the misty mesh of the squeaky screen door.

photo:  St. Mary Lake on Salt Spring Island – H. Bourke

note:  Salt Spring Island (one of the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia between mainland BC and Vancouver Island) has a colorful history.  The island was initially inhabited by various Native Salishan peoples before being settled by pioneers in 1859.  (While there are land settlement issues still being addressed in Canadian courts, relations between First Nations people and settlers were not entirely unfriendly:  they married and shared their knowledge of living off the land and sea.)  About half of the first settlers were black.  They had come from San Francisco in search of equal rights.  Salt Spring’s settlement is unique in that it allowed newcomers to farm land before purchasing it, using money from their harvested crops to do so.  In the sixties it became a haven for those avoiding the draft during the Vietnam War and, as such, attracted a population from across North America seeking an alternative life-style, personal freedom and acceptance. 

© 2014 Wendy Bourke