THE HERMIT OF GULLY LAKE poem

The Hermit of Gully Lake

In 1940 days people say Willard Kitchner
MacDonald jumped a troop train --

“No war for me,” said the young man for
peace became a friend to the wild that creeps
and hovers in the night, near Earltown, Nova
Scotia.

Hiding from stripes, army boots following
through ferns seeking his hideaway in a
forested sanctuary.

But you fooled them laddie chasing deer,
joining cottontails in the moonlight singing
along with loons, their melancholy.

Too soon eagles soar in memory, friends
missing those shy chats in the woods of
your passing.

A wintry landscape took your footsteps away
for one last savouring.

© 2004 Richard L. Provencher

Published Feb 2004 Northern Views Magazine
New Glasgow NS (Delivered to 30,000 homes
in Pictou & Colchester County)

Also read by Richard L. Provencher in
“Willard: The Hermit of Gully Lake” for the
Atlantic Film Festival September 2007
(Amy Goldberg Filmmaker)