A SPIRITUAL BANQUET poem

A Spiritual Banquet

Our canoe allows a feast of pleasure
its sleek hull an arrow
piercing the stillness of a greater plan
as reflections shunted
from stately trees where cozy cottages
are a ring of jewels

this lake created from cups of freshwater
a sanctuary from grasping
life, woes and errs of human contact
left behind. We step up to Nature's
table and absorb these vegetables
tempting us

birth of a baby-blue sky,
shush of quiet ripples against
our fiber glass prow, the thrill of a
loon's lament. We hold firmly
to these moments-

dip of cherry wood paddle, our
J-strokes moving us forward
to future feasts.

© 1996 Richard L. Provencher
All Rights Reserved

first published Summer 1996
Volume 12, Number 3
The Officers’ Quarterly
York-Sunbury Historical Society, Inc.
Fredericton, New Brunswick
ISSN-0848-4868