Gordon Bell High School - Purple and Gold Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

Page 67 text:

LITERARY CONTEST (pOSJtAlf- “Tempest” “This Land of Mine” .. “The Landmark” “The Snowflake Mark Hacksley . Janet Muldoon .Bill Haluk .. Janet Muldoon JomfisL t A flash of lightning! A crack of thunder! And the whole earth trembles As if it would be torn asunder By a superhuman force that man knows not. Then the only noise in a dark silent night Is the howling wind as it whistles through Shuddering trees, whose ghostly forms Are suddenly whipped and tossed As if thrashed by some invisible hand And then—are still again. And with a second blinding flash of brilliance Which lights the night so that one can see Dark clouds hiding a moon that isn’t there, Comes another bursting roar That suddenly breaks the heavens open. And the rain falls and falls and falls. Earthen paths become flowing streams, And tiny brooks are filled with cascading torrents Which sweep away leaves, plants, tiny insects, all! A hideous rumble warns That another thunderous clap is coming. It crescendos until it can grow no louder And with one mighty outburst of sheer violence The sky is emptied! Once more the earth reels Under a vicious attack by countless tiny arrows of water That disappear into nothingness upon striking the ground. Then—it stops! The sky softens and dawn brings with it A cool breeze and misty white sun shining Through a grey shield of thin cloud. The morn is quiet, sombre, and motionless. The tempest has subsided And the weary world rests after the night’s encounter. Mark Hacksley, Rm. 25, Grade 12 JMa JjmoL j WAml Prairies of Canada — thou land of prosperity and light! Across the West thou shinest in thy freedom’s glory! Burning topaz, the infinite grass-lands sweep A path of homage towards God’s feet. Billowing gladness of sunlit wheat: The saffron seed-stems laugh out loud, joyously, dazzlingly, Shimmering, rippling, swaying in breeze-flipped happiness—a sight Golden enough to set the beholding heart a-dancing with delight! Spires of wheat towers stand stark and constant, Piercing an exuberant sapphire-slashed dome Filled to bursting with freedom’s hopefulness, Implanted on the prairies’ sturdy loam. In the stark grimness of a wretched winter’s cold The prairie wastes lie silent, deathly white and glittering. The soil’s one valiant, the farmer, wreaked gaunt and old By toil and tears, sees the hoar-clad mice and hares rush, skittering Across the slumbering, chilling plain. The agate sky-disc variegates with wan and feeble tenderness The hazed veneer of delicately swirled ice, and the homeless wind Howls loudly, then dies, to moan again with cries of tragic mournfulness, In the endless desolation, in this glacial creation, scourging the mind Of the farm folk, languishing for spring. The spring, bearing in caressing hands, warm breezes, Blissful budding, glad green sprouts eager for the sun Of May, whose radiant gaiety melts winter’s freezes — On the prairies, springtime and jubilation are one. This golden place called beauteous — This is the land that God and I call home! Janet Muldoon, Rm. 20 JJul SnowflaksL A snowflake lazily drifted down A little way on the frost-shot air, Dizzily spun and stopped to crown The crest of a lover’s raven hair. Rested there so soft and light, She scarcely noticed it was there Until a tender touch, and slight, Disengaged it from her hair. Janet Muldoon, Rm. 20 65