ATHABASCA JOHN BLUTH Athabasca cold blue white and ice in the milk and green in the trees all year. Rock water time pushes winter past a cloudy day spring that stops and runs away. And the softer days of gold on ice rolls people over the river road. And the people say Athabasca, funny name. The milk water river runs away far away, with the cold brown taste of shorter days. The sky closes down to itself in the trees and the river runs north. PEACEFUL EVENING Peaceful evening. Haying barely finished. Only music of rain falling calmly On the barn roof. Phantom swallows frolic Upon rough walls. The new clover, fragrant Under my head, tickles my arm. Content. We wade at evening, not uttering a sound. Our hands entwine as we slip over the Slime covered rocks. The onshore breeze brings fish, So white and dead. Chilled, we turn shoreward. RICHARD L. BROWN 40 I'VE SEEN THE GREENING SPRING BEGIN TO GLOW GORDON SORENSEN I've seen the greening spring begin to glow And felt the thrust of crocus with my eyes For days, for weeks, for years I've longed to love Yet in my mind full oft I've been surprised To think that life with all its would be joy Is used for making chains to keep us free. And in our boxes nailing out the world As Jew or German, red or white, or black We lend our muscle to the overtone And fail to see the rhythm in a face. And human lives are more than lives alone And while we waste our time on war and fear Each year new flowers bloom and scent the air And lazy sunsets show their golden hair. 41