Author Archives: fmboyce

It’s gardening time here in North Saanich on top of other commitments and we are falling behind. A month has gone by since I last put together a post – not good – so here are three short, somewhat related poems written over a 36 year time span. The image, drawn by the young daughterContinue reading “Sweet Things and Women”

In the early summer of 1989, partly to celebrate my 50th birthday, I joined a canoe trip led by the well-known guide and naturalist , the late Alex Hall. The participants assembled in Fort Smith NWT (Alex’s headquarters) and from there were air-lifted to the Clarke River (tributary of the Thelon River). Two days onContinue reading “Journeys”

Bowl Early morning,cat chafing at my ankles,I bend to the dark corner,where her dishes wait. Tap running,sound of a busy rill,I rinse and gently fillher bowl of water. I hold it cupped in open hands,the gesture of an offering.Water acquiesces to bowl’s shape,its free face pointing to the sky. The cat purring,my face reflected,dusty travelerContinue reading “Offerings”

The drawing above was made by Cabe, a five-year-old boy living across a busy street from the Broadmead Mall in Victoria, British Columbia. His older sister, Quillan, was responding to a challenge to produce a picture and a story about the wild nature in and around her neighbourhood . Her reward would be a NatureContinue reading “Cabe (age 5) nailed it!”

In my career as a landlocked oceanographer at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters I came to know the Lower Great Lakes (Lake Erie and Lake Ontario) as subjects of scientific study and as familiar places close to home.    The Canada Centre for Inland Waters, was intended to produce research that would put CanadaContinue reading “Georgian Bay”

The Last Afternoon of the Year On the last afternoon of the yearwhen a drizzly mist gave way to golden lightand the sun touched the edge of the western hills,we two went walking.“A hopeful sign, this glowing sky?” we asked. Far off, a scattering of ducks,closer in, the disappearance of a seal.Midway, two buffleheads meanderedContinue reading “New Year’s Eve”

Introduction I wish all the visitors to my blog fmboyce.com a guardedly optimistic but nevertheless happy Christmas Season and I thank those who have demonstrated confidence by choosing to follow it. Penny and I intend to get out of doors, whatever the weather, on Christmas Morning and walk some of the nearby beaches and trailsContinue reading “Christmas Decorations”

In January 1968 I took up my professional occupation as a Physical Limnologist (landlocked oceanographer) at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters, a newly-formed Government of Canada research institute in Burlington, Ontario. Burlington, located north and east of Hamilton, along the north shore of Lake Ontario, was at that time in transition from a smallContinue reading “Along the Grindstone: Some Ontario Poems”

There are two books and one song I want to write about in introducing the poems I have chosen for this post: The Dream of the Earth (Sierra Club 1988) by theologian Thomas Berry, Climbing Mount Improbable (Viking 1996) by evolutionary scientist Richard Dawkins. My copy of The Dream of the Earth is dog-eared andContinue reading “Canopy of Blessing”

Along with poems I have also written many songs. The lyrics of some of these, I feel, stand alone as poems. Here’s a sampling A Song for Skedans was inspired by a visit to the abandoned Haida village of Skedans on Haida Gwaii. Skedans was depopulated and abandoned in 1862 by the outbreak of aContinue reading “Song Lyrics”