'Houses in Old Trois Rivieres'
Poem revised on the Happy Occasion of Lost Bayou Ramblers from Louisiana's Acadiana performing in Quebec, Trois Rivières' Parc Portuaire, TODAY.
‘Houses in Old Trois-Rivières’
(Poem written after Maryse and I visited this place and her sister Nicole and her brother Jean during Christmastime 2017, revisited and revised on the Happy Occasion of Lost Bayou Ramblers performing in Trois Rivieres tonight, August 10, 2024.) Houses in old Trois-Rivières Stand side-by-side Like Line-Dancers Of Sants' red brick, Their windows sturdy, Their balconies brave Above porches, Given Winter in Quebec!
Usine-workers hung socks of wool To drip and dry on these porches. Their socks would be soaked By pulp mills' furnaces, Wet as salmon and smelly too-- And maybe scaley, double too!-- Despite wives' best efforts to clean them!
When one River, the Sant Maurice, The River of three mouths To the Atlantic's Sant Laurent, Swelled its banks, big and rough With snow's run-off, Cutters' logs lay thick as tobacco leaves, Rolled up among slices and traps Of ice on the Fleuve.
Then, though--like memories lived now-- Drivers' gangs couldn't care 'bout fear. How those Draveur fellows Skipped from their boats! How they skipped in calk-boots Across the River's shifting floor Of logs and icy water With their balancing, hooked poles! Like jaunty aerialists-- Like Walendas-- Or Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Marcel Cerdan-- Les Draveurs courage was complete, every day, Because it had to be.
Les Draveurs came out With the Spring's Flood-time And its Harvests Of Berries, Beets, Pears-- Quebec's land replendant green with Snows gone. Les Draveurs' courage and skills fostered Les Canadiens, Ever the home-team Le Quebec, Les Champions Of the National Hockey League, Its Stanley Cup Montreal's 23 years all-told, 16 times between 1956 and 1979, Belonging to Toe Blake, Elmer Lach, Richards', Geoffrion, Moore, Beliveau, Plante, Cournoyer, Dryden, Lemaire, Lafleur, ... 1950s, '60s. '70s, '80s, .. Generations, La! As the Rocket's Red glare of onrushing headlights-like doom (Terry Sawchuck) become emblem Of workers who spoke French While their bosses (Clarence Campbell!) didn't.
We made raison to dance On those brave porches-- Red-brick houses, couples, Families side by side Next to Rivers and socks-- And still we do! Earlier version of 'Houses of Old Trois Rivières' is up on the We Are Revolutions website. The page there has more photos!
