" You be Harry Glazier's boy, bean't ye?"
Sugaring Off
Easter vacation
he tramps the Gutter Road
from Gramp's to Uncle Maurice's
where the whole family's sugaring
Lynn and Orman and Calvin
trip metal caps off buckets
under spiles
draining the sugar bush
Merle bossing the gathering,
tub slewing, team
straining, bobsled runners
grating on a ledge
Perry shoves another slab
in the firebox
"a gallon to the barrel, boys,
get a move on!"
Maurice tips the dipper, testing
In the kitchen Aunt Pluma
boils down a batch for
fancy sugar cakes:
stars, hearts, scaled fish
Loyce and Thelma spoon snow
from a dishpan into ie pie plates
the thick glaze pulls at the fork
"a little goes a long ways"
_________________________
Lyle Glazier
Prefatory Lyrics
Coffee House Press, 1991
___________________________________
It was the poet and editor Cid Corman
who had the great ear and tenacity to
promote, publish and persevere
so many fine back country poets —
be it Gary Snyder's early book of poems
Riprap, or Lorine Niedecker's entire workbook,
Theodore Enslin's musical memory, and gone into
the bushes forgotten Lyle Glazier's tramps in the sugar bush,
and this is a mere touching of the Corman radiance.
So few could restore that moment of lyrical movement
and visual care as Lyle Glazier works his tablet in
Prefatory Lyrics.
[ BA ]
