Museum of Atikokan is pleased to announce the release of “Poetry from the Woodlands” the first in a three-book set by Graham G. Harris (1878-1958). Mr. Harris lived simply in a cabin in Sapawe, a small Northwestern Ontario community, and wrote with great proficiency and wit. He died when his cabin at Sapawe burned in 1958 and his unpublished work perished with him. Collecting his previously published work involved years of searching physical copies of old newspapers, microfiche, and transcribing by volunteers and employees of the Museum of Atikokan. This collection contains his only known surviving poems and rightfully deserves its place in Canadian history.
“Poetry from the Woodlands” is lively and evocative, extolling the beauty and natural grandeur of northwestern Ontario and its inhabitants, the progression of local industry and events of the time, including such historic events as war, the death of the King and coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. A number of his poems were included in the collection “Rhymes of the Miner” in 1937, in good company with those of renowned Canadian poets Robert Service, William Henry Drummond and others.
Notable poems are Cranberry Moon, Miner’s Luck, Sway Song, Goblin Gold, The Motive, To a Chickadee in a Snowstorm, To a Garden Devotee in March, The Birth of the “Bill and the Bear”
“Poetry from the Woodlands” is now available in paperback or ebook at Amazon.ca, or can be purchased directly from the Museum of Atikokan. Two more books in this set are anticipated for the fall of 2023.
