WEBVTT

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This is a poem that was
published in Genesis West

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early last summer in which
the series of my poems

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were introduced by Barney Childs
of the English department here.

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This poem is called
"Spanish BC."

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And once again, I'm
getting interested

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in Vancouver Island plus other
places up and down the coast

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that happen to have
Spanish place names,

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but no Spaniards anymore because
the Spaniards and the Russians

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and the English and
the Indians were all

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competing for that stretch
of navigable waters.

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"Spanish BC".

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"God is letting the
shore lie where it may.

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Edging out from here under
ship's journey to Japan,

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back into the land with
feelers probing the shore dots

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on the map stopping
places of Spanish boats,

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fish drying quacking
little eyes watching

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them come big barks with
wings and Europe's diseases

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brought around the horn.

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Juan de Fuca, straight
to the West Coast

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and out to the ice cap.

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Ana Cortez, wild islands
swept brut shoulder

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of Boulder and mud bank trees.

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San Joseph Bay of seals and
sea Lions locked in fog.

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Galleon places
these armada places,

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Iberian places at the
Natomas drop edge of the map.

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Juan Perez sound, Laredo
sound, caamaño sound,

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Spanish sound remaining to
it all the Anglo-Saxon Indian

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stretch of British Columbia
even the name shared.

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Remaining to the city
too, where rain will not

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erase the dust of Juan de Fuca
Alma street, Blanca street,

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Balaclava street
mispronounced by bus drivers

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breaking by them.

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Spanish banks of crumbling
clay and historic markers

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hidden in the tangled
post lined trees.

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God is letting the
shore lie where it may.

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While Broadway blasts into
the middle of the thing,

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sustaining plastic science
over fish and chips emporiums.

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Díos permite que la costa
se apuye donde le gusta.

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The city Vancouver last blow
of commerce against the rock

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absorbs by name only the
effort of those dead Spaniards.

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They fought across, drove
a stake into the Pacific,

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and turned North.

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Created California,
thick Spanish mane

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on the way naming
Oregon striving

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on the rip of Juan de Fuca.

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Dwindling numbers
seeking a river

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in the million frozen fjords
of the Columbia coast.

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In the end, the Nordic sea
killed them, drove them back,

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sent them to California summer
or the bottom of the sea

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back to Iberia for the ice
wore them out, arrested them,

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and waited for the British."

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