Ottawa River memories

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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Parliament3-big.jpg
Canada’s Parliament Buildings overlooking Ottawa River (Wikimedia)

Gothic stone towers,

guardians of law and peace,

oversee river,

Symbols of a young nation,

Memories of my home town.

∼

Canada’s seat of government is in Ottawa where the parliament buildings are an iconic sight. Two distinctive features are the Peace Tower, with carillon bells that chime the hours, and the round dome of the Parliamentary Library. The Ottawa River flowing below was once  a major timber trade route.

I recently wrote about my memories of the Rideau Canal. Then, when Ronovan’s weekly haiku prompt included the word ‘river’, my mind went to the main river of my life: the Ottawa River.  My first 18 years were in Ottawa, minutes away from the river.  I remember digging up clay from its banks, cycling beside it, and many visits to an old  boat club house. My father was drawn to water, having served in the merchant navy.  So he enjoyed boating and took his family out for many rides.  There the romance dwindles. In those days there was an active paper mill. Log rafts and loose logs bobbed in the water—and a strong unpleasant industrial smell prevailed.

This week I attempted a tanka instead of a haiku for Ronovan’s Challenge #112.  The prompt words are ‘river’ and ‘stone’.  Syllable counts for a tanka are: 5-7-5-7-7.

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Published by Janice

My name is Janice.  I started blogging as Ontheland when I moved from Toronto to a rural area near Kingston, Ontario in Canada.  Over time I have found myself writing poetry, mostly in Japanese forms, such as haiku and haibun.  One of my deepest interests is the natural world: the joy of it and how we can look after it better.

17 thoughts on “Ottawa River memories”

    1. I am not quite sure what you asked but I’ll say a few related things. The Ottawa river runs from Ottawa to Montreal, flowing into the St Lawrence River. My father once drove us in our small motor boat down the river to the west end of Montreal–to Sainte Anne de Bellevue. The waves were quite high near the St Lawrence River!

      I enjoyed the Rideau Canal most when I lived in Ottawa. Now I live near Kingston which is at the south end of the Rideau Waterway. I hope to visit some of the locks this Fall.

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    1. Thank you:) yes they do look like castles… I read that the style is ‘gothic revival’… I think I took them for granted as a child but now I see them with a touch of amazement…they are so loaded with history

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