Patrick Lane: An open letter to all the wild creatures of the Earth
Victoria poet Patrick Lane received an honorary doctor of letters degree from the University of Victoria on Nov. 13. Lane, who has won the Governor General’s Literary Award and numerous other honours, has written 25 volumes of poetry, as well as fiction and non-fiction. He is known for what the university called the “gritty honesty” of his style. In keeping with his unique voice, his convocation speech was moving and powerful. Here is the text of his speech.
"It is 65 years ago, you’re 10 years old and sitting on an old, half-blind, grey horse. All you have is a saddle blanket and a rope for reins as you watch a pack of dogs rage at the foot of a Ponderosa pine.
High up on a branch, a cougar lies supine, one paw lazily swatting at the air. He knows the dogs will tire. They will slink away and then the cougar will climb down and go on with its life in the Blue Bush country south of Kamloops. It is a hot summer day. There is the smell of pine needles and Oregon grape and dust. It seems to you that the sun carves the dust from the face of the broken rocks, carves and lifts it into the air where it mixes with the sun. Just beyond you are three men on horses."
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