Temagami

Jim Flosdorf

6 X 9 inches, 46 pages

THE MAGIC OF TEMAGAMI lingers long after reading these poems by Jim Flosdorf, longtime acolyte of the Temagami and surrounding wilderness—"Canada's Lake District outshining / England's by a country mile." That's his understated hint at the magesty of the region in the poem What Grey Owl Knew. The name "Temagami" is Ojiway for "deep water by the shore." Flosdorf's poems track initiatory paths down into the old growth and deep blue heart of this wild place.

the manitu
glides serpentine like mist
through the channels of lake and pines
insinuating like a dream
and weaving together
land, water, and sky
before the sun
sets on fire the pine tops
and the far shores
dissolves the dew beads on spider webs

when the light of noon flares
myths dissolve and fade away.

Jim Flosdorf

Author

Before he published Temagami in 1985, Jim Flosdorf had been a resident of Temagami for nearly twenty-five summers. An avid canoe-tripper and local environmental activist then, he has continued to champion the watershed he loves so well.

Jim Flosdorf is a Professor Emeritus of Russell Sage College of The Sage Colleges where he taught English Literature and Creative Writing. He is a founding member of The Hudson Valley Writers Guild. In addition to Temagami he has published another chapbook called Rivertown and a volume of biography/autobiography in poetry and prose called My Father Was Shiva. His Journal of a Trip to the Arctic can be viewed online, along with more poems from Temagami and his breathtaking panoramic photographs of the watershed.

Poems from Temagami and Other Poems

Temagami Panoramic Photos by Jim Flosdorf