Edna Jaques

DEDICATED TO THE PIONEERS To those brave valiant hearts who came west when it was little more than a wilderness. I proudly claim to be one of them. My father homesteaded in 1902 near where the Briercrest village now is, and turned the first furrow between the Soo Line and the Dirt Hills. As a small child I walked in that first crooked furrow, half a mile long. Poems selected from her 12 books of poetry. (Pg.V) 01 Drifting Soil 02 Wide Horizons 03 Kitchen Window 04 Dreams in Your Heart 05 Beside Still Waters 06 Aunt Hattie's Place 07 Roses in December 08 Britons Awake 09 Backdoor Neighbors 10 Hills of Home 11 Fireside Poems 12 Golden Road

The poems in this book (over 70 poems) reflect on life during the early part of the 20th century in Saskatchewan. It includes poems about life - from "An Everyday Hero" who plants and carefully tends his garden in order to feed his family, to wondering if the memories of "The Prisoner" "wound him like a sabre thrust" when he thinks "of sunrise on a lonely prairie farm". She writes about a broad spectrum of subjects, such as "An Old Chinaman" in his laundry shop, to "The Stay-At-Homes" who though they envy her life of travel, are really the ones to be envied because they have "the shelter of a kindly home", a marriage partner and children. Many of her poems also reference her Christian faith, sermons, prayers, and the spoken word. The book offers a glimpse into a simpler time, although they were physically harder times. The book is "lovingly dedicated to my dear friend, Nellie L. McClung".