P. K. Page

By Jumi Heo

About P. K. (Patricia Kathleen) Page

• P. K. Page was born on November 23, 1916• She was lived in Victoria, British Columbia

with her diplomat-husband, Arthur Irwin• She was the author of the books of poetry

(As Ten as Twenty), fiction (The Sun and the Moon), and non-fiction

• She had won the Governor General’s Award for poetry of The Metal and the Flower (1954)

• She was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1999

• Because there were lots of wars happened while she was alive, most of her poems are gloomy and depressed

Continued...

• P. K. Page attended schools in Winnipeg, Calgary and England

• She studied Art under Frank Schaeffer in Brazil and Charles Seliger in New York

• She also attended the Art Students’ League and Pratt Graphics in New York

• P. K. Page once worked as a clerk and radio actress in Saint John, N.B.

• In Montreal, she was a filling clerk and historical researcher

• P. K. Page was died on January 14, 2010

Single Traveller by P. K. Page

What is this love that is my life’s companion?Shape-changer, sometimes faceless, this companion.

Single traveller, I wander a wasting worldawaiting the much anticipated Companion.

A trillium covered wood one April dayserved as a nearly consummate companion.

A horse, two dogs, some cats, a blue macaweach in its turn became a loyal companion.

Behind the loved embrace, a face of light-demon or angel-lures me from my companion.

The street of love is neither wide nor narrow.Its width depends on me and my companion.

Am I too bound and blinded by coarse wrappings

ever to know true love as my companion?

O Poet, squanderer of time and talentswhy do you search for love as your

Companion?

This Heavy Craft by P. K. Page

The wax has meltedbut the dream of flightpersists.I, Icarus, though groundedin my fleshhave one bright section in mewhere a birdnight after starry nightwhile I’m asleepunfolds its phantom wingsand practices.

After Rain by P. K. Page

Its stain is everywhere.The sharpening airof late afternoonis now the colour of tea.Once-glycerined green leavesburned by a summer sunare brittle and ochre.Night enters day like a thief.And children fear that the beautiful daylight has gone.

It is the best and the worst time.Around a fire, everyone laughing,brocaded curtains drawn,nowhere-anywhere-is more safe than here.The whole world is a cupone could hold in one’s hand like a stonewarmed by that same summer sun.But the dead or the near deadare now all knucklebone.

Nothing to do. Nothing to really do.Toast and tea are nothing.Kettle boils dry.Shut the night out or let it in,it is a cat on the wrong side of the doorwhichever side it is on. A black thingwith its implacable face.To avoid it youwill tell yourself you are something,

Even though there is bounty, a full harvestthat sharp sweetness in the tea-stained airis reserved for those who have made a strawfine as a hair to suck it through-fine as a golden hair.Wearing a smile or a frownGod’s face is always there.It is up to youif you take your wintry restlessness into the

town

Adolescence by P. K. Page

In love they wore themselves in a green embrace.A silken rain fell through the spring upon them.In the park she fed the swans and hewhittled nervously with his strange hands.And white was mixed with all their coloursas if they drew it from the flowering trees.

At night his two finger whistle brought her downthe waterfall stairs to his shy smilewhich like an eddy, turned her round and roundlazily and slowly so her willwas nowhere-as in dreams things are and aren’t.

Walking along avenues in the darkstreet lamps sang like sopranos in their headswith a voilence they never understoodand all their movements when they were togetherhad no conclusion.

Only leaning into the question had they motion;after they parted were savage and swift as gulls.Asking and asking the hostile emptinessthey were as sharp as partly sculptured stoneand all who watched, forgetting, were amazedTo see them form and fade before their eyes.

Analysis

• P. K. Page’s poem, Adolescence is implied both maturity in humans and the periods of development of teenagers

• Its poetic devices are mostly used by personification, symbolism, alliteration, and internal rhyme

• For instance:• “And white was mixed with all their colours as if they drew it fro

m the flowering trees.”• “...turned her round and round lazily and slowly so her will...”• “...they were as sharp as partly sculptured stone and all...”• All of these poetic terms are emphasized the poem’s theme; a

nd the theme can be its title itself-Adolescence, or maturity

Continued...

• The poem is basically about the relationship between a man and woman who love each other but their romantic love can be broken-up as well

• However, besides feeling frustration or disappointment of failure, experiencing the relationship bring the realization of their interaction later on, which impressed them to behave more mature in the future and for the next possible relationship

Thought-provoking Questions

• By reading the poem, Adolescence, which line is the most impressive or makes sense to you?

• As the poem depicted, have you learned anything through the relationship with your boyfriend/girlfriend?

• Do you think P. K. Page is succeeded with her poem, Adolescence, to describe what she really meant?

Planet Earth by P. K. Page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWFTFE8Icf0

Planet Earth has been selected to be part of a United Nations program to foster dialogue among nations, involving readings in countries around the world and possibly from Alpha, the new international space station

Bibliography

• http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/arts/photos/2010/01/15/arts-pk-page-hedgerow-584.jpg

• http://web.bcnewsgroup.com/portals/uploads/goldstream/.DIR288/PK_Page01_Dec_0106_061201.jpg

• http://www.pkpage.ca/index.html• http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/page/

poems.htm• http://www.ecospherics.net/pages/

aboutauthors.html#page• http://www.ecospherics.net/pages/

PagePlanetEarth.html• http://www.bookrags.com/essay-

2004/9/25/195959/088