The following spoken word poem was sent to CollingwoodToday.ca by Collingwood Poet Laureate Emeritus Day Merrill.
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O Canada, our home on native land.
From far and wide, we come with humble hearts not to stand guard over an idealized past, but to stand up and stand fast for a different future as we seek our True North.
This is not a today for celebration, but for a recalibration of what makes our nation what it is: beautiful, imperfect and unfinished.
We are not diminished by the truths we uncover but emboldened to root out every lie that threatens to smother us.
Each of us has gained or lost from a system which privileges some over others who are tossed as unworthy, lesser than, beneath us when in fact we need all of us to make us whole.
We are deficient but not so damaged that we can’t see what has always been true: we are the keepers of our brothers–and our sisters, fathers, mothers, each other.
It’s not a mystery–history need to be our story, the one we are writing by righting the wrongs that have stood too long.
While none of us is liable for the sins of the past, all of us must be reliable to see the signs of now and create a different then.
We owe it to our ancestors and descendants to build a nation transcendent, a North that is truly strong because all of us are free.
So don’t cancel today–instead, make preparations to transform a day of humiliation into a universal celebration, recognizing that reconciliation is only possible when we acknowledge the iniquities that have created systemic inequities.
Don’t erase the maple leaf but add to it all the other green and glowing things that grow on top of this turtle’s back as we are carried forward to a place that feels new because we finally see this is your land and my land, belonging to all of us and none of us.
Wear orange to mourn lives lost, recognizing the cost to our collective soul and then add all the other colors of the rainbow, a sign of peace and promise.
Make sure all voices are heeded by granting all the reparations needed to move us forward together.
Let’s stop calling each other out in shame and blame and call one another in so each of us is accountable and all of us can be counted in the ranks of those who at last in gratitude lift their hearts and voices to sing O Canada, our home.
Day Merrill
Poet Laureate Emeritus, Town of Collingwood
