Penn Kemp

River Revery Penn Kemp

Rivers are often used in mythology to represent boundaries; to cross the river is to transform. The poems in River Revery reflect the river Thames as it winds through the city of London, Ontario. Because the Thames forks into two streams at the city's core, it was called Askunessippi, "the antlered river," by the original Algonquin inhabitants. For Indigenous communities, it is "Deshkan Ziibiing." In re-naming the river the Thames, English settlers colonized forbidding new territory as an imitation of 'home, ' rather than embracing the vibrancy of the river as it is. A distillation of ecological concern is a current necessity in River Revery. Such inspiration in poetry is one source for right action since the Thames waters our gardens, real and imaginary.