The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1963, Side 22

20
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
SUMMER 1963
PRIM©- IN MANITOBA
by GUS SIGURDSON
Take me back to Manitoba
Now that spring is in the air
When the frost and snow have vanished
And the fields lie damp and bare;
When the brush of blooming nature
Paints the land for weeks and weeks,
And the shades of green are showing
Growth around the ponds and creeks.
Take me back and let me wander
On a smiling April morn,
Through the fields of Manitoba,
In the land where I was born.
Take me back across the mountains
O’er the rolling prairie breast,
Back to good old Manitoba
And the Gateway to the West.
Leave me loose and let me wander
North between the lakes afar,
Let me gaze in brilliant sunshine
On the jewels that they are;
Think, how often their abundance
Fed the hungry, sick and worn
In the early days of struggle,
In the land where I was born.
Take me back to Manitoba
In the spring-time of the year
There is, Oh, so much I cherish
That my memory holds dear —
The croaking of the bull-frogs,
And the cawing of the crows —
All the wild and virile beauty
That my Manitoba knows.
At this time when oak and poplar
Their bright greenery adorn,
Take me back to Manitoba,
To the land where I was born.
—Courtesy of Logberg-Heimskringla