Setting the Compass

The Druids viewed themselves as caretakers of the universe and considered the natural and the supernatural worlds to be one. In this story set in the time of the Druids, a very young man, dark-haired, dark-eyed, sits alone in the shadow thrown by the Poulnabrone Dolmen, County Clare. He has been set a test. And, despite himself, he will pass.When she turns forty-five, and Lollie becomes a divorced casualty of the modern age, she takes a trip to northern Ontario and Manitoba to search for her aboriginal and Métis heritage. This set of poems is based on her trip and her vision of an imaginary ancestor, Heron Feathers, She knows a bit of the history of the Cree, their migration to the prairies from the forest of Ontario, the coming of the French, and the attempt to found a Métis nation.