Brenda Gunn’s grandfather Bill Ingram wrote a poem in 1914 to describe his adventures as a settler in the Prairies. Interspersing verses from that poem with her own original work, she elaborates on what life must have been like back then in Reading the Air.

“I first wrote about my grandfather, Bill Ingram, in 2019, in a poetry course I was taking for the Certificate in Creative Writing program through the U of T,” says Brenda, a retired teacher who reads her poetry at various locations across the city. 

“The Ingram/Roark family binder was sitting on the desk in front of me. I’d been immersed in these people’s lives for almost two years by then, and was obsessed with the stories that emerged from the research, some of which I’d already started recording. So, yes, Reading the Air has been about seven years in the making. I think I finished the last poem a few months before sending it off to Wild Skies!”

Brenda got a hold of her grandfather’s poem thanks to her mother. “I have three sisters who will all attest that there were few family stories Mom did not share with us, even as young kids. She then also made sure we had copies of those detailed stories that she wrote for her family histories, and the story of Grandpa Ingram’s poem was one of those,” she explains. 

When Brenda seriously read the poem in 2017 after her retirement, it made her think about what her grandfather was trying to express. "I recall thinking, shortly after finding the poem in Mom’s binder, how it listed places Grandpa had worked and jobs he’s had and accidents and injuries, but was completely devoid of any emotional take-away. So typical, I thought, of men in that generation, particularly a wet-behind-the-ears farm kid who’d left home as a teenager, to make his own way,” she explains.

“He was emotionally distant, later in life, according to mom - suffered depression and many chronic illnesses, no doubt from the many accidents and injuries he sustained. I thought, maybe Grandpa couldn’t express what was in his heart - his fear, loneliness, despair - but I can do that for him. Writers may understand, but Grandpa’s voice came to me often, usually early in the morning, not in specific words, but more a feeling that he wasn’t pleased with something or wanted me to explore something more.”

Although Brenda doesn’t live in the area, she has connections through cultural events and relationships with several artistic current and former community members. Reading the Air is Brenda’s second poetry collection. “I wrote my first poem at the age of 62! I still have to pinch myself that I even have one published poetry book, never mind two. I just want people to appreciate the life my grandfather and men like him lived,” she says.

“I want readers, particularly younger members of my extended family who may not have known Grandpa as I did, to feel they got to know him, and understand how he was shaped by the times he lived in, the attitudes and mores. I want them to feel they took a wild ride and learned some of the history of that part of the world; I think one of my messages is that everyone has a story, even grizzled, taciturn old farmers, and maybe Reading the Air will spur readers to want to pursue their own family history.”

Reading the Air will be published by Wild Skies Press on June 23rd and will be available at Audreys Books, several Chapters/Indigo locations in Edmonton, and online.

Paula E. Kirman is the Editor of Boyle McCauley News.