Lorna Crozier鈥檚 creative contributions to The Wild in You happened by chance.聽聽 聽
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The Governor General鈥檚 Award-winning poet from Saanich had been invited to go to the Great Bear Rainforest last fall to write a travel piece for the online magazine Touque & Canoe. Through the magazine鈥檚 editor, she was introduced to photographer, conservationist and Great Bear Rainforest resident Ian McAllister.
The editor suggested the two might collaborate on a book.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 write poems to order, and Ian鈥檚 a very busy person, so I didn鈥檛 have much hope that it would happen,鈥� Crozier said.
But the pair clicked, and the book began to take shape. The result, published by Greystone Books, is a volume of McAllister鈥檚 photos matched with Crozier鈥檚
poems. The cause of celebrating nature motivated her, she said.
Crozier said the book has given her the opportunity to put 鈥渕y mouth and my pen鈥� toward something she holds dear.
鈥淚鈥檝e always been someone who believes very strongly that we have to do what we can to save what little is left of our planet for other species,鈥� she said.
Crozier said she was honoured to work with McAllister.
鈥淗e鈥檚 doing everything within the power of one human being to have a sanctuary for whales and grizzlies and wolves and salmon. And I get to be part of it.鈥�
Inspiration was everywhere in the rainforest, Crozier said. At the time she was there, the salmon spawn was just about done.
鈥淪o the air was just full of life and death coming together at the same time in this marvellous, wild place where I had certainly never been before.鈥�
Crozier said she had the experience of seeing her first grizzly in the wild, mere feet away. Efforts to spot a spirit bear 鈥� a black bear with a rare genetic trait that gives it white fur 鈥� were fruitless, but the experience was wonderful, she said.
鈥淲e must have spent six hours just getting wet, sitting on wet moss under the dripping trees. It was all worth it. Just sitting amongst those trees, you had a palpable sense of the bears having been there and they would be there again, perhaps within minutes after you鈥檇 gone.鈥�
Crozier would like the book to have broad appeal.
鈥淚鈥檓 hoping that people who have stayed away from poetry might take the risk and actually look at this book and get this book because of Ian鈥檚 thrilling photographs, that then maybe they鈥檒l see that poetry can speak clearly and humbly to them.鈥�
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