On the Difference between Canada and...

For we have bounced no rockets off the moon,
swung west to loop the land with gold and steel,
or made a bloody pageant of our greatness,
or bought men's loyalty by giving or withholding
— we have not done any of these great things: troubled, listening to other people's opinions, becoming them,
pinned to earth by them,
as if we were a focus and burning glass for opinions,
as if we were coming to birth somehow,
learning to love and to earn and to spend
— The worth of life being not necessarily noise we kept unusual silence,
and then cried out one word which has never yet been said...
Al Purdy