2000
Listen to Port Robinson, read by Lini Grol’s niece, Karin Brenninkmeijer
Hugged by the old river
and the new canal, the town promised
to grow in prominence.
But a sleepy skipper
sliced its bridge, their umbilical cord
to the outside world.
Yet,
its people seem content
to have no part in the raging world,
the ever roaring traffic
the wild race for progress.
For today they still know
and cherish their neighbors
and the walks to their friends
in the serene evenings after dark.
First published in Kevin McCabe and Lynne Prunskus [eds.], Lake to Lake. Lini Grol’s Niagara. St. Catharines: Blarney Stone Books, 2000, 46
Published in Spirit of the Big Ditch: The Story of the Welland Canals in Pictures, Poems and Songs. Compiled, edited and annotated by Robert Ratcliffe Taylor. St. Catharines: The Historical Society of St. Catharines, 2024
The Historical Society of St. Catharines 