The title was inspired by geese; the collection has earned a place on the shortlist for a provincial award.
Dr. Barb Langhorst, a professor at St. Peter's College, wrote a collection of poetry called "Restless White Fields" which was published last year. The book is now up for the Saskatchewan Arts Board Poetry Award, part of the Saskatchewan Book Awards.
The title came from looking out her window in the spring, she told the Journal, and seeing the snowgeese on a nearby field.
The look of the geese - white while on the fields, but black when looking at them in the sky - seemed to fit her book.
The collection, Langhorst said, while "a really personal collection of poetry," is "not sentimental."
The poems are about the author trying to make sense of the process of grieving, she noted, as well as the experimental process of poetry, the confusion of images, and the blunt language that is sometimes a part of the grieving process.
The most personal pieces of the collection concern the death of her parents. Langhorst's mother and father were killed in a murder-suicide in Edmonton some years ago.
Her father, she explained, had a stroke and while he seemed to recover, he carried some serious anxiety inside him that eventually resulted in him not wanting to go on. At the same time, Langhorst said, he did not want his wife to suffer another loss - they had already lost their son - and in the end, he shot his wife and himself.
That experience obviously scarred Langhorst's family.
She is filled with regret for not noticing the signs before the tragedy, even today.
"It took 13 years to forgive him," she said, "and remember what a good dad he was."
It has taken longer to forgive herself, she said.
"I still have terrible guilt," she noted.
Those who think of suicide should consider the absolute devastation it leaves behind, for those who are left, she noted.
It takes a lot of courage to write about something so intensely personal and have it published for the world to see. But Langhorst felt it had to be done.
"If you don't talk about it, no one else can learn from it," she said.
And writing the poetry in the book helped her heal.
"The narrative... gives (me) the space to deal with it. There's a positive feeling by the end of the book."
Her book has been getting Langhorst some attention. Her piece, "Spring Romance," which is about her parents, was read on CBC, she's been interviewed on the radio as well, and has been doing readings in Saskatoon, Regina, Moose Jaw, Edmonton, Vancouver and Ottawa.
It also earned her the Saskatchewan Book Awards nomination.
"I'm very excited to be nominated," she said. "I'm not expecting to win," she smiled. "I have some fierce competition."
Also nominated in her category are works by Leah Horlick, Jeanette Lynes and Brenda Schmidt.
The Saskatchewan Book Awards ceremony will be held April 27 in Regina.
