Mackenzie River
This river belongs
wholly to itself
obeying its own laws
Its wide brown eye
softens what it reflects
from sky and shore
The top water calm
moves purposely
to a cold sea
…
A river so Canadian
it turns its back
on America
The arctic shore
receives the vast flow
a maze of ponds and dikes
In land so bleak and bare
a single plume of smoke
is a scroll of history
— F.R. Scott (Collected Poems)