Shakespeare's great phrase about local habitation applies to Purdy. He writes of the whole country, but the evocations of his native place, the local territory of Prince Edward and Hastings counties and Roblin Lake, are his inspirational source. Here he reads from an earlier recording of what is probably his best-known poem, The Country North Of Belleville . Where a man might have some opinion of what beauty is, and then deny him for miles. And where the farms have gone back to forest, are only soft outlines, shadowy differences.
Old fences drift vaguely among the trees.
A pile of moss covered stones, gathered for some ghost purpose, has lost meaning under the meaningless sky. I can't imagine any other life I'd like to live. And this is a country where the young leave quickly, unwilling to know what their fathers know or think the words their mothers do not say. And sometime, we may go back there, to the country of our defeat. But nevertheless, overall, it's been a great life.