A Span. The Length Of Memory 127

She listened and spoke:

You bring no gifts or quarry? He answered: No I would give you only your freedom

Then she almost sang: But this

is all I have desired

You do love

And she came to him

Wayne Wright’s work has been broadcast on C.B.C.’s Radio An- thology, and his poems have also appeared in Island Prose and Poetry (1973) and Storm Warnings II: The New Canadian Poets. He is currently working on an experimental novel entitled Kit.

WEBSTER ROGERS

Wesley Webster Rogers, a one time resident of Wilmot Valley was born in 1872, the son of Joseph Rogers and his wife Fannie Webster.

He worked in Summerside as a pressman for some years and then moved to the Canadian West and lived in Alberta and British Columbia. He settled in Tacoma. Washington, U.S.A. where he spent the last years of his life working as a union organizer. Mr. Rogers died in 1962.

During the early 1900’s the Island Magazine printed several of his poems. In 1973 his poem “The Bell of Kildare” was chosen by the Prince Edward Island Centennial Commission and was printed in ”Island Prose and Poetry: ” an anthology.

In 1949 a little book entitled “The Pioneers and Other Poems by Webster Rogers was published in Tacoma, Washington, U.S.A. The poems in this book express a longing for days gone by. His “Farewell to the Homestead” and its reference to the iron gate, and “My Island Home” are his way of painting pictures of his old home near Wilmot Valley. His humorous poems “The Bachelor’s Lament” and “Rocks" bring visions of the “gold rush" days and “Our Return” expresses an assurance that a heart warming welcome is waiting for him when he comes back home to visit. The following poems have been chosen for this community history.