Editing the Prairie

            Don Kerr is a poet, editor, playwright and teacher living in Saskatoon. Many of his works have been presented on stage as well as CBC radio broadcasts. For many years he was also the editor for the magazine "Grain". "Editing the Prairie" written by Don Kerr, is a poem about the various landscapes of Saskatchewan through the themes of sarcasm, point of view and comparing the structure of the poem to the land.
             The first and more obvious theme that comes to mind when reading this poem is sarcasm. The tone of the author is used in such a way that every line he says is exaggerated. For example, "Well, it's too long for one thing and very repetitive." The author is talking in a type of "critiquing" tone. The prairies can be long and repetitive to an extent, but the author's tone describes our landscape as boring. As well the line "Try us again in a year with a mountain or a sea or a city." Also demonstrates the author's tone of voice. The author sarcastically says that maybe next year we will have a mountain, a sea (which is impossible) or a city to write about. He doesn't even consider Regina or Saskatoon as a city worthy of a poem.
             A second theme that can be found in the poem "Editing the Prairie" is the point of view. Don Kerr has taken upon a different persona when he was writing this poem. The author writes from the view of a foreign individual who lives in a terrain of mountains, forests, trees, seas and oceans. The author compares the prairie land to the land of British Colombia, where the landscape is beautiful, vegetation thriving, with an ocean and a mountain range. The prairies are dry, cold, empty and flat, very flat, as described in the poem.
             A final theme is that the structure of the poem is compared to the prairie landscape. The poem had no rhythm nor rhyme, which can be compared to how boring the prairies can be, with no excitement and varying land formations. The lines of the poem have no distinct format, where some lines continue for two to three lines.