Celebrating National Health and Fitness Day through poetry
To mark this year’s National Health and Fitness Day on June 5, Senator Marty Deacon asked Parliamentary Poet Laureate Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer to inspire Canadians to get active.
Ms. Halfe’s poem Over Sixty-five was recited in the Senate Chamber by Senator Deacon on June 3, 2021.
National Health and Fitness Day is celebrated each year on the first Saturday in June. To celebrate it, Canadians are encouraged to get out and get active in any way they wish.
Former senator Nancy Greene Raine’s Bill S-211, An Act to establish a national day to promote health and fitness for all Canadians, received Royal Assent in December 2014.
Over Sixty-five
Sometimes the spirit of the body
has no inclination to move.
Yet,
the cool water on throbbing feet
after a half-hearted run
refreshes one’s resolve.
The heart-throb
and gasp for breath
drives
this reluctant exhilaration.
Sitting in a canoe,
paddle dipping, gliding past
cliffs and forest,
hand cutting the water.
This gentle sweep
moves spirit and body.
Each morning my husband and I
lift weights.
Stretch above our heads,
bend at the waist,
arms flapping into a butterfly.
Leg press: kneeling has never been
so easy.
We work our
turkey waddle triceps,
do full-length planks.
We are over sixty-five.
For three years
our feet covered
over two hundred miles
of the Saskatchewan prairie.
From the grasslands
to the rocky mounds of
the angels at the Mystery Rocks,
to the murdered sites
where we paid homage
to the original tribes.
We push beyond the limitations
of our reluctance.
Honor body, mind and spirit.
These gifts
of wind, sun, water and earth
course through our veins.
© Louise B. Halfe – Sky Dancer
Parliamentary Poet Laureate
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Celebrating National Health and Fitness Day through poetry
To mark this year’s National Health and Fitness Day on June 5, Senator Marty Deacon asked Parliamentary Poet Laureate Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer to inspire Canadians to get active.
Ms. Halfe’s poem Over Sixty-five was recited in the Senate Chamber by Senator Deacon on June 3, 2021.
National Health and Fitness Day is celebrated each year on the first Saturday in June. To celebrate it, Canadians are encouraged to get out and get active in any way they wish.
Former senator Nancy Greene Raine’s Bill S-211, An Act to establish a national day to promote health and fitness for all Canadians, received Royal Assent in December 2014.
Over Sixty-five
Sometimes the spirit of the body
has no inclination to move.
Yet,
the cool water on throbbing feet
after a half-hearted run
refreshes one’s resolve.
The heart-throb
and gasp for breath
drives
this reluctant exhilaration.
Sitting in a canoe,
paddle dipping, gliding past
cliffs and forest,
hand cutting the water.
This gentle sweep
moves spirit and body.
Each morning my husband and I
lift weights.
Stretch above our heads,
bend at the waist,
arms flapping into a butterfly.
Leg press: kneeling has never been
so easy.
We work our
turkey waddle triceps,
do full-length planks.
We are over sixty-five.
For three years
our feet covered
over two hundred miles
of the Saskatchewan prairie.
From the grasslands
to the rocky mounds of
the angels at the Mystery Rocks,
to the murdered sites
where we paid homage
to the original tribes.
We push beyond the limitations
of our reluctance.
Honor body, mind and spirit.
These gifts
of wind, sun, water and earth
course through our veins.
© Louise B. Halfe – Sky Dancer
Parliamentary Poet Laureate