Poem

100th Anniversary Poem

Pastors Turning Sod by Gerald Hill, Poet Laureate and Luther English Professor

 

Gerald Hill

Gerald Hill has taught English and Creative Writing at Luther College, University of Regina, for almost twenty years. Proud to be son of two Saskatchewan ex-farm kids, one of whom—his father, Don Hill—ended his own teaching career in the Faculty of Education at University of Regina, Gerald is a two-time winner of the Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry, and second place winner in the CBC Literary Awards for 2010. He has attended writing residencies, led workshops, and published his work internationally, though the heart of his work is the local, his most recent publication being Hillsdale, a Map, a full-colour, annotated map of the subdivision of Regina where he lived as a boy and again, many years later, as a parent himself. In 2015, NeWest Press will publish his sixth poetry collection, a book-length expansion of the Hillsdale work, called Hillsdale Book.

 

The driving impulse behind his five-part Luther Anniversary poem was a visit to the site of the former Luther Academy in Melville one hundred years to the day after the sod-turning. He dedicates the poem to Luther College and all who live, work, and learn there, future and past.