Walk Softly, Lest a Careless Foot

Bert Almon is a professor of English at the University of Alberta and
author of Calling Texas.

Baird is a distinguished geologist whose honors include membership in
the Royal Society of Canada. Baird’s ecological intentions in this
beautifully produced book (there are many photographs of nature scenes)
are noble and summed up nicely by his title, but he shows no evidence of
poetic talent. Trite diction and vague sentiments abound, along with
such rhetorical lines as “Grieve not for me that I have gone / For I
have simply stopped” (“Immortality”). Most of the poems are in
free verse, though here and there he attempts traditional forms, as in
“’Tis You”: “So when alone I go abroad / Midst Nature’s
wonders to walk, / I conjure up your face and form / For ’tis you to
whom I talk.”

Doubtless few poets can do significant science or even write well about
scientific subjects. This scientist has considerable artistic talent as
a photographer, and he should content himself with that.