Winning Entries: Words to Wander to collaboration with the Leighton Art Centre
Adele Bright, Arcana Shanks, Kelly Kaur, Kim Hanson & Marcia Lee Laycock
This past winter/spring, Unleash Press partnered with the Leighton Art Centre in Millarville, Alberta on a land-based writing project. This project was created with the intention of encouraging visitors to slow down, explore their natural surroundings, and engage more deeply with both the landscape and the creative works they encounter along the way. By weaving writing into the land itself, the installation invites moments of reflection, curiosity, and connection between art, nature, and community. We received so many fabulous enttires (you’ll see many of them featured here at UnleashLit in the coming months) and thought we’d share the top five entries.
Words to Wonder, by Adele Bright
Did you think that you came to look? Or is a gentle breeze/ ikinnai sopo lifting your hair and caressing your cheek? Is the welcoming heat of the sun/ naatosi entering your being? Are the Swifts accompanying you with their twitters and the insects insisting their busy repetition? Can you rest down on the blanket of the earth/ kss’ahkom and sense your connection? Did you think that you came to look? Are the wild flowers and flowing grasses crashing into your vision? Are you taking in the abundance that covers the earth’s verdant skin Or are the steadfast mountains/miistakists winning your gaze? Are the dancing Silver Birch trees fascinating you or the sacred water/ aohkii at the bottom of the hill drawing your rapture? Did you think that you came to look? Or is this land looking at you? Is the intensity of the sky/ spo’ohtsim expanding this moment? And are our ancestors/ niisitohkaa’ahssiks welcoming and holding you? “Words for wandering” has led to “words for wOndering.” In Blackfoot, one of the original languages of this land: gentle breeze- ikinnai sopo sun- naato’si. naato meaning sacred earth-kss’ahkom mountains- miistakists – the Rockies being regarded as the backbone of the world water- ao’ohki sky- spo’ohtsim ancestors- niisitohkaa’ahssiks Acknowledgements and gratitude to Siksikai’powahsin teachers generally and for checking these seven words.
*****
Seedling, by Arcana Shanks
I often imagine what it would be like To be a seed To be buried by loving hands Beneath the damp, dark earth Gently pressed down into the soil And left to rest among the roots To hear the heartbeats of all who came before me To unfurl myself piece by piece Guided by golden light and whispered hope I wonder how it would feel To be connected To be a part of something greater Transmitting signals like secrets In a language only we could understand To breathe my fears into the darkness And have a chorus of voices echo back To be loved by so many Bound together and entangled as one I dream of finding you there Of opening my eyes To feel your hands in mine Clinging to each other in awe As the dapples of sunlight sway above us I imagine the way my name would tumble from your lips Pouring forth like a river I would rest my head in your arms And know that finally I am home
*****
Traveling Mountain Bluebirds, by Kelly Kaur
Meander these winding pathways
marked by quaint
painted bird boxes
Migratory summer visits
mountain bluebirds return
every single year
Alberta’s blue skies summon
prairie green grass expands
crickets sing in curious delight
Transformation
resilience
immigrant hearts unite
Wandering feet firmly planted
grateful for this land
bird songs beckon my heart
Nature’s
genuine
welcome
*****
The Two Bird Feeders, by Kim Hanson
Harlow swung the bird feeders, one in each hand, in rhythm with her steps. Bird seed sprinkled the ground. The late afternoon sun filtered through the hazy clouds of this fault-less October day, illuminating the ethereal quality of the waxy, yellow leaves.
The ravine was just barely past its prime. Aspen trees abounded in this place, thriving in the mugginess of the high water table. Spruce trees, majestic, proud, and erect, modelled their year-round colour of deep evergreen. The fragrance of the bull rushes, so near the end of their life cycle, clung to the air.
My granddaughter noticed none of these things, intent only on finding the right spot.
Leaves already devoid of their life’s blood cloaked the asphalt in a slippery compost, as we made tracks to the old, wooden bridge. Two splintery benches beckoned all.
“This one!” she said.
Climbing up on the square, weathered railing, my hands around her waist, she reached as high as she could. Slipping the wire loop onto the branch, spilling a few more seeds, she jumped down onto the bridge. She looked up to admire her craft, and it was now my turn to hang my feeder. I reached a bit higher and strung mine just above hers.
Harlow is now in her mid-teens. Gone are those cherished days when she loved to craft, to paint, to dance, to walk, with me. All these years later, two empty bird feeders hang, one beneath the other, on the tall aspen tree, by the old wooden bridge, deep in the ravine. I can’t help but smile; no one has disturbed the feeders. All these years later, as I walk the path, my heart is full, reminiscing about a young, sweet child and her grateful grandma.
*****
First Spring, by Marcia Lee Laycock
Green. Green so fills my eyes I sway with spring a song alive and swelling out of winter grey and white the colour in fields and ditches dances and I wonder was there life before this day?
Adele Bright is from Okotoks and think the Leighton Art Centre and setting is a beautiful space. I was inspired to write something as the views and lands are spectacular. I also wanted to make use of this opportunity to recognize the previous custodians of the land on which the center stands. Equally, I hoped to allude to a two way relationship with our earth, without being too strident.
Arcana Shanks is a visual artist and experimental vocalist residing in Mooniyang / Tiohtià:ke/ Montrèal, Canada. Her practice is inspired by the entangled connections between humans and more-than-human beings, particularly beings that exist beyond the traditional definitions of life such as fire, water, minerals, and other biological entities. Archetypes of nature are key elements within her artwork: the anthropomorphic “Mother Earth” and “Mother Nature,” the sacred and untamed energy of wild spaces, and the delicate relationship between creation and destruction are core concepts across her portfolio. Shanks’ work is characterized by immersive, multi-sensory elements fused with poetic narrative and storytelling, often creating artworks that cross the boundary between mediums and exist in liminal, hybrid spaces.
Kelly Kaur grew up in Singapore and came to Calgary to get her degrees at the University of Calgary. She is a writer, author, and speaker. She was recognized at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton for her writing and for honoring Punjabi Sikh heritage in her children's book, Howdy, I’m Singh Hari. She was awarded the 2025 South Asian Inspiration Award for Achievement in Arts and Culture (SAIA) and was a recipient of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award in 2024. She has a novel, Letters to Singapore. Kelly was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and won Honourable Mention in the Creators of Justice Literary Awards, New York. She is a two-time TEDx presenter. Her poems, short stories and nonfiction have been published and landed on the moon, on beer cans, danced on stage, travelled around North Dakota and published in Canadian and international journals and anthologies. She is a reader for the International Human Rights Art Movement, New York.
Kim Hanson writes creatively from her home in Calgary, Alberta. She has come to her craft much later in life. Her debut children's picture book is scheduled for publication by Hancock House in 2027. She has published stories with children's magazines, essays with websites and in print, and articles and patterns for quilt magazines. Kim loves to write about nature and about children. In addition to writing, Kim enjoys spending time with her grandchildren, Jacob and Harlow, practising yoga, and walking her two dogs, Sophie and Bertie.
Marcia Lee Laycock is a prolific writer and speaker with 15 books now in print. Having lived a short distance from the Arctic Circle and a few degrees from the equator, her work is steeped in winter with a few palm trees tossed in for colour. Marcia's focuse is on paying attention and honouring this incredible world in which we live and the one who created it.