Coming March 2022!
Walk in the Woods is an adventure about going out on the best and the worst days of the year and taking a walk in the jigsaw puzzle of the wetlands, forest, savannah, and prairie areas that hug the near edges of Windsor, Ontario. It's a place that some older residents still call Yawkey Bush. It's a gem that caught the attention of the legendary environmental activist David Suzuki who said Ojibway was a ""priceless ... tiny pocket of nature that reminds us, perhaps, of what once was and what could be ..."" With that in mind, Marty Gervais, Windsor's poet laureate emeritus, explores this ""tiny pocket"" and spent most of the Covid—19 pandemic walking and carrying a camera nearly every day into the far reaches of Ojibway, Black Oak, the Tall Grass and Ojibway Shores. His photographs are a diary of that journey. Gervais also teamed up with Windsor's Poet Laureate Mary Ann Mulhern, and city's Youth Poet Laureate Alexei Ungurenasu to celebrate this rich environmental treasure in southwestern Ontario.
I ventured out daily, marvelling at a world I had never really known. I carried a camera. I photographed and documented what I was experiencing. Mostly, I walked alone. I went out when it was misty, overcast, and when it was sunny, and I never missed a snowy day ... It was a walk of meditation, reflection, gratitude, and it was a walk about learning what I was seeing... — Marty Gervais