National Adult Literacy Database

June 22, 2009

This week, we have a poem written by Lil Gallant, from Edmonton, Alberta. Lil was raised in Prince Edward Island. She was poor growing up and was taken out of school to plant and pick potatoes. In their house, books were a luxury. Many nights there was not enough food to go around. She believed that all she needed to learn was how to become a good wife and mother so she didn't believe she needed a formal education. Lil became a single mother of seven children and is now a grandmother of sixteen, great-grandmother of six, a partner, friend, volunteer and compassionate woman. She hid her poor literacy skills from her children, became an alcoholic and finally decided to sober up and go back to school when she was 50 years old. Lil has been sober now for 15 years. For the first time in her life, she discovered that drugs and alcohol could never give her the high she gets from being able to read and write.

The storm

by Lil Gallant

I see the wind blowing the trees.
I hear the sound of thunder.
I feel the trembling ground
beneath my feet.
I smell rain in the air.

[This story was taken with permission, from English Express, May-June 2009, a free newspaper for adult learners, published by Alberta Advanced Education and Technology.]