Fields look like animal skins stitched together

The prairie landscape needs snow needs softening and the silence that comes with it

It ’ s time for stubble to be smothered for fence posts to shorten for coyotes to trot beside their shadows on moon-glazed ice

It ’ s time for ivory roads to muffle truck tires for white-coated machinery to sleep in farm yards and for feathery flakes to half close the eyes of each generation

Keith Worthington from Poet on a Cargo Plane

To the editor :

Any changes to drug coverage for ARTA members are bound to stir interest among members . There are probably few among us who aren ' t on one medication or another . Therefore , when ' Drug Benefit Plan Changes ' appeared on the cover of the summer 2016 edition of news & views , the first thing I did was check the Table of Contents to find it . It is not listed . When I found the article , it was at the back of the issue under ' From Our Partners .' This was a minor thing but it annoyed me .

The article itself does not use plain language , making it difficult to understand without multiple readings and a dictionary or computer at hand . Understanding is complicated by both industryspecific language and by an overuse of acronyms .

The last paragraph requests our support for the changes . We all realize the need to contain the cost of providing drug coverage . However , all articles outlining changes that could affect us personally should be written in a style that is clear , complete and easily understood .

Linda Boisvert

To the editor : The summer 2016 issue of news & views just arrived and I am about to read every page . It is great to have such a fine retiree magazine and it is appreciated even after my eighteen years of retirement . I feel like those eighteen years sped by and I think fondly of my thirtythree years as a teacher but relish every day of retirement ! Thanks for continuing to publish ' my ' magazine .

Marilyn Kieran news & views AUTUMN 2016 | 23