A Tribute to Al Purdy’s Poem At the Quinte Hotel
I’m drinking
I’m drinking tea with lime wedges
in my bedroom
on a hot summer night
you can see
…I’m a demure woman
there’s a rucus a raucus rucus
under my bedroom window
it trolls down the street
as a young woman repeats
the F word
…not a demure woman
…that’s me
plugging one ear
and […]
After visiting Vivian Demuth
Catherine said:
she lives in the sky.
Wait and see.
The tower is perched
on the summit,
spindly metal legs
stretching up,
grass neatly trimmed
around its base.
I stand at the edge
look out into sky,
then down:
a sea of trees,
the road a rugged chord
twisting its way up here.
Some of us climb
the tower to the top
or as far as we dare.
Later
we sit […]
I fill the garden fountain
in the backyard every May 24
Sparrows crowd its rim hesitant
swimmers gossiping around the deep end
they shoulder-check for the right spot
dip and tilt, dip and tilt
Robins and birds I don’t know
drop travel-weary bodies into it
in the heat of parenting
birds drop in for a quick bath
a few minutes alone
resume […]
In Memory of Al Purdy
Catherine says that this poem “says all I want to say” about Al Purdy. Listen to her read “The Last Canadian Poet” here.
~ Catherine Owen
Catherine Owen’s titles include: Somatic – The Life and Work of Egon Schiele (Exile Editions 1998), nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award, The Wrecks of Eden […]
The League of Canadian Poets has declared Tuesday, April 21, “National Al Purdy Day,” as a tribute to the man widely regarded as Canada’s first true national poet.
In celebration of the legacy left to Canadian poetry by this influential writer, I am pleased to present a week of poetry by Alberta members of […]
