On this edition, poetry, a form of expression that can evoke all kinds of emotions from longing, to sadness, to love of course, joy, and philosophical thought.
Today a little later an interesting take on a poem by one of Canada’s most avant-garde poets, the late Al Purdy, although he wrote some classically wonderful works, one of his quirky poems, was also one of his most popular, called “At the Quinte Hotel”.
But we start off with a flash back to a conversation I had with poet, novelist, and playwright George Elliot Clarke.
Now in Toronto as a professor and as the fourth Poet Laureate for Canada’s largest and most diverse city, his love of and for poetry is as deep as the history of the black communities of Nova Scotia (where he was born) and New Brunswick which have often been the subject of his work.
His many include the Governor-General’s Award for Poetry (2001), the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction (2006), the Eric Hoffer Book Award for Poetry (2009), appointment to the Order of Nova Scotia (2006) and appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada (2008).
When I first contacted him a few years ago, I asked him to suggest a poem, and off the top of his head he recited this work which evokes a busy farmer’s market in Halifax where hawkers call out their fruits and vegetables to a multi-ethnic clientele..
He begins with fun poem “Haligonian Market-cry”
ListenYouTube video- At the Quinte Hotel..
By the way, there were two Quinte Hotels in Ontario, the one in Purdy’s poem was in Trenton, built in the late 1800’s and known as the Sherwood Forest Inn (and strip club) which burned down completely in November 2012, and the other known as the Hotel Quinte in Belleville, Ontario built in 1895, caught fire in December 2012, and has been demolished.
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