Alden Nowlan (1 Viewer)

P

Paul Sempschi

Ever heard of him? (For me) he's a local boy, real workingclass hero type. Another poet whom I love, very similar to Buk but (unfortunately) doesnt cross the line as much. Still, he was a great Canlit revolutionary for bringing poetry back to the common man. They dont teach too much about him in our schools, however one teacher had us do "The Bull Moose" which was incredible.
Because of his hard childhood he had to drop out of school in grade 5, which makes him the only professional writer in Canadian history who was functionally illiterate. I dont think there was a Buk connection. I know there was a poet who did the prose-poem style from the praries who was in correspondance with Buk but I cant think of his name, anyone know who I'm talking about?

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-bull-moose/
 
Al Purdy?

I haven't heard of Nowlan but your post started me thinking (an achievement in itself).
I remember doing some literature studies in secondary school.
The teacher would 'have us do' some poem every week.
But what that meant was struggling to decipher the hidden meanings latent within these 'great works'. Either that or struggling to decipher ye olde english al la Chaucer or Shakespeare.
This workman like approach combined with the teachers obvious lack of skill as a teacher stopped me picking up another book until I was out in uni.

Now that I think of it, the best thing about that lit class was the fact that the teacher would be constantly looking up the skirts of the 5-6 girls in the front row.
At least he had his priorities straight!
 
no disrespect but.... Alden Nowlen... Milton Acorn... are these pen names or did these guys parents have a great sense of humour?
What other Canadian writers are waiting to be discovered?

Archibald Scrape
Cornelius Lemon
Mission Fleg ;)
George Caseofdriedfish
Langden Fistup

?
 
Their ancestors came from "the old country", i.e., England, Scotland (Nova Scotia doncha know?), Ireland.

The poet I'm interested in finding out if this was a pen name or not is apparently American -- "Phyllis Onstott Arone" who wrote a parody of Charles Bukowski in the Robert Bly edited The Sixties journal (number 9, 1967), "Life is a handkerchief full of snot by Quarrells Bubullski". Is Phyllis Bly? Or is Phyllis real? The contributors page has her from Logonsport, Indiana.

As for other Canadian poets aimed toward "the people", how about Patrick Lane and Pete Trower from the west coast?
 
Here's Milton Acorn's I've Tasted My Blood

If this brain's over-tempered
consider that the fire was want
and the hammers were fists.
I've tasted my blood too much
to love what I was born to.

But my mother's look
was a field of brown oats, soft-bearded;
her voice rain and air rich with lilacs:
and I loved her too much to like
how she dragged her days like a sled over gravel.

Playmates? I remember where their skulls roll!
One died hungry, gnawing grey porch-planks;
one fell, and landed so hard he splashed;
and many and many
come up atom by atom
in the worm-casts of Europe.

My deep prayer a curse.
My deep prayer the promise that this won't be.
My deep prayer my cunning,
my love, my anger,
and often even my forgiveness
that this won't be and be.
I've tasted my blood too much
to abide what I was born to.
 

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