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Remembering Al Purdy

© Paula E. Kirman

Canada lost a major poet on Friday, April 21, as Al Purdy died from cancer at the age of 82.

Purdy accomplished a large body of work during his career -- over forty volumes spanning a writing life of over seventy years -- receiving two Governor General's awards as well as the Order of Canada. His writing style was very observant of the world around him, including a lot of imagery drawn from real life. Just take a look at some of the poems below:

Winter Boarders

Smoke and in a blue halo let a poem grow
Of winter and sky blue as laughter
Tinting immaculate snow,
The crows fasting on their pine pulpits
And all the other birds gone, except
On a white tablecloth of snow,
The chickadees, happy and fat as a chuckle.

The Gift of a Water-Colour

A place I ought to know
English Bay and Kitsilano
long yellow grass in the foreground
and mountains farther away-
Myself so sentimental
I think of an unimportant
man standing painting one day
seriously and with respect for all
those others who painted
their trivia and minutiae
judging the morning
into their colours
deciding the sky's
blue translation
onto a few inches
of wood-pulp
Going home afterwards
soaked in blue
the fierce concentration
unslaked
going home for six years
since 1957
keeping it that long that many
unpossessed mornings
then
giving it away.

Purdy's voice was clearly Canadian. Perhaps his distinctiveness came from the fact he was not pretentious or an academic. A high-school drop-out, he developed his writer's voice through experience and reflection.

In an interview last year with the CBC, Purdy expressed his own satisfaction with his life and work. "It's been a very rewarding life to me," says Purdy. "I can't imagine any other life I'd like to live... I don't mean there are not things that I regret; there are. But nevertheless, overall, it's been a great life."