POETRY SEMINARMatt Demmings

John Newlove

Born June 13, 1938 in Regina Saskatchewan.

Newlove was raised in various small Saskatchewan towns.

He attended the University of Saskatoon for one year.

He then embarked on a Canada-wide tour.

Between 1970 and 1974 he occupied a position as an editor in Toronto.

He was also a writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto, and other less noteable university in the province.

Newlove won the Governor General’s for poetry in 1972.

Poem With RavensDease Lake to Watson LakeNovember 1985And with a penetrating

silence And with solitary gestures,An oil drum among the pines,And with good gravel roadsAnd with an understanding of

itselfThat is not to be understood

be understoodAnd with pinesAnd with cheeseburgersAnd with mock log cabinsAnd with real ones And with an acceptance of

the inside That is to be understoodAnd is not solitary or a

gestureAnd with an understanding of

light

And is not solitary or a gesture

And with an understanding of light

And with pines and pinesRefusing to leave home,One bowing gracefully like a

geishaAnd with comfortable

immensitiesAnd with a quite pride

kidding the outsidersGently and gently and gently

and gentlyAnd with the pines and with

prideAnd, yes, with snow we must

mention snowWhere color its seems to a

type of wealth And with danger and with

pinesAnd with serenity and

calmnessAnd with pines and with pines

and with pinesAnd with humans, always

with humans

Dream

The long figure leans in the snowA rifle is stuck beside himOne hand is on it.

He waits an approaching figure.He will decide, when it comes,To kill or to run.

Its the white center of the worldHis reason squats in.

The Weather I'd like to live a slower life.

The weather gets in my wordsand I want them dry. Line after linewrites itself on my face, not a graceof age but wrinkled humour. I laughmore than I should or morethan anyone should. This is good.

But guess again. Everyone leans, eachon each other. This is a lifewithout an image. But onlybecause nothing does much morethan just resemble. Do the shamansdo what they say they do, dancing?This is epistemology.

This is guesswork, this is love,this is giving up gorgeousness to please you,you beautiful dead to be. God blessthe weather and the words. Any words. Any weather.And where or whom. I'd never taken count before.I wish I had. And thenI did. And here

Why Do You Hate Me

So you live of the sea;and I am the dry acrid land.

You have the sweet fish swimmingand dull mannerly grain grows in me.

Your blood shines in curving darts;I grow in calculated rows.

So I say I love you,and you say, Why do you hate me?

I speak in a foreign language.You don't know what I say.

Discussion Questions

1.The Author writes this poem referring to a “you” who or what do you think “you” represents?

2. What is the significance of this poem? 3. From this poem can you clearly see the

Authors love for nature. 4. Do you think Newloves style is unique

or is he just another one of those Canadian poets who seems to write about the outdoors