My Poetry 1962-1974

I started writing poetry when I attended Delbrook High School in North Vancouver in 1962-3. My English-40 teachers, whose name I cannot recall, encouraged it. At the same time, I frequented the Inquisition Coffee House on Seymour Street in Vancouver, B.C. and run by Howie Bateman. There I met a poet, whose name has gone too, and he was a great motivator. He read my poems and commented. He wrote the following: “One day I will take my cobwebs down and have them drycleaned” There is a section with some of my HS poems, immature of course, but clearly, I am trying out styles and learning from Romantic lyricists, E. E. Cummings, Robert Service, and others. I wrote three poems while I was working in a logging camp for summer jobs in 1963-4. I wrote only a few poems from ’65 to 71, when I got my PhD. I will also give two poems by my friend called Nela. I recall her last name as Leya, but it could...