al-purdy

Our Canadian friend Patrick King sent this to us. It’s a short poem by the late and great poet, and one of his fellow countrymen, Al Purdy. Purdy never received much traction here in the states, but man was a hero to the folks north of our border. He was pretty much the nation’s “unofficial poet laureate”. If you like Charles Bukowski, discover Purdy…they’ve got a lot of common ground—they were both warriors. The Bukowski Purdy Letters: A Decade of Dialogue is a great start—especially if you like the idea of steaming open personal correspondence between the two. I do. It’s long out of print and super expensive, but you can still find copies . The Al Purdy A-Frame Anthology just came out last month in November and is a celebration of the man by eminent writers who were his contemporaries. The book is also part of a campaign to preserve the place that was the center of Purdy’s writing universe—his home. Get it, “A-Frame”. Anywho…

This short is from back in 2002 and is based on Purdy’s 1968 “At the Quinte Hotel”. It’s all about a man’s experience at a bar. I have a few of those. The guy telling Purdy’s tale (“the barfly”), is played by Gordon Downie (lead vocals/guitar) for Canadian rock band, The Tragically Hip. What a great piece of work this is. Really, it’s 10 am and I already want a beer. Thanks for that Mr. King.

“I don’t know of any good living poets. But there’s this tough son of a bitch up in Canada that works the line.” – Charles Bukowski

No Responses to “At The Quinte Hotel by Al Purdy”

  1. aduncan says:

    loving this, on a similar vodka drenched prose tip the writings of the Fante father and son duo are worth a gander

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