Q: How long were you in Ottawa, and what first brought you here? What took you away?
I was in Ottawa from 1961 to 1968, and then from 1975 to 2005; so 37 years.
My father, who was a real estate salesman (later a real estate broker) got work in Ottawa when real estate sales were severely down in Montreal. When he saw Ottawa would work out, he had us follow him.
WHAT TOOK ME AWAY
I had the opportunity to retire. I wanted something new in my life; I wanted to be closer to my children (who then lived in Vancouver), closer to lush nature free of air pollution, and finally I wanted to be free of extreme humidity. The town of Nelson was all that and irresistibly beautiful in a mountain setting. Advancing age may force me to return to Ottawa/Gatineau where my children now live.
Q: How did you first get involved in writing, and subsequently, the writing community here?
I was living at Pestalozzi College (Rideau and Chapel St.) – now privately owned luxury apartments- a University of Ottawa housing cooperative for students but the building was so huge that they began to allow non students to live there; so, I moved in there with my family. On the 22nd floor, local poet, Joe Lacroix, who later co-founded the still running TREE series, held poetry readings at a lounge set aside for that kind of activity. While attending the readings, I became interested in writing poetry.
Across the street from Pestalozzi was CHERITON GRAPHICS, a printing and literary publishing company that benefited from provincial grants to publish small books of poetry – this is the late 1970s. To find writers, he allowed Jane Jordan, who later became a high profile local poet, to put on poetry readings at his front office in the evenings. If my memory serves me right, she called her series THE UNDERGROUND UP.
It was at these evenings that I met poet Robert Craig who already knew Juan O’Neill, who later found the SASQUATCH poetry reading series. At dinner at Rob Craig’s place, I got to formally meet Juan, and we became best pals after that.
Sandy Hill, where I lived for more than 30 years, was a microcosm of populist Ottawa readings in that era with SASQUATCH, TREE, ORION readings successfully blossoming away. I was never more than a populist poet and still happily call myself that. I did get published in several local poetry magazines such as SPARKS. From the 1970s to the 1990s, my work in Ottawa was published in audio form , read on the radio, recited on television. I self-published an audiocassette entitled, DEATH OF A MYSTIC, RISE OF AN ANARCHIST, which was circulated by the Ottawa Library for a time. I still have a copy of a publication called POOR MAN’S PRESS (copyright 1983) in which I published a poem entitled SUNDAY MORNINGS. I’m particularly proud of being included in that publication not only because the magazine cover’s illustration was unusually highly dramatic and artistic, but also because it represented quality “street poetry” to which I’ve always been attached.
An art documentary I worked on called POETS AT THE LAFF, sadly did not come to fruition. Poets reciting at the wild Lafayette House Tavern – believe me, it was wild and rustic in the 1980s – was the planned focus.
My chief Ottawa community engagement in poetry was being a loyal patron of the SASQUATCH poetry series, which Juan O’Neill turned into, some say, one of the longest poetry reading series in Canada. Over the years, Juan took his readings, like a Roma caravan, from one Sandy Hill venue to another– and I followed him. There was the Rosie Lee Café; the Wildflower Café; a pizzeria, a Scottish pub, a Rideau St. café, and finally the Royal Oak Pub on Laurier E., which no longer exists – for the longest stint of all. The Rosie Lee Café (next to the Royal Oak) years were the most anarchist and most fun, with all kinds of curious characters taking part. Juan was open to the talents of the most refined poet to those of the rank amateur. He included music and theater. To my knowledge SASQUATCH was the only poetry reading in Ottawa that invited francophone poets from across the river to read.
Somewhere in the middle of the 1980s, Juan O’Neill purchased THE WILDFLOWER CAFÉ on Laurier E., from its owner. Running the café and acting as the master of ceremonies for the poetry reading were now his responsibilities. Juan inherited Jane Jordan’s series name, THE UNDERGROUND UP, a name he kept at The Wildflower Café until he changed it to SASQUATCH. The Wildflower Café was a spiffy venue that reminded me of a New York City upscale coffee house. I worked for Juan at the coffee machine, making mostly cappuccinos that caused such a burst of steam that it reminded me of the old railway steam engines.
Sadly, Juan, lacking business acumen, lost the café. The Wildflower Café – easy going and lovely.
Q: How did being in such a community of writers shift your thinking about writing, if at all? Have there been subsequent shifts due to where you have lived since?
The community of writers I belonged gave the impression that freedom was the ultimate gift given to the writer and one was called upon to use one’s freedom to produce works of the imagination, while employing the skills given to us to fashion works (to be read out loud) out of words and silence, words infused with compelling images. Today, I focus more on discovering the right word(s) to build images, owing to a growing love of words and I guess too out of advancing age where discipline is just as important as freedom.
Q: What did you see happening here that you don’t see anywhere else? What did Ottawa provide, or allow?
SASQUATCH poets, in the late 1980s, did once take a trip to Montreal where we read at a well-known café in downtown Montreal. Compared to the Montreal reading, we at the Rosie Lee Café appeared more laid back, freer. I think Ottawa’s conservatism pushed some populist poets into a more rebellious corner, poet Patrick White, being a good example.
For me, in particular, what was special, being bilingual and bicultural, was writing in French, reading in French and attending francophone readings on the Quebec side. On Laval Street, back then (so pretty at that time), there were two cafes that held poetry nights. The most lyrical of the two was the CAFÉ VAN GOGH, a charming establishment with a very friendly staff. There was another venue in Aylmer. One of my good francophone friends, poet Michel Sincennes, was an especially gifted writer.
I would imagine being able to move back and forth between readings in Anglophone Ontario and Francophone Quebec by crossing a bridge is pretty special in Canada.
There was also the Chilean poets, many of them Marxists expelled by Pinoche who held the bilingual (Spanish and English) reading. ELDORADO. When I attended ELDORADO, it was held at some restaurant in Little Italy (or was it Bronson Ave.). Sometimes South American music joined in the evening, and delicious empanadas too. CORDILLERA was their publishing arm.
Q: What are you working on now?
I’ve just finished building and putting online my poetry and short story website:
http://poetryandshortstoriesofphilmader.ca/
I’m continuing to add works to it, as well as publicizing its existence.
Q: Have any of your projects responded directly to your engagements here? How had the city and its community, if at all, changed the way you approached your work?
I’m making an effort to publicize my website in Ottawa,
partly for sentimental reasons, as Ottawa is where it all started. I have to keep in mind that we are in a
different era where perhaps the word is not as respected as it used to be. In
my humble opinion, today poetry is the poetry of chanting and of drama, almost
street theater. I’m too old to change. I
mostly write inspired by the poets of the past that I have always loved.
