Alden Nowlan
Yesterday I came home from work to find that a friend has sent me two books: a collection of poetry written by his brother Geoffrey Cook, and a book written by his dad Gregory Cook called 'One Heart, One Way' which is a biography about Alden Nowlan, a poet/novelist/journalist from the Maritimes.
I have to say that Geoffrey's poetry got short shift last night, because once I started to read the biography I couldn't put it down. I had of course learned bits and pieces about Alden's life growing up as a kid, particularly when I was around the Cook family. But this book is filling in the blanks for me and giving me a whole new appreciation for this incredible writer.
Alden was born near Windsor, Nova Scotia - not too many kilometres from me. He grew up in poverty and in what he described as a 'loveless home'. He was different from other kids and tells stories of hiding in the ditch on the way home from school to avoid being found and tormented by his classmates. He dropped out of school in Grade 5, locked himself in his bedroom for days on end reading books, and spent time as a teenager in a mental institute.
I won't go on, but I will share a couple of sections of one poem with you. It's called 'What Happened When He Went to the Store for Bread' and I think it's brilliant.
Because I went to the store for bread
one afternoon when I was eighteen
and arrived there just in time to meet
and be introduced to a man who had stopped
for a bottle of Coca Cola (I've forgotten his name),
and because this man invited me to visit
a place where I met another man...
I am who I am instead of being somebody else.
........
Carrying the thought farther still, there must be
people in cities that I've never visited
whose lives have been changed, perhaps not because of what
I've written but because I wrote: it might be
they didn't like my play and so left early
and because they left early something happened
that would not have happened if they'd stayed.
I put it that way so as not to sound immodest.
God knows, there's not a lot to boast about
when so much seems to depend upon the time of day
a boy goes out to buy a loaf of bread.
7:07:54 AM 
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