Milton Acorn | More Poems For People

Milton Acorn

More Poems For People

Toronto, Canada: NC Press, 1972

116 pp., 11 x 18.5 x 1 cm., softcover

Edition size unknown

I picked this up last month at a University of Toronto book sale that was otherwise a bust. Acorn is quoted in my Dead Ringer film, which I had just screened the night before. He was one of several residents of the now demolished Waverly Hotel:

“The Waverley Hotel was full of character and characters,” said poet Milton Acorn, “a place for all sorts of strange but true types. People who were certainly down, but not out.” Acorn, known as the “people’s poet”, resided at the Waverly from 1970 to 1977, reportedly paying the daily rate rather than the monthly, in case he needed to leave quickly, and often changing rooms, fearing that he was under surveillance by the RCMP.

The copyright page of the book explains that the poems may be used "free of charge by anyone serving the cause of Canadian independence and the cause of the working people in any country."

It wasn't until I got home that I realized that the cover image is by Greg Curnoe. 

"I remember Greg Curnoe as the artist among the poets. He did pictures for books by David McFadden and Milton Acorn. When I published a little book of Victor Coleman's poetry, Greg made a cover drawing of Victor as a bust, a kind of statue or chesspiece. Greg did the covers of two of my Vancouver books, and he did the piece seen on the cover of an issue of a magazine about my stuff. I cherished that connection and I do so even more now. I love his great circles of colour and I love his drawings on my books, even if no one has the books."

- George Bowering, 1992