Matt Demmings

 Born June 13, 1938 in Regina Saskatchewan.  Newlove was raised in various small Saskatchewan towns.  He attended the University of Saskatoon for one year.  He then embarked on a Canada- wide tour.  Between 1970 and 1974 he occupied a position as an editor in Toronto.  He was also a writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto, and other less noteable university in the province.  Newlove won the Governor General’s for poetry in 1972.

Dease Lake to Watson Lake November 1985 And with a penetrating silence And with solitary gestures, An oil drum among the pines, And with good gravel roads And with an understanding of itself That is not to be understood be understood And with pines And with cheeseburgers And with mock log cabins And with real ones And with an acceptance of the inside That is to be understood And is not solitary or a gesture And with an understanding of light And is not solitary or a gesture And with an understanding of light And with pines and pines Refusing to leave home, One bowing gracefully like a geisha And with comfortable immensities And with a quite pride kidding the outsiders Gently and gently and gently and gently And with the pines and with pride And, yes, with snow we must mention snow Where color its seems to a type of wealth And with danger and with pines And with serenity and calmness And with pines and with pines and with pines And with humans, always with humans

The long figure leans in the snow A rifle is stuck beside him One hand is on it. He waits an approaching figure. He will decide, when it comes, To kill or to run. Its the white center of the world His reason squats in.

I'd like to live a slower life. The weather gets in my words and I want them dry. Line after line writes itself on my face, not a grace of age but wrinkled humour. I laugh more than I should or more than anyone should. This is good. But guess again. Everyone leans, each on each other. This is a life without an image. But only because nothing does much more than just resemble. Do the shamans do what they say they do, dancing? This is epistemology. This is guesswork, this is love, this is giving up gorgeousness to please you, you beautiful dead to be. God bless the weather and the words. Any words. Any weather. And where or whom. I'd never taken count before. I wish I had. And then I did. And here

 So you live of the sea; and I am the dry acrid land. You have the sweet fish swimming and dull mannerly grain grows in me. Your blood shines in curving darts; I grow in calculated rows. So I say I love you, and you say, Why do you hate me? I speak in a foreign language. You don't know what I say.

1.The Author writes this poem referring to a “you” who or what do you think “you” represents? 2. What is the significance of this poem? 3. From this poem can you clearly see the Authors love for nature. 4. Do you think Newloves style is unique or is he just another one of those Canadian poets who seems to write about the outdoors