Uptown Downtown
Raymond Souster
published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box
This is the first volume in a set of three entitled Catching Up. The poems are divided into three sections entitled 'Neighbourhoods', 'GTA Blues' and 'Something to be Said'. The book contains over 450 poems varying in length from a couple of lines to a couple of pages. Some are the poet's observations of life in general, or Toronto in particular; some are the poet's observation of his wrestling with the ravages of aging. All make their point in a refreshingly direct manner. The reader is rewarded with observations about the joys and sorrows of urban life in the leafy suburb of a big city.
Raymond Souster
Raymond Souster was born in Toronto in 1921 and has lived in that city all his life. He served in the R.C.A.F during World War II. He worked from 1939 until his retirement in 1984, for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Souster was a founding member of the League of Canadian Poets. His first poem was published in the Toronto Star in 1936. Since then, he has published volumes of poetry and edited numerous books and magazines. Among his awards are the Governor General's Award in 1964 for The Colour of the Times; the Toronto Book Award in 1980 for Hanging In. Souster was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1995. He still lives with his wife Rosalia in their home in West Toronto.
Excerpt from Uptown Downtown
Encounter
By some miracle of chance a dying leaf
fighting, striving to break its earthward fall,
wrapped its brittle arms around me.
(page 6)
All It Took
One clear honk was all I really heard,
but what more do you need from a friendly bird?
Seconds later I was out the open window, flapping up into air,
flew away with her — we made a lovely pair!
(page 14)
After Three Days of Rain
Sorry up there, but we have room
for only one more day of gloom.
(page 54)
Subway Train
Keep your ear to this grating
every three minutes you will hear
the approaching roar, then braking
of a subway train in Jane-Bloor station.
Next you'll hear the growing roar
as it gathers speed
as it heads off either east or west
along its mole dark tunnel
carrying assorted passengers like you and me
to what they consider their destinations
but which are only tiny temporary stops
on their final one-way journey.
(page 158)
From Uptown Downtown by Raymond Souster. Published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
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