This photo was taken when we were on a car trip by Lake Ontario. The joke-conversation was kind of along the lines of, "argh, ahoy, shiver me timbers, thar she blows!" Probably by coincidence, Richard never really tired of this tone of voice -- that of a crusty seafarer, the slang and idiom of a sailor -- this, I guess, because of all the time he spent in Cape Breton. He liked the social life he had with Teena; it was a different world for them .. I think one connected to but separate from their life in Montreal. But he also seemed to like the state of mind; the blunt, folksy sensibility.This is one of the ironies of the artistic world: it attracts people who are by nature thinkers -- but it also admires a certain taciturn quality.
Hi Finn-
ReplyDeleteI was very sorry to hear of Richard's passing. I'm hoping to be able to track down some of his poetry. Do you have any recommendations for a starting point?
Hope you're well. Drop me a line if you'd like to catch up.
Andrew Bethune
abethune09@gmail.com
Hi Andrew,
ReplyDeleteThanks for this. He had work in Vallum, The Fiddlehead and Matrix, usually under the pen-name Kjeld Haraldsen. I also have some work of his that I took back from Canada to Korea. I'll be in touch.