Visiting Montreal`s Old Port on 17 August 2011

Where Molson's Brewery was once located

 

Historical photographs of St. Joseph's Oratory

 

Work on St. Joseph's Oratory; early 1900s

The first chapel at St. Joseph's Oratory

1950s

Climbing the stairs at St. Joseph's Oratory

Photo taken 1938

St. Stephen's Anglican Church in Lachine, Quebec

I used to visit Lachine, Quebec, fairly regularly. It's only fifteen minutes from where I live in Montreal but it always feels like I am on holiday when there. You can walk along the Lachine canal, visit different museums, eat at some terrific restaurants, go fishing at the lighthouse, walk along Lac St-Louis... on one of these walks I came across St. Stephen's Anglican Church. This is the oldest Anglican church on the Island of Montreal; founded in 1822, construction of the church was completed in 1831. The church is located at 25 12th Avenue in Lachine, behind the Couvent des Soeurs Ste-Anne, which I believe is now a college. I made this video in the spring of 2013.

Poetry as place, history, soul

I wrote these notes before a reading at the Visual Arts Center in Westmount, QC, on 17 October 2017:

Poets aren't nomads, we all come from somewhere; and this "somewhere" is our psychic center, our home, the place we identify with, the place where we have a history. Personally, place is very important to me—I think it is essential in poetry—and I identify with Montreal, the home of my family since we moved here 180 years ago. Everywhere I go in this city I find something that expresses my soul, my inner being, the place of my ancestors and my family. That is why I say I am a Montreal poet, for nowhere else I have been is home as much as Montreal is home. So, not only is poetry an expression of location but it is also a place of history, of what happened in the past, of names, places, dates, events; that is to say it is a place of psyche, of the soul.

Lane behind Girouard Avenue.

Lane behind Girouard Avenue.

Lane behind Girouard Avenue.

Looking towards Girouard Park, one street west of Girouard.

A few years ago when they renovated 2226 Girouard, my grandmother's home from 1925 to 1965, they didn't put in a new door (as seen above) that leads to the basement. 

Looking up at the back porch of my grandmother's flat on Girouard. 

Phillip's Square seen from The Bay in late May 2011

Parc St. Henri, St. Antoine Street

This should be Parc Jacques Cartier, with the statue at the center of the park of Jacques Cartier, but there it is... I believe this is the park I wrote about in my first book, The Trees of Unknowing (1978), mentioning large coloured lights (like Chinese lanterns) hanging from the trees.