When things are really dismal, you can laugh, or you can cave in completely.

Canadians are fond of a good disaster, especially if it has ice, water, or snow in it. You thought the national flag was about a leaf, didn't you? Look harder. It's where someone got axed in the snow.

Religions in general have to rediscover their roots. In Hinduism and the Koran, animals are described as equals. If you walk into a cathedral and look at the decorations of early Christianity, there are vines, animals, creatures and birds thriving all over the stonework.

I don't think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.

I was born in the Ottawa General Hospital right after the Gray Cup Football Game in 1939. Six months later, I was backpacked into the Quebec bush. I grew up in and out of the bush, in and out of Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie and Toronto.

I am afraid of falling into hopeless despair, over my wasted life, and I am still not sure how it happened.

I am too old to have ever been very worried about what "genre" any given book of mine might be. I read everything. I am easily amused.