Milt as Elder and Shaman for People's Poetry Tribe

Milt as Elder and Shaman for the Tribe of People’s Poetry

Chris Faiers

(note: this anecdote has been send to Terry Barker for possible inclusion and/or reference in a book Barker is editing on the life and poetry of Milton Acorn)

Towards the end of Milt’s life I believe he matured into the overlapping roles of poetry tribal elder and shaman. James Deahl has noted that Ted Plantos came to this realization of what Canadian poets are – a tribe. Milt’s friends from that time well remember his repetitive rants – perhaps a holdover from his political and polemicist days – rants, or more accurately, constantly repeated lectures on Zulu warriors, anti-abortion and especially ravens and Milt’s newfound ability to converse with them. I fondly remember his impromptu lectures as the wisdom sharing of an elder and a shaman-in-the-making.

In the brief week or two that Milt shared my little house on

Rhodes Avenue

in Toronto – he joked that we were Rhodes scholars – "raven knowing" was my favourite lesson from the master poet.

One sunny afternoon Milt and I walked to nearby Ashbridges Bay – a landscaped landfill

at the western edge of the beautiful Beaches. We perched on a small ridge, the long expanse of white beaches and boardwalk on our left, Lake Ontario’s shades of blue and green completing the vista. Milt jovially insisted on calling the lake an ocean, it reminded him so strongly of his native Prince Edward Island, and he soon would repeat our afternoon, Island bound for his final days, perched on a sand dune above true salt water.

A flock of ravens perched in the hardwood park, noisy above the picnickers and couples on colourful beach blankets. Milt cocked his head to listen closely, and insisted I do the same. ‘We can learn a lot from the ravens, listen to them’. Decades later I realize that a wise elder was instructing me, and frequently on my daily hikes here in ‘Purdy Country’ on the edge of the Canadian Shield, I encounter ravens and crows. I have learned to listen, and some experiences I’ve had with the bird clan, especially owls and crows, are undoubtedly encounters with the shamanic realm.

Milt ‘taught’ the way Zen master Thich Thong Tri, “Thay”, of nearby Zen Forest monastery, ‘teaches’. Sit quietly, observe, lose your ‘self’ in nature while maintaining focused awareness. Milt mastered the art of written and oral poetry, and he was simultaneously learning and mentoring the adept’s skills of direct knowledge transmission at the end of his life. It is an incredible honour to have lived in the presence of such supportive and wise elders and shaman as Milt and Thay. Our little orb is increasingly desperate for more such beings to evolve and manifest.

* revised April 14, 2011 - reflecting on the upcoming celebration of Milt and Joe Wallace at Cafe Taste in Toronto

“You Growing”

By Milton Acorn

You growing and your thought threading

The delicate strength of your focus

Out of a clamour of voices

Demanding faces and noises

Apart from me but vivid

As when I kissed you and chuckled

Wherever you are be fearless

And wherever I am I hope to know

You’re moving vivid beyond me

So I grow by the strength

Of you fighting for yourself, many selves

Your life, many lives, your people