Canadian Poet

In the early 1980s, my daughter Kelly was assigned a high school English project: choose a great Canadian poet, select a representative poem, and present the poem to the class with a talk on its author. When she asked her Dad for a “Canadian poet” opinion, I suggested Stan, and his wonderful “Lies.” After my reassurance that a “pop song” could be truly great poetry, she researched and presented it—complete with soundtrack—delighting all with this unexpected turn. Her teacher even admitted to having once been a classmate of kid brother Garnet! And Kelly today teaches in the Toronto school system.

—Doug Dyment, San Francisco