"A city is the pulsating product of the human hand and mind, reflecting man’s history, his struggle for freedom, creativity, genius – and his selfishness and errors." Charles Abrams
"When you look at a city, it’s like reading the hopes, aspirations and pride of everyone who built it." Hugh Newell Jacobsen
Allan Glenn Rose is a member of the League of Canadian Poets and author of the critically acclaimed Butterflies in Winter," "So Much to Feel," "The Girls of Saturday Morning" and The Greatest Canadian Love Poem and Other Treasures of the Heart, Allan Glenn Rose has worn many hats over the years: construction laborer, steeplejack, high school teacher, organic market gardener, music concert promoter and football coach. He has been involved in the hockey world over his lifetime as a player, scout, executive and coach.
He is one of the thirteen writers who contributed to A Verdant Green, Canada’s national environmental poetry anthology.
Twice nominated for the prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize, Allan Glenn Rose’s works in progress include an anthology of hockey poems and The Great Canadian Hockey Novel.
He divides his time between the Humber River Valley in Toronto and the shores of Lake Huron near Kincardine, finding an abundance of inspiration for his writing in the beauty, birdsong and tranquility of both settings.
Allan Glenn Rose is a writer who has grown with his city. He literally learned his hometown from the ground up, first from his semi-rural childhood in the Keele – Lawrence area, then (as a young man) working construction with the stalwarts who built Toronto - the immigrant laborers, bricklayers, carpenters and steeplejacks who dared dream big dreams for their children, and willed them to come true. This is a poet to be reckoned with – a man who skillfully weaves the city’s history into his characters’ lives and draws us into his stories that crisscross the streets and ravines of his beloved home town, the "big city by the lake".
Not only does "Songs of My City" introduce the reader to a fascinating cast of characters and unique neighbourhoods, it also captures the energy, the heartbeat, and even the very idea of the city itself. Rounders and royalty, raging winos and raving beauties; romance and regret; young and old; past, present, and yes, future too – they are all here in these compelling poems by Allan Glenn Rose.
A must read for anyone who wants to know more about Toronto – you can’t find this stuff in history books!
Gerald Oakley, Uptown Literary Review
Other Books by the same author
