Don Cullen is well-known in Toronto as a man dedicated to the arts. As the founder of one of the first coffee houses in Toronto, The Bohemian Embassy, he introduced the city to artists and authors from Ian Tyson to Margaret Atwood. In this collection he remembers some of the times and people he has known and for the first time shares his own poetic works.
Excerpt:
One day bombast burst in on the Bohemian Embassy in the person of Milton Acorn, full of eagerness and sweat. "I shout love!" he yelled, and we heard him. His rough genius would rub off on a whole bunch of aspiring writers including George Miller, Shaunt Basmajian, Ted Plantos and Sean O'Huigin. Milt was an intense man, and he could be intimidating. He was given to rants about causes he cared deeply about, and I only rarely disagreed with him.
One bitterly cold evening Milt was on the war path about a cause and we stopped to talk. We were at the Wellesley Hospital corner and I was beginning to think I might not make it home. Every time I turned to go he cut off my avenue of escape. He seemed impervious to the elements, while I was starting to wonder if I could make it to the hospital emergency room to be professionally thawed. Milt's passion seemed to be enough to keep him warm.
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