John Robert Colombo made possible a visit with Ray Souster (prounounced Sow-ster, not Soo-ster), for Danica and me, before Ray died in 2012. When I heard that JRC would be speaking at the unveiling of a commemorative plaque, I decided to attend.
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Three honours were bestowed. The stairs into the park are now the Souster Steps, the plaque stands at their foot and another plaque will mark the house at 28 Mayfield Avenue nearby, where the poet lived from 1947 to 1964.
I particularly wanted to meet and thank Donna Dunlop for her part in arranging our afternoon with Mr Souster. She remembered our visit and Ray had told her all about our pleasant time together.
We came away that day with gifts of poetry books from the author himself. After today’s touching tributes to the champion of Canadian poetry, I’ll treasure those copies more than ever. Did you know that Souster’s Contact Press published works by Margaret Atwood, Irving Layton, Leonard Cohen and Milton Acorn … before they became acclaimed?
Of course, Raymond Souster wrote some very good stuff himself. My appreciation for the quality of his work deepened with the readings of some of it at today’s ceremony.
A new volume, COME RAIN, COME SHINE – The Last Poems of Raymond Souster is coming out this fall.
Another blogger’s write-up of the event is here.
There are fifty-three Souster Steps leading down to Lollipop Park. It would have been amazing if there had been 91 steps, one for each year of Ray’s long life, but having climbed them today, 53 is enough.