Canada Free Press -- ARCHIVES

Because without America, there is no free world.

Return to Canada Free Press

Editor's Desk

A VISIT FROM THE POET

by Judi McLeod
July 5, 1999

Unobtrusive in all ways, he comes quietly to the Elm Street offices of Toronto Free Press to pick up the latest edition. Gentle and unassuming, no one knows just how far he has travelled, or where he’s going upon his departure.

A life completely dedicated to the written word, he has too much respect to tarry long in the production offices of anyone.

With cap in hand and a smile that is faintly nostalgic, he would never expect to be invited in.

A retired high school teacher, who researches history, he writes both prose and poetry. The poems of Bob Pennefather from the Green Apples Collection are printed regularly on our literary pages. He must have been a wonderful educator, this teacher with a poet’s heart. It’s easy to imagine him when he carried his lunch to school in a brown paper bag, or to envision him patiently trying to explain the beauty of the metaphor to the class athlete, who perferred to be out on the school running track.

A gentleman from the old school, he remembers Canada’s finest hour as the days after World War II when our boys returned home from overseas. Those were the days when newspapers were really newspapers, and when their reporters reached deep into the bag of tricks to outwit and then scoop their closest competitors. Memories keep taking him down the road to those simpler days when people seemed to try harder, when men and women of letters were still striving to find precisely the right word.

Though he’s never in the office for long, he always finds a word of encouragement for anyone holding down the fort.

Fiercely proud of all things Canadian, he once unearthed a book about Canadian journalists who started up after the war, just leaving it as a possible source of inspiration at the front desk.

Newspapers, he knows, are governed by deadlines. The next deadline always being just around the corner, he’s gone almost before it has registered that he was even briefly there. Raised in those long ago days when mothers taught their children to depart the scene promptly after delivery of the latest batch of homemade jam, the poet retains a certain old-world dignity and charm. It’s almost as if Bob Pennefather has stepped out of one of those sepia-toned family photographs popular at the turn of the century.

A lover of words and the idea they can launch, he is every inch the romantic poet. Even his name somehow fits, and here at the office, he is referred to as "Poet Pennefather". His is a pen that is feather light, creating poems that are meant to be read by the dreamer under the weeping willow tree:

Red Coral Ring

Which the oldest precious form, gold red coral which

Crafted known traded prized?

Gold, volcanic fire-child distilled before shape

In cauldrons of a formless time.

While water’s realm embraced the Earth, waves and currents interpulled

Gave birth and breath became - red coral too soon after.


Coral ring of fire splendorous on your hand, tailsman

Of healing, life’s surge.

Your moment all moments the wisdom of time

All oceans your ocean’s signal of life - red coral magic

Queen of the sea

With your aura combines, sparks a hint of far galaxies

The mystery of stars.

Although he doesn’t know it, we look forward to his rare visits to the office. His gentlemanly ways remind us of finer things. We listen for his words of encouragement and when he leaves, almost expect to find a burst of chalk dust still hovering in the air.

In the plain workaday world, everyone should have a visit from the poet.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com



Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Privacy Statement