My review of Canadian poet Al Purdy

Al Purdy is a Canadian poet (1918-2000). He was married and had life long relationships with Margaret Laurence and Charles Bukowski. Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets is a collection of poems from 1962-1996. They range the political span of the 60's and beyond. He has poems about Fidel Castro and Che Guevera. For example in the poem 'Hombre' Purdy talks about Che Guevera.

And I remember his quick hard handshake/in Havana among the tiny Vietnamese ladies/And seem to hold ghostlike in my own hand/five bloody fingers/of Che Guevera

Purdy also wrote a poem about Robert Kennedy, in which he writes

death takes him/As it takes more beautiful things/populations of whole countries/museums and works of art/and women with such a glow/it makes their background vanish/ they vanish too.

Many of his poems are about the wilderness, the past and aboriginal art and life. In the poem 'The Cariboo Horses' he writes,

At 100 Mile House the cowboys ride in rolling/stagey cigarettes with one hand reining/half-tame bronco rebels on a morning grey as stone/-so much like riding dangerous women/ with whiskey coloured eyes-

There are some interesting poems from the pompous Voltaire, to being in a drunk tank, to the Vikings. However, he has a homegrown feel to the poetry. He's a bit rough, but his passages often dwell with what is Canadian. He is a treasure of Canadian poetry.
Bukowski once stated

I don't know of any good living poets. But there's this tough son of a bitch up in Canada that walks the line.