Canadian Verse

About the Book

A new title by Detlev Kirchgatter. Previous ones: Glimpses From Three Continents, My Berlin - Its People from Hitler to the Present and Voyage Into Life. This new book Canadian Verse is an excursion into the world of verse ably illustrated by his Berlin friend, Frank Zierach, to emphasize the meaning of each verbal palette. In precise diction the writer addresses himself to the issues of social/political concerns in the latter half of the 20^th century as they apply to Canada and the world at large.

Some of the biting criticism is ameliorated by the beauty of Canadian landscape, as one can find it in the ruggedness of a Canadian Shield, a Pacific Coastline, or an infinity of the Prairies.

A perusal of this volume will leave the reader pondering: Whereto humanity?

About the Author

The writer was born in Germany at the beginning of the Hitler era. Too young to be drafted, he experienced the War as a boy never missing any air raids just outside Berlin. By the time of the Allied Victory, he and his capitalist family found themselves in what was to become the 'Democratic Republic', from which they all escaped in 1947. Spending time in West Germany in dike building and mining, he eventually emigrated to Canada.

A colourful career develops, ranging from mining, railroading, oceanography and university studies, to teaching, farming and logging. These phases are interrupted by work in Africa as an educational advisor for the then External Aid Office, travels in Mexico, Belize, and trans-Atlantic crossings in his own boat. Off and on he pays visits to his hometown, Berlin, where he ended his teaching career as an exchangee. Somewhere along this course he found time to marry and he has two Canadian children, making his home in Victoria, British Columbia. Throughout his writings, having experienced totalitarianism, he stresses his untamed desire for freedom and independence.