Paperback of poems published 2008: 'Reach Me Down the Moon'
Ron Grant was an octogenarian who saw many changes in the evolution of poetry throughout his years. He noted that, because of the rush to free poetry from its classical restraints, there seem to be more poets (albeit less poetry) in the world today than ever before. "Many traditional aspects of poetry have been abandoned," Grant said, "yet without damage to the art form. Indeed, some great modern verse has proven it so. Still, at my age, I don't mind a visit to the past from time to time."
Welcome to the Ron Grant website.
A former newspaperman/book editor (The Montreal Gazette), radio and TV writer, magazine writer, teacher, internal communications manager, etc., Ron Grant published eight books, and recorded an audio CD of poems and music. He was also a former president of the Montreal Press Club...
His interest in art, perhaps his taste for it, began early in his life. He was born into the depression and, although it never affected him personally as a hardship, it certainly left its impressions upon him.
"Most young people are protected from unpleasant reality by religion, which is inherited usually from their parents," he once wrote. "Maybe I should say imposed rather than inherited. I can’t be sure. But for some reason, along with many of my young friends, religion just wasn’t able to comfort us adequately in those hard days and we looked to other things. Art seemed to provide us with the same sort of philosophic high-purpose. Religion was good, we knew, because it advocated the betterment of man -- and offered opportunities for advancement. Well, at least in the afterworld.
"Art offered us much the same thing but, of course, without the bribe of heaven or the threat of hell. We saw in it the virtues of honour, morality, trust, brotherhood and nobility of spirit. I’m not talking here about art as a synonym for talent or skill. I’m talking about it as the great force that has influenced the evolution of mankind. So, it was never a conflict between the secular and the supernatural; it was just an acknowledgement that we could all have meaningful lives – if indeed life has any meaning – without being subservient. In short, it enabled us to doubt, to ask questions, to think, even to be creators.
"All that to say that I have no idea why I am what I am. I’ve just followed along wherever my personal journey through life has led me. Like Ulysses, and everyone else, I am a part of all that I have met, and that’s it. It’s not especially noteworthy because we all take our own journeys through life. Certainly other people walked along with me at times, some for many miles and some for just a few steps, but I alone am the only one who has made the entire journey. The path of every man is unique and in this way we are all inimitable. Indeed, throughout all the long history of our species, no other man has ever followed the same path as the one I’ve taken. Nor will anyone ever find my footprints."
Ron Grant - RAGrant@sympatico.ca
Other books by the author:
• The Drowning Song
• Let's All Light the Candle in the Putt-Putt Boat
• Poems Written After Death
• Where The Light Was Burning
• R.I.P. (rhymes images, poems)
• Bindles
• Ragtime Musings
'Then Came the Music' is a book about art, mythology, and the dying practice of conversation. The story begins and ends in Paris, but is set primarily in Montreal. The main character, Ruben, is both a man susceptible to self-deception and an iconoclast who, ironically, cannot escape belief.
During the short period of his life that this story covers, a universe of the mind is revealed. Ruben's adventures, opinions, illusions and disappointments take the reader along a fascinating journey that is guided by conviction and ideas, rather than sight.
'Stations of the Past' audio CD is a selection of poems chosen from the works of Ron Grant, narrated by the author and accompanied by Neil Chotem on the piano. Rarely before have words and music more effectively showcased the complimentary styles of the two art forms.
Tracks: Gore Park, Greek Myths