The Bohemian Embassy: Memories and Poems.

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

Older Canadians may remember Don Cullen for his supporting roles in Wayne and Shuster’s CBC-TV comedy sketches. Cultured people may recall his Bohemian Embassy, a 1960s Toronto coffeehouse that boosted the careers of rising musicians and poets, including Gordon Lightfoot and Margaret Atwood. Few view him as a poet, although he was published in The Tamarack Review, a defunct classic literary journal. Now all can know more about him through his stories of his original establishment, tales of his downtown/CBC Radio successors, and a small poetry collection.

Cullen’s venues and his entertainment gigs have placed him in a position to know major literary and show business figures. A few of these “celebrity glimpses” provide insight into late 20th century Canada. He notes that a former girlfriend, teacher Jan Tennant, became CBC Radio’s first female announcer because her uptown high school students rejected grammar lessons that they had “tooken it all before.” Sadly, he reveals that 1970s Toronto “poet cop” Hans Jewinski quit submitting his verses, due to fellow officers’ hostile attitudes. When the publishers state, “The poems contained in this book … are sparked by Cullen’s work with the authors he helped to promote,” they may be referring to his 1960s irreverent relevance. This spirit animates a 9/11 poem. He denounces religious fanaticism in “Beware,” warning readers to avoid “all Deities / lest you may be required / to fly an airplane into a tall / building.” “Longing” packs a perceptive punch: the wishes of children, adults, idealists, and the religious pale against the Third World paupers’ dream of having at “least once in your lifetime / a satisfying meal.” Despite such insight, people will remember the patron, not the poet. In any case, Don Cullen’s unique artistic role makes this book a great gift for cultural nationalists-literati and couch potatoes.