Mick Burrs (April 1940 – April 20, 2021) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...

who lived in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. He was born and raised in California, and after leaving the United States to avoid the Vietnam War, he spent much of his life in

Yorkton Yorkton is a city located in south-eastern Saskatchewan, Canada. It is about 450 kilometres north-west of Winnipeg and 300 kilometres south-east of Saskatoon and is the sixth largest city in the province. As of 2017 the census population of the ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North ...

. He won the 1998 Saskatchewan Book Award for Poetry for a volume of his collected works, ''Variations on the Birth of Jacob''. This book was published under his birth name, Steven Michael Berzensky, as was a comprehensive collection of his poetry, ''The Names Leave the Stones: Poems New and Selected'' (2001 Canada, 2002 United States). He was the former editor of ''Grain'' magazine. He died on April 20, 2021, at the age of 81 just 10 days after his birthday.

Works

* 1973: ''Children on the Edge of Space'' * 1975: ''Game Farm: Poems for Intereflection 1967-1975'' Limited to 500 Copies. * 1976: ''Moving in from Paradise'' * 1982: ''The Waking Image Bedside Companion'' * 1983: ''The Blue Pools of Paradise'' * 1993: ''Dark Halo'' * 1997: ''Variations on the Birth of Jacob'' * 2001: ''The Names Leave the Stones: Poems New and Selected'' (Coteau Books),

References

20th-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian male writers Canadian male poets People from Yorkton 1940 births 2021 deaths American emigrants to Canada {{Canada-poet-stub