George Murray is not, repeat NOT a Newfoundland poet. If there is any justice in the world, Sun columnist Cheri Hanson will be chewed out by her editor and sent on the road to distinguish between Newfoundland poets and Saskatchewan poets. Poets get enough slack as it is. And if we’re going to be provincial about it, it would behoove the media to get it right!
Ed, in your desire to pounce on the moment in that electrically charming way you’ve got, you’re missing the uniquely Canadian moment here.
To be hyperbolic, me claiming to be a “Newfoundland poet” would be (to the people here in Newfoundland) like you claiming to be to be a disenfranchised inner city black youth to the good people of Bedford Stuyvesant’s poorest areas. There’s a cred that goes with being a native Newfoundlander — so much so that its a half-serious joke that you’re a “CFA” (come-from-away) unless your grandparents were born here.
There is some small chance I could be crucified on a cliff face here and left for dead if people thought I was claiming to be from here three months after I moved here.