MILTON ACORN

He was born in Chaorlottetown in 1923, and died in 1986 in the same place from heart disease and diabetes.He had published 16 poems, Montreal was an important center for him, he was a member of Bohemian Embassy with many others poets incluided Joe Rosenblant and Margaret Atwood. He was married to MacEwen in 1962 and after they broke up he moved to Vancouver here he organized reading poems, was the founder of the newspaper Georgia strait that still is publising today. In 1970 he was named "The people's Poet", he taught poetry in three schools and found link poetry in 1973.
He was always in the right place at the same time Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto. There is collection of poems called "The Northern Red Oak" for and about him. He was generous and the most accessible literary figure in Canada.

What I Know of God is This

Milton Acorn
From:   Dig Up My Heart: Selected Poems 1952-83. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1983. p.181.

What I know of God is this:
That He has hands, for He touches me.
I can testify to nothing else;
Living among many unseen beings
Like the whippoorwill I'm constantly hearing
But was pointed out to me just once.

Last of our hopes when all hope's past
God, never let me call on Thee
Distracting myself from a last chance
Which goes just as quick as it comes;
And I have doubts of Your omnipotence.
All I ask is... Keep on existing
Keeping Your hands. Continue to touch me.