About The
Author Jack Nanaimo!
My story began in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada, with British, Scottish, and Norwegian family roots. My family came to British Columbia around 1900 to work in the forest industries, and I grew up surrounded by its landscapes. Through family vacations and travel, I saw much of British Columbia. During the 1950s, we crossed Canada often to visit relatives in New Brunswick. My grandmother, an artist born in Truro, Nova Scotia, later built a small log house on Gabriola Island, just off the coast of Nanaimo in the Salish Sea. The forests, coastlines, and mountains of my youth shaped my sense of rhythm, observation, and the landscapes that continue to return in my poetry.
As I grew older, we moved to Ottawa. My father was an engineer with the Department of National Defence and was transferred there for his work. Our family became interested in farming, and my formative years were spent working on the farm. I learned to operate machinery before I received my driver’s licence, and I learned a great deal from my dad. Sunrise over the fields, machinery in motion, and the changing seasons became part of a mental map that continues to influence the imagery and structure of my poems.
Before and after receiving my degree from Carleton University, I spent most of my career working in a bank. Later, we retired to an organic farm growing mainly soybeans and barley. Our family saw much of Canada and the United States through many informative vacations. When we finally retired for good, I decided to try writing poetry. I knew nothing about writing, much less poetry, and could not have explained the difference between iambic pentameter and simple rhyme. Yet the landscapes I had travelled and the rhythms of daily life created fertile ground for words, allowing memory and observation to intermingle freely in verse and become part of my poetry books.
My poems began with experiences from my early life and fond memories of my youth. However, the signs of our times led me toward a more critical, historical approach to subject matter. My poems now include anger about the continuing strife, injustice, war, and misinformation in the world today. I have read widely throughout my life, and historical books and works by many authors have given me perspective on the signs of our times. History, observation, and the human condition became intertwined in my writing, giving both a lens and a compass to my poetic voice and shaping the themes found across Jack Nanaimo books.
After retirement, we travelled to places in Europe, including Istanbul, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, and England. However, Canada is home. Those experiences abroad deepened my home appreciation, highlighting the wilderness, coasts, and rhythms of Canadian life that recur in my poetry.
My book, “From North Of The 49th,” is a book of Canada, exploring topics drawn from my experiences in British Columbia and Nova Scotia, along with history, current events, the signs of our times, and events that affect us all. I believe history is too easily forgotten, especially when we consider the violence in the world today. It seems that people can forget the blood and destruction of the past and carry those patterns into the present. Through this work, I invite readers to reflect on the intersection of memory, place, history, and the enduring patterns of human experience that continue to shape our world.