for Barry Dempster (January 17, 1952-November 27, 2025)
Thank you for your being, Barry, for
your care and kindest attention to all
whom you encountered, with grace.
I applaud your life’s work and a life so
elegantly experienced in its entirety.
Thank you for your acute perceptions,
especially for such exquisite poems:
they will continue to resonate forever
through our eardrums and our souls.
I applaud the choice to join your Love
in your own time, in your own way.
Thank you for your time here, with
the knowledge you will live on in us,
this community you’ve created of all
those who dearly love and admire you.
Thank you for how you so thought-
fully considered life: considere, to
be with the stars that now await you.
*
What courage it takes to cross
the boundary, the borne no-one
evades. We celebrate Barry, this
fiercely gentle man in his choice
to leave, lion-hearted to the end.
From Plymouth Brethren to brother
and mentor to so many, beloved
Barry leaves us in floods of love
and light for the final freedom of
surrender. In his passing, he’s still
the consummate teacher and poet
surrounded by all those he loves
and who love him, near and far.
Love and Blessings on your way,
Penn
Penn Kemp has been celebrated as a trailblazer since her first publication of poetry (Bearing Down, Coach House, 1972). The League of Canadian Poets honored her with their Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award (2025), as Spoken Word Artist of the year (2015), and as a foremother of Canadian Poetry. Recent collections include: Ordinary / Moving (Silver Bow Publishing, 2025); Lives of Dead Poets (above/ground press, 2025); INCREMENTALLY (Hem Press, 2024); POEMS IN RESPONSE TO PERIL, an anthology for Ukraine (co-editor, Pendas Productions, 2023); P.S. (with Sharon Thesen, Gap Riot Press, 2022). Penn is active across the web with multimedia collaborations: see pennkemp.substack.com and pennkemp.weebly.com.
