Canadian writer Patrick Lane, "whose award-winning poetry was celebrated for its beautiful writing and deft examination of the human condition," died March 7, CBC News reported. He was 79. Lane published more than 20 poetry collections, as well as novels and works of nonfiction.
Lane's first collection, Letters from a Savage Mind (1966), was followed by books such as Separations (1969), Beware the Months of Fire (1974) and Poems, New and Selected, which won the Governor General's Literary Award for poetry in 1978. Other books include Winter and Mortal Remains, which were consecutively shortlisted for Governor General's Literary Awards; and Too Spare, Too Fierce, winner of the 1995 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. With his wife, Lorna Crozier, a fellow Governor General's Literary Award recipient, he published the collection No Longer Two People.
Red Dog, Red Dog, Lane's 2009 novel, was longlisted for the Giller Prize. His memoir There Is a Season received the Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence and B.C. Award for Canadian Nonfiction. Most recently, he published The Collected Poems of Patrick Lane and his second novel, Deep River Night.
McClelland & Stewart, Lane's publisher, posted on Facebook: "We are deeply saddened by the passing of beloved writer Patrick Lane. Patrick will be remembered as a writer of enormous empathy and humanity, and we are fortunate to be able to continue to learn from him through his beautiful and wise books."
From his poem "Living in a Phantom Hut":
Those mountains I wandered through when I was young.
There was need for a small fire in the night. Still,
I wept back then for what could not be undone.
Old misfortunes can bring a man peace.
My face reveals my face, my hands my hands.
There is nowhere I can go where I haven't been.
When I hold the brush to my ear I hear the moon.