Claive Booker (1948- ), a native of Toronto, gained a love of language and thought from early exposure to writers such as Edna St. Vincent Millay and Gerard Manley Hopkins. He has worked in a psychiatric hospital and with persons with AIDS who chose their own homes over hospice care. His artistic output includes sculpture, drawing, printmaking, liturgical embroidery, and icon painting. His book of poems "Songs for the Guitarist/Composer," is published by Borealis Press.

   These songs are Claive´s first collection of drawings in words. "As advancing in age and decrepitude force me to relax, I have had the pleasure of getting to know some of the ´gars de la rue,´ the street people here in the centre-south of Montréal, who have accepted me wholeheartedly. Because so many have enriched my life, it seemed sensible to take pen to paper, and write what are, in effect, mémoires for a man with a fading memory."
      "Unique. Moving. Lovely. These poems lead the reader into a spiritual and human space alight with kindness."
      —Susan McMaster