Poet weaves music magic with tales of Metis women

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I Knew Two Metis Women

By Gregory Scofield

Polestar, (sc)

$16.95

In Gregory Scofield's I Knew Two Metis Women, 126 pages of poems immortalize hair piled high in a bee hive, hairspray, pink lipstick, peddle pushers, dark eyebrow pencil and the guitar singing of Loretta Lynn and Kitty Wells wannabes.

Back when penny loafers, bubble gum, high heeled shoes and head scarves were the rage, women all across the backwoods of Canada polished their vocal chords with coffee or blue ribbon tea and a cigarette. Out would come the guitar and the music would begin. Sounds of raw emotion would pour forth from pursed lips as the performers would emulate the music of Lynn and Wells with their songs of lost love and broken dreams. Somehow these songs healed the singer, as they realized they were not alone in what they were feeling, that somewhere out there in musicland someone was feeling, hurting or loving as they did.

Oh, she'd crab dat guitar

like a lover, yup

crab heem by dah neck

an pluck hees strings, tapway

just like dat, strummin

along to dah Garter Family,

Makin heem howl

Dah whole night trough,

reads the beginning of Scofield's Right to Dah Sun-up.

He weaves the music of country and western legends Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, the Carter Family, Hank Snow, and Loretta Lynn into the laughter, the pain, and strength of his mother and aunt. In doing so he brings the indelible memories of these two Metis women, and their communities, to life.

Dorothy Scofield and Georgina Houle are the main focus of Metis Women. Their stories echo long after you've taken their journey with them through the book.

"I was hoping that this book would touch the hearts of people," said Scofield, "remind them of their own mothers or aunts and bring back a part of their childhood," he said.

Metis poet, storyteller, activist and community worker Gregory Scofield was born in British Columbia and raised in Saskatchewan. He delivers wonderful poems about his Metis childhood in this his fourth collection of poetry.

"I do not see myself as a poet. I see myself as a community worker and story teller," said Scofield. "There are stories of hardships, pain and triumphs. It is like a mirror, giving life back to the Aboriginal people. Instead of showing just ugly pictures, I wanted to show the beauty, the strength, and the love of the women in our communities," he said.

Scofield has just recently completed his biography Thunder Through My Veins which will be out sometime in September. He lives in Maple Ridge, B.C.