Foreword

These poems were inspired by events and situations which have had a profound influence upon my life. To me poetry is an inner experience which requires a certain understanding of yourself, of the situation and the conditions which give birth to creative expression. My father worked as a porter for many years. After his accidental death, I became interested in learning about the kind of work he did and how it had affected him. So I decided to take employment as a porter for the C.P.R. Soon after I became acquainted with many of the people with whom he had worked as well as some of his closest friends. It was them who shared their deepest and most cherished memories with me. I was deeply touched by the stories of the men who had worked the trains for many years and one day I decided to write about them. These poems are a result of that experience.

When I first started, all porters where Black...and every white person on the train had the authority to act as your boss. Any passenger could get us fired. The conductors, our immediate bosses were told to 'ride the porters'...make them tow the line, make them submissive. The tourist cars were just like cattle cars...soldier, low-life types...poor people who had no business on the train, got on with all their prejudices. They would insult us...humiliate us, and no matter what insult was hurled at us, the conductors were always reprimanding us...apologizing to them, promising them we would be disciplined accordingly. Consequently, a lot of porters were fired for hitting people in the mouth. But how much can a man take? Anybody...any bum could come up to you and tell you that he's going to get your job just because he didn't like your face. It gave them pleasure to act superior to Black people.

Porter interviewed 1975

Most porters did their work simply because they were afraid of getting fired. Most of these men had families and they wanted their kids to get a good education and they tried to do their work and stay out of trouble. They would have died if someone had taken their jobs away from them for no reason. I was there...I felt these men...you can feel things like that. I've seen men cry like babies and shake. I've had to hold them back from getting at an inspector or a conductor. Every time I think about it I get so full of rage. All the resentment just errupts in me all over again. I've had to control this anger...this hatred for thirty years.

Porter interviewed 1971

We were treated like five year olds. we couldn't even talk back. If you did, they'd punish you...they'd put you out in the streets and make your wife come down and beg for your job. This is the reason I never got married. I never wanted my children to be ashamed of me. The porters that survived the best were the Uncle Toms...but I've seen these so called Uncle-Toms ashamed of the things they had to do...knowing that their children were ashamed of them. When they'd get home they'd break mirrors and break windows. The company never know about this, or cared about it for that matter.

The story of my life is that I have closed this job out of my life. I go through the motions of doing my work to keep these people off my back. If have no respect for this job. As a matter of fact. I do not allow my friends to refer to this "nigger" job when I'm off it.

Porter interviewed 1976

Porters used to have to shine shoes. One inspector used to actually smell them to see if they were freshly shined. I remember one porter got some really smelly cheese and put it in a shoe..this inspector took a whiff...I think that cured him...for a while. Another disgusting thing were the cuspidors or spitoons in the smoke room. These were cups in which people would spit. There was nothing more degrading than emptying these things out. Can anything be more disgusting than cleaning out somebody's spit?

Porter interviewed 1976

In the old days the porters were hired if they were "good boys". Yes Sir Mr. Charlie. It was just a mask that they wore. That has all changed, as far as the younger porters are concerned. The older one still do it. It becomes habit forming after a while, they've been doing it a long time. You don't teach an old dog new tricks, anything that the management says, they'd accept. They're not willing to fight for their right. There's no fire in them anymore. There's no zest. The younger porters have more spunk. They won't take as much. They won't hop when an inspector gets on the train. You should see the old timers kill themselves when an inspector gets on the train. They overwork themselves. We don't care. We're a new generation, we don't say "yes Sir Mr. Charlie, No Sir Mr. Charlie". That's dead, and we want it to die, but the old guys are letting it live.

Porter interviewed 1974