Hamilton's Bookmark

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About the Bookmark

On October 6th, 2011, the City of Hamilton became home to a plaque commemorating writer John Terpstra’s poem, “Giants,” which highlights the city’s geography and prominent escarpment. This permanent installation displays the entire text of Terpstra’s poem from his latest collection, Two or Three Guitars, published by Gaspereau Press.

The installation marks the ninth unveiling in the Project Bookmark Canada initiative, a charity that aims to permanently place text from Canadian works of poetry and fiction in the exact location described within the passage.

Terpstra and Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina unveiled Terpstra’s Bookmark at Sam Lawrence Park. “The City of Hamilton is very pleased to be a part of this Project Bookmark Canada initiative,” says Bratina. “The ‘Giants’ Bookmark highlights the richness of Hamilton’s literary community as well as celebrating Hamilton’s unique geography.” Terpstra agrees, and noted that this unveiling was particularly special for him, as he currently lives in the city. “Seeing a poem that I wrote be planted on rock at the top of the escarpment where it can be declaimed to the world is not just a literary thrill. It goes to the bones.”

The unveiling of Hamilton’s bookmark is an extra special event for not just Terpstra, but for Project Bookmark Canada founder Miranda Hill as well. “We’re delighted to bring ‘Giants’ to Sam Lawrence Park, and to highlight both the poem and also the escarpment, which is vital to the poem and to our area,” says Hill. “It’s also particularly gratifying to have a Bookmark right here in Hamilton, where our charity has its head office.” Hill added, “Hamilton has really embraced this cultural initiative, and welcomed it into the city’s landscape. It’s great to live and work in a place that celebrates its artists and its art in this way.”

About Hamilton and Sam Lawrence Park

The City of Hamilton is a port city located in Southern Ontario and is Ontario’s third largest metropolis. Hamilton is probably most well known for its coastal factories, the steel mills (giving Hamilton the nickname, “Steeltown”), prominently visible when approaching Hamilton from the East. However, Hamilton is swiftly becoming known for its emerging arts culture. The Art Gallery of Hamilton is Ontario’s third largest public art gallery. The downtown core is home to many small galleries as well as the Factory: Hamilton Media Arts Centre, the Downtown Arts Centre and the Community Centre for Media Arts. Many film and television serials have also brought their productions to Hamilton. Hamilton is home to many other attractions such as the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, Dundurn Castle, the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum and the HMCS Haida National Historic Site, Canada’s most famous warship and the last remaining Tribal class in the world.

One of Hamilton’s most popular parks, Sam Lawrence Park is located at 225 Concession Street, along the beautiful Niagara Escarpment (also known as Hamilton Mountain). Offering breathtaking panoramic views of the city and harbour, Sam Lawrence Park is situated on the Mountain brow at the top of the Jolley Cut roadway. Some of its features include a rock garden with perennial flowers, ornamental benches and lighting, accessible walkways, wildflowers and prairie grasses.

Author Profile

John Terpstra is an award-winning, Hamilton-based author and poet. Born in Brockville, Ontario, Terpstra moved to Edmonton, Alberta as a child, but returned to Ontario in his high school years, settling in Hamilton. Terpstra is the author of several prose books and poetry collections, the last seven of which have been published with Gaspereau Press. He is the winner of the 1988 Bressani Prize for Poetry, first prize in poetry for the 1992 CBC Radio Literary Competition and the Award for Non-Fiction from the Hamilton and Region Arts Council Award for Non-Fiction in 1995. He is a finalist and nominee for many other awards, chief among them the 2004 Governor General’s Award in poetry for his collection, Disarmament. Two or Three Guitars is his most recent collection.

In addition to being an award-winning writer, Terpstra is also an established carpenter and cabinetmaker.

Book Profile

Two or Three Guitars (Gaspereau Press) is a compilation of selected poems from John Terpstra’s seven previous poetry collections, from Scrabbling for Repose, his debut in 1982, to his Governor General Award nominated Disarmament from 2003.

With an interest in nature, family, heritage, community and religion, Terpstra’s poems often examine his Dutch ancestry, his Hamilton neighbourhood, the ups and downs of marriage and parenting, the notion of hope and faith, as well as economical, environmental and societal issues. Terpstra’s poems show a great precision about and compassion for their subject matter. Offering the reader a crash course in the mid-career poet’s works, Two or Three Guitars takes its title from Terpstra’s long form poem and sprawling narrative, “Captain Kintail,” from his previously published Captain Kintail, also included in the anthology. “For it seems / wherever two or three guitars are gathered, there is / ‘Heart of Gold,’” reads “Captain Kintail,” conjuring up images of fireside gatherings delighting in Canadian icon Neil Young’s music (or so you'd think). Indulging in multiple references and visuals of Canadiana, Two or Three Guitars gives the reader a great sense of Terpstra’s poetry and what the Canadian experience might mean to him.

Praise for Two or Three Guitars

“Two or Three Guitars provides a rich selection of the poetry of a peculiarly Canadian writer -- one who takes what is best in this country: tolerance, sympathy, a powerful sense of humanity, and combines these qualities with a deep appreciation for the natural world to make a music that seems to rise from a hidden place, but that we nonetheless recognize as a tune we have long known and understood.”
- C. Durning Caroll, Northern Poetry Review

“If (Terpstra’s) poems could be described in a word, it’d be quiet: no pomp or circumstance, but just good, honest observation mixed in with insight […] carried off in a way that’s not quite workmanlike, for there is an intelligence here, an artifice, that would be slandered if I called it such. […] The best metaphor I can think of is buttoned-down, but only in the way an Armani suit is buttoned-down. And the real accomplishment is that the same style is in evidence in poem after poem, and I still don’t crave a split seam. […] Terpstra has gotten better with age; he’s focused on what he’s good at; and he’s collected together a very good book.”
- Shane Neilson, PoetryReviews.ca