Stilled Voice: The Murder of Poet Pat Lowther

🎬 INTRO & OPENING “Welcome back to Same Crime, Different Time. I’m Jen Chambers. Tonight, we remember Patricia ‘Pat’ Lowther—a rising Canadian poet cut down at 40 by the very man she trusted. Her life and voice were powerful; her death sent shockwaves through Canada’s literary world. And it still resonates.”📚 Segment 1: Pat’s Early Life & Poetry “Born July 29, 1935, in Vancouver, Pat published her first poem at age ten in the Vancouver Sun . She later left school at 16 and worked in an office to support herself but continued to write. In 1968, her debut This Difficult Flowering launched her literary career—followed by The Age of the Bird in 1972, and Milk Stone in 1974 prabook.com+8en.wikipedia.org+8encyclopedia.com+8.”The Cacadian Encyclopedia says:Lowther’s first book of poetry, This Difficult Flowering (1968), was critically praised for its precise language and themes. The book explores the tensions between creating art and creating a home life and expands the themes of motherhood and the pain and pleasure of love into universal themes. In “Damn Doom,” for instance, Lowther speaks honestly of the need to create within the chaos of family:Damn doom today after daybreak our bright wisheson this work:to carve a simple beautyout of chaos.“Damn doom to day‑after‑day break our bright wishes on this work…” From This Difficult Flowering thecanadianencyclopedia.ca.In her second poetry collection, the Day of the Bird, she writs of a laundry near where Che Guevara was killed, and contrasts the laundry with hte brutality of his death:A laundry at Vallegrandea windowless shedtiled roofin front two openingsseparated only by a pillar… inside, the bodyits eyes openthe head proppedin a tense posture “She went on to co‑chair the League of Canadian Poets and taught at the University of BC’s writing department—as her feminist voice rose in both poetry and politics. At 40, she’s published her first collection of poetry, and just before she was murdered, had signed with the Oxford University Press to publish a new poetry collection. It was her third book of poetry and her first book to be signed by a major press. poetryfoundation.org+14en.wikipedia.org+14evelazarus.com+14.”🌧️ Segment 2: Domestic Shadows “Married to Roy in 1963, she had four children. Roy was also a poet and left-wing activist—but darker things lurked. Friends noted his increasing jealousy over Pat’s growing acclaim. The University of Toronto Libraries says in a article about her that “Her domestic life, however, was complicated and weighed down by poverty and unhappiness. Friends encouraged her to leave her destructive marriage, a personal revolutionary act which she was unable to complete.” .evelazarus.com.” “In September 1975, Pat vanished. She’d missed a poetry reading at Ironworkers Hall in Vancouver. A week after she was last seen, her daughter Kathy went to the police and reported her missing. When he