Philip Tetrault

Philip started writing poetry as a teenager. He was always interested in Byron, Tennyson, Rimbaud and the songs of Leonard Cohen. He met Cohen through mutual friends and struck up a lifelong friendship. Cohen liked his poetry a lot and dubbed Phil and his poet friends the “Mad Poets”, a group to be watched for and appreciated in the next wave of Montreal poets. They were then published in some of the literary journals coming out of Montreal at the time.

They lived up to their title as he and his friends were sidelined over the years by “travels in schizophrenia” as Phil called them. Phil has kept on writing throughout his long travels and he has come up with some amazing work.

His life in art and schizophrenia was featured in a documentary called “This Beggar’s Description” produced by the National Film Board and premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival. This documentary has been seen in Canada, the US, the UK, India and Russia.

Some of the poems he read in the film are in his program tonight and they are from his privately published book also called “This Beggar’s Description”. He can now be seen in the streets of Montreal selling his privately published series of poetry books that he produces himself with the help of family and friends.