Writer, scholar, activist, Earle Birney is revered as the grand old man of Canadian poetry. In this intimate profile, Birney speaks lovingly of his craft and explains the process of translating poetic inspiration into a successful work of art. Highlighting this one-hour film are excerpts from his moving epic David, the lyric poem From the Hazel Bough, and Alaska Passage, which Birney performs with the percussion group Nexus.