Al Purdy died on Saturday April 22, 2000, at his home in British Columbia.

In "Roblin's Mills" he wrote:

Of all these things
no outline remains
o shadow on the soft air
no bent place in the heat glimmer
where the heavy walls pressed
And some of those who vanished
lost children of the time
kept after school
left alone in a graveyard
who may not change
or ever grow six inches
in one hot summer
or turn where the great herons
graze the sky's low silver . . .
The black millpond
holds them
movings and reachings and fragments
the gear and tackle of living
under the water eye
all things laid aside
            discarded
                forgotten
but they had their being once
and left a place to stand on
                                1968, 1972