Current Issue: April 1, 2010 Next Issue: September 2010
A time for many words
The Greeks have Homer, Canada doesn’t. But a voyage on the HMCS Montréal gave poet Pierre DesRuisseaux an Odyssey of his own. He is only the fourth person to take on the position of parliamentary poet laureate, a prestigious honour for the Sherbrooke, Que. native. "I couldn’t just go to the library and write on the Canadian Navy. I wanted to have the feel of the sea. For me, you can’t write if you don’t live." — Pierre DesRuisseaux The position involves writing for state events and making recommendations to the Library of Parliament, which provides DesRuisseaux’s $20,000 stipend. As part of his two-year term, DesRuisseaux joined the Canadian Navy on a trip from Halifax to Glasgow, Scotland this September. "Every day is a new experience for me. For instance, when I thought of writing on the Navy, I couldn’t just go to the library and write on the Canadian Navy. I wanted to have the feel of the sea. For me, you can’t write if you don’t live."
The journey was meant to inspire words that would reflect the experience of the Canadian Navy, and it did, DesRuisseaux says. He will publish the resulting poem to coincide with the Navy’s centennial celebration in a few weeks. But before DesRuisseaux could write about the experience, he had to have his own epic journey. "Most of the trip was very agitated," he says. "The captain told me that it was a very bad gale. I wasn’t able to move on the ship very much because it was going from left to right." DesRuisseaux has published 14 books of poetry. He writes almost exclusively in French, but has had some of his work translated. DesRuisseaux has worked as a foreign correspondent as well, but his true passion, he says, is poetry. His bilingual poetry anthology was nominated in 1996 for a Governor General’s Literary Award. "Every language is important," he says. "It’s a way of seeing the world. It’s a way of thinking. I think that the two official languages are [both] important to this country, which makes it a unique country." The road not taken Canada's Parliament created its poet laureate program in 2001, a late start compared to the United States, which launched its program in the 1930s, and Britain’s laureate program, which dates as far back as the 17th century. "We don’t esteem our poets in the country," says Senator Jerahmiel Grafstein, who originally proposed the bill for the poet laureate program. "We’re still a culture in process." Grafstein also proposed a private member's bill last year to locate a National Portrait Gallery in the historic former U.S. embassy on Wellington Street in Ottawa. "Without the spoken and written word, we have no civilized society." — Senator Jerahmiel Grafstein DesRuisseaux has a few ideas in mind on how to popularize poetry again, though he hasn’t made any formal recommendations to Parliament yet. The Library of Parliament’s resources, he says, should be open to the public through the Internet. The power of words For DesRuisseaux, his position, and poetry in general, are important not only for the arts, but for having an impact on peoples’ daily lives. "I think it’s important because it sets an example of an artist that can inspire a lot of people, a lot of students. So it might help to put poetry in everyday life," he says.
Grafstein agrees. "There’s a great tradition in the world about the use of words. The only thing that lasts in this lifetime and beyond are words." Equally important to Grafstein was encouraging better use of language among his fellow parliamentarians. "The question for us in Parliament is how do we elevate the written word to a higher level to make parliamentarians aim higher in how they use words. And I thought the poet laureate was one way of doing that." "Without the spoken and written word, we have no civilized society." Disrespect for language, he says, is not limited to Parliament, but extends to the public as well. DesRuisseaux, and other poets laureate, can combat that. "Society is under siege and the only way out of it is not by guns or mortars or rockets. The only way out of it is by civilized discourse…the best place to find it is in poetry." |
What is a poet laureate?
The poet laureate is an official title given to a poet as an honour for literary achievement. The position of poet laureate exists in many countries across the world, including the United Kingdom and the United States. In Canada, the poet laureate's role is to encourage and promote the importance of literature, culture and language in Canadian society. As explained in the Parliament of Canada Act, the parliamentary poet laureate may:
The position is relatively new in Canada. The first parliamentary poet laureate in Canada was George Bowering in 2002. The position alternates between French and English poets, and each poet is appointed for a term of two years. The poet laureate is selected by a committee comprised of the Commissioner of Official Languages, the Librarian and Archivist of Canada, the chair of the Canadian Council for the Arts and the Parliamentary Librarian. Source: Parliament of Canada Act, Parliamentary Poet Laureate Website Past Canadian parliamentary poets laureate
John Steffler, 2006-2008
Pauline Michel, 2004-2006
George Bowering, 2002-2004
Source: Parliamentary Poet Laureate Website |
RSS Past Issues Privacy Policy  |
© 1997-2010 Capital News Online. All rights reserved. A publication of Carleton University's School of Journalism and Communication. |