Dead poets
Jeremy Mesiano-Crookston
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Arc Poetry Magazine, issue 58
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Latest issue of Arc Poetry Magazine resurrects the "forgotten and neglected"
The unseen wisdom of the world tells us that life is sometimes awful. Man is always subject to the ultimate vicissitudes of death and decay; it is the single constant star in our often carefully navigated lives. We feel this most keenly when it strikes at those living things that we try to preserve. But this experience is one of the crucibles that tempers us, forcing a confrontation with our absurd lack of control over life. Perhaps it is this tint of doom that's helped me see a compelling romantic idealism in this latest issue of Ottawa's Arc Magazine.
Arc Magazine has been a constant in the Ottawa literary scene since '78, pursuing and publishing a mandate of compelling poetry. Its latest issue is a somewhat unusual shift from the presentation of contemporary poetry into an academic exploration of "dead poets" -13 men and women who, despite vastly different lives, are all united under the title "Forgotten and Neglected." The guiding principle behind this focus is that "the contributions made by these poets have faded too quickly from our collective memory and seem doomed to archival obscurity, if that."
Consequently, tackling such an urgent topic has made for a super-sized issue. Arc's current publication is almost two-thirds larger than normal. "There have been a number of special issues in the history of Arc Magazine, but we thought this was particularly important," explains Matthew Holmes, co-editor along with Ottawa author Anita Lahey who continues the thought: "We only publish
two issues a year, so devoting one to this topic was a great sacrifice."
"These poets lived on the cusp of change in the sentiment of the day - in style or in form," notes Holmes. But most also seemed to live on the fringes of ethnicities and races. The fact that they missed literary canonization, like dodging a bullet in a crowded room, sometimes happened with a fascinating randomness that didn't seem to depend on a writer's individual skill. Indeed, the authors of these essays often take pains to point out, and write apologias for, the weaknesses in their subjects' technique.
"They were true to their individual time and place," explains Lahey. And though some may have made somewhat negligible contributions to the literary landscape, Arc hopes that by tracing their positions in literary history from our vantage point, we can mine them for value. The project will likely appeal more to literary historians, and those concerned with lives, than it will to those concerned simply with poetry.
Curiously enough, the reasons behind the selections from reviewers are almost as interesting as the essays themselves. George Elliott Clarke echoes his own search for cultural identity, for example, while Asa Boxer probes the work of his own father. Each author seems to have found an echo of himself in this work. There's something dramatic and almost noble about authors trying to breathe new life into a body of writing they identify with - a deeply sympathetic and terrifying vision of a legacy that could easily be their own.
The current issue of Arc Poetry Magazine is on the racks until the end of December.
