Paul Vermeersch is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Between the Walls (McClelland & Stewart, 2005). He lives in Toronto.
Elegy for Paul Winchell
Which is more alive? A tiger at its kill,
or a child's plush tiger, or a child's plush tiger
in a storybook, or a illustration
of a child's plush tiger in a storybook?
"Why, I am, of course," says an illustration
of a child's plush tiger in a storybook.
Can one improve on the love of Geppetto?
Can one succeed where the Great Oz failed?
Which is more alive? A heart that aches
and races, or an artificial heart?
"They are equal," says the little
wooden man. "They are equal."
So, I'd like to start with a comment made near the end of your Late Nights with Wild Cowboys, in the poem "Jawbone." You express real fear and anxiety over the prospect of having your life and love be objectified, turned into summary, a bowdlerized rendering that "[leaves] nearly everything out." More than that, though, you are worried about how we ourselves are complicit in this sort of exclusionary act. I guess what I'd like to ask first, then, is: do you imagine poetry as a means of letting things in rather than keeping everything out? And what are you aiming to let in, exactly?
I really do think of poetry in that way, in terms of providing a space -- an opening -- in which it might be possible to say the things that are hard, and perhaps impossible, to say otherwise; in which to express that inarticulate feeling that you get sometimes...continue reading
Steve McOrmond's new collection of poems begins with a caution. In the style of TV content warnings, "Advisory" lists potential disturbing content to come: "themes which could threaten the viewer's sense of security," "Evidence of fatalism and irreligion," and the typical forewarnings about sexuality, violence and "language." Here McOrmond displays the dual cautionary and playful perspectives that interact throughout the book, switching from warnings about a drowning and an animal attack to the line, "The following program may contain scenes not suitable for language."
The poem raises the expected questions about what we censor and screen in popular media. What is considered objectionable, and why? Placed at the start of a collection whose title references Armageddon, "Advisory" leads the reader to expect a certain discomfort.
With that warning, the book moves to the title...continue reading