Flying Blind

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

Gary Geddes and Peter Dale Scott are probably the two most distinguished
writers of political poetry in Canada. By “political” I don’t mean
just “socially committed,” but focusing on political actions and the
human pain and dislocation that can result from them.

The sequence that gives its title to Flying Blind, and constitutes
almost half the book, was written out of a journey made by Geddes
through Israel and Palestine in the company of a blind Arab poet, John
Asfour. The poems are concerned not with the holy places but with the
Realpolitik of terrorism and modern military occupation. Similarly, a
later series arising out of a visit to Japan has nothing to say about
Mt. Fuji but much about Hiroshima.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with that. This is a worthy and
responsible enterprise, and should be given its full due. At the same
time, I have to confess that I have problems with political poetry in
the late 20th century, problems that are more strategic than aesthetic.
We no longer live in an age such as Dryden’s when, in writing
“Absalom and Achitophel,” he could make a political statement that
would be widely read and discussed. The modern poetry-reading public in
Canada is small and powerless. Why not write a prose exposé that would
gain more readers and more attention?

If one could discern in the work an urgently poetic structure, that
would be another matter. But the understanding I gained from these poems
was discursive, argumentative, having nothing to do with poetic rhythms
or poetic form. I have always respected Geddes as a poet, and do so
still. In addition, I am uneasily aware that my lack of enthusiasm for
these poems may well be my fault rather than his. Despite my
reservations, then, I am anxious to insist that those who respond
positively to contemporary political poetry are likely to derive
considerable satisfaction from this volume.