Siolence: Poets on Women, Violence and Silence

Beryl Baigent is a poet; her published collections include Absorbing the
Dark, Hiraeth: In Search of Celtic Origins, Triptych: Virgins, Victims,
Votives, and Mystic Animals.

The Feminist Caucus of the League of Canadian Poets presents a panel, on
a subject of its choice, at the League’s Annual General Meeting each
summer. This book is the result of one such panel, at which invited
members read a position paper and poem. The series is called the Living
Archives, and its central concern is language and gender issues. Men are
not excluded from this gathering; of the 15 papers/essays presented,
three are by male League members. In addition to a painting by Marie
Elyse St. George titled Eve’s Choice, the book includes cartoonlike
sketches of the poets that were captured by Heather Spears during the
panel presentations.

The word “siolence” was coined by one of the contributors, Penn
Kemp, “to encapsulate the blending that so often occurs between
violence and the silence enabling it.” In her essay, Sarah Klassen,
who grew up as a Mennonite, notes that “[i]n a violent world we long
for peace. … we [are] horrified by abuse and are sometimes the victims
of it.” Ayanna Black, who was born in Jamaica, writes from a
historical framework as she recalls that her ancestors were
involuntarily taken from Africa and transported to various parts of the
New World.

For Brenda Niskala, “Violence is the absence of love.” She suggests
that as poets and thinking people, we search for “[a] world where
structural inequalities do not pit man against woman, race against
race.” Sandra Nicholls calls on the words of Virginia Woolf, Emily
Dickinson, and Adrienne Rich to formulate her position, and suggests
that one question everything, “look[ing] afresh at, and then
describ[ing] for” oneself.

The foreword by the editor notes: “The precise and powerful use of
language that characterizes these presentations may … come from the
fact that the speakers are all poets—writers who specialize in making
every word count.” Unfortunately, the discussions that followed the
panel are not recorded in the volume. However, the League can be
commended for making these important topics available for general
readership.