Where the Words Come From: Canadian Poets in Conversation

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.

Here are 17 “conversations,” dialogues rather than interviews, in
which 17 aspiring Canadian poets question their supposedly established
elders. Thirty-four poets in all. And anyone aware of the contemporary
poetry scene knows that just as many of the former could be assembled
without difficulty, while the latter could be duplicated many times
over.

This does not mean, however, that Canadian poetry is in a healthy
state. I write “supposedly established” because the jury is, as it
were, still out. P.K. Page is surely destined for classic status; Don
Coles has quietly built up a deserved reputation; Eric Ormsby’s
dazzling Araby recently appeared like an unexpected comet, yet few,
typically, seem to have noticed. For the rest, Michael Ondaatje and
Margaret Atwood are media icons for their currently fashionable novels,
but their poetry, rightly or wrongly, is considered secondary. Many of
the rest have produced solid work, but....

Some interesting points are made here. Thus Lorna Crozier complains of
having noticed “a particular nastiness in the newspaper reviews in the
last couple of years,” naming David Solway (not represented here) and
Carmine Starnino (who talks with Ormsby). Yet I have to side with the
reviewers. The pretence that we have large numbers of important (albeit
unread) poets is patently false, and treating the promising as if they
were geniuses does not help. The “nastiness” is, I fancy, the result
of desperation on the part of those who know what is lacking. Here it is
Ormsby who speaks out, finding “little of value” and “nothing
terribly distinctive” in modern Canadian poetry—including
Crozier’s! But what is lacking? Primarily, the ability to use language
in an original and memorable way. To quote Ormsby again: “the language
doesn’t fail us, we fail the language.”

This, then, is the important truth that emerges from this book. The
conversations are worth reading, often stimulating and
thought-provoking. But, judged against what is possible, I sense lack of
commitment and certainly no “common pursuit.” But the fault, of
course, lies with a society that no longer cares to read poetry of any
kind.