I got my honourarium from Grain today; the magazine should be out soon. I had to look in my records to see what they took: "Grosse Isle, 1847."
I'll be pleased to see "Grosse Isle," a poem indirectly about Irish emigration, in print. It makes a good pairing for "Family History," (on the Lives of the Saints page) though they don't concern the same side of the family, and indeed "Grosse Isle" is a family history in only spirit, not in fact.
Immigration is a touchstone for me, and I'm not sure why. Strange, these emotional connections. As an American, I feel connected to the Civil War but not the Revolution, to Ellis Island but not the Liberty Bell, to New York but not Philadephia. As a Canadian, I really only have Grosse Isle. It's the one part of our history here that I feel is mine. Strange.
By coincidence, I just sent a submission off to Grain, for their annual Short Grain contest. I submitted two things in the Prose Poem category, including something based on Bury All Your Horses. The first prose poems I ever attempted. An interesting form -- fun to play with them this week. But what can take the place of line? I don't know -- so I probably won't win!
Oh, and while I'm on writing news, the Windsor Review should be out soon, with more Lives of the Saints poems: "Surrendor, Dorothy" and "For General Pinochet at 83." I do keep a list of current and upcoming publications, etc, here.
Does this feel like your history? Thomas D'Arcy McGee was an editor, politician, and poet, born at Carlingford, County Louth, Ireland, 13 April, 1825 and assassinated at Ottawa, Canada, 7 April, 1868. In the change of his political ideas he constantly embittered and attacked the revolutionary organizations of his fellow countrymen, and so made himself very obnoxious to them. It was this that led to his assassination by an overwrought fanatic . D'Arcy McGee, one of the signatories of the BNA, a father of Confederation was felled by a single bullet while walking to his home on Sparks Street in Ottawa. from: http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/Canada/thomas_d.htm
Yes, I know the D'Arcy McGee story -- but no, I don't feel any emotional connection to McGee, and in that sense his story is not mine.
Anyway, Eric, you don't need to go searching for Canadian history to connect me to. These kinds of emotional connections are mysterious, and so far haven't much influenced where I've choosen to live.
(Except Geneva, where the celebrated points of history were so anti-Catholic that I found it alienating -- went down after Mass to feed the pigeons at the Wall of the Reformation, so that I could watch them poo on Cromwell's head.)
You can't be both Canadian and American, Erin. They're opposites.
Erin, I think I understand about it being �your� history. Canadian history was just history when I studied it though there was some pride involved in reading about Vimy and Dieppe. It didn�t become �my� history until I attended a seminar where Peter S. Li lectured. His book �Chinese in Canada� brought emotional attachment. My father had paid the head tax, had to carry a Certificate of Registration and wasn�t allowed to become a citizen until after Canada repealed the 1928 Chinese Exclusion Act in 1948. Reading about what my father had to endure in Canada moved me to tears and made it very personal.
Erin, is there really a statue to Cromwell in Geneva?
Terence, Canadian and Americans are opposites? Please expand.
Big part of being Canadian = Not being American.
Erin wants to be Canadian + American.
But American + Not American = 0
I'm afraid I had my fill of this sort of conversation about five years ago.
Take it to e-mail if you like, gentlemen, but please, no more in my space here.
Terence,
I have a few comments to say about this on my blog. Please have a look. If you have any comments yourself, feel free to e-mail.