Poet laureate hopes his work inspires, provokes thought
As Canada’s parliamentary poet laureate, George Elliott Clarke is non-partisan. But that doesn’t mean he’s avoiding controversial topics.
One of his recent poems was inspired by the Jan. 29 mosque shooting in Quebec City, the aftermath of which has added to antiIslam discussion even on Parliament Hill.
“I’m a citizen. I’m Canadian. I don’t think that folks should be injured in their places of worship by other people,” said Clarke. “I wouldn’t want to be in a position where I couldn’t make that simple statement in a poem.”
Clarke is in Regina this weekend for two literary events at the University of Regina.
The “Africadian” hailing from Windsor, N.S., is a seventh-generation Canadian whose roots are African-American and Mi’kmaq.
As our national poet, the Governor General’s Award-winner writes poems upon request for senators and members of Parliament, and of his own volition.
He is also compiling a national poetry registry, which will represent each constituency in Canada by three poems.
Clarke draws on history to reflect contemporary ideas.
Take former prime minister John Diefenbaker, who sold wheat to “red China,” an enemy state in the U.S. president’s eyes.
“That’s been, in my mind, the kind of history that we all need to keep in mind when start to posture in certain ways about foreign affairs especially,” said Clarke.
Lately, he has written in response to the deaths of Leonard Cohen and Fidel Castro, and Viola Desmond’s depiction on our national currency.
In the upper chamber, a senator recently read his commissioned poem about Senate reform. In easy rhyme, it’s less complicated to orate than his usual free verse.
Clarke is glad to hear poetry being recited in government.
“I’m hopeful that my relatively minor and limited intervention … will return deliberately elevated language to the legislatures,” Clarke said, laughing. “Power to the poets!”