Jean Rivard - University of British Columbia

ond et de bouts de phrases en guise de
passerelles / surtout que le pied gauche
efface au fur et à mesure ce qu'écrit le pied
droit." While this association of language
with wandering, dispossession and, ultimately,
effacement may not be entirely
innovative, Bélanger's particular focus on
the act of writing sets up its own fresh mise
en abyme. One is left with the lasting
impression, expressed in this work's final
pages, that "les lieux importaient moins
que les routes qui y conduisaient par d'innomrables
détours."
Gilles Cyr's Songe queje bouge brings
together revised and, in some cases, augmented
versions of previously published
works. As the poet explains in an end note
to the volume, La connaissance, Myrthios
and Corrélats appeared earlier in art editions
while other excerpts first saw the light
in various journals and anthologies. Each
of the five poems displays Cyr's preference
for sparseness, both stylistic and thematic.
The short, at times monosyllabic, lines set
within the wide margins of the page are a
fitting reflection of the whiteness that penetrates
these poetic territories. A nocturnal
snowfall and the attendant sensation of
mutability envelop the je of La
connaissance, the collection's first poem: "II
neige quand je sors /... / je change aux flocons
/ change encore / pendant l'interruption."
By contrast, Myrthios evokes the
rocky terrain of a white-washed Cretan village
while Dans cette zone, Corrélats and
Habitat dispersé continue the achromatic
leitmotif through images of birchtree
forests, retreating galaxies and clouded
skies. Cyr's writing exhibits an almost
romantic vision of nature as an analogue to
human emotions. There is of course little in
the way of romantic elaboration or hyperbole,
ellipsis and fragmentation being, in
fact, the overriding stylistic traits. This is
not to imply that the works lack fullness
where imagery and form are concerned. On
the contrary, while each poem is unique, a
sense of visual lushness as well as of dramatic,
albeit esoteric, progression are common
denominators. Vague reminiscences of
Verlaine emerge from this geography of
hesitation, this poetization of the invisible.
As is the case with the universe Marcel
Bélanger presents in D'où surgi, Cyr's is in
eternal flux, ebbing and flowing, proliferating
and diminishing before a hesitant, often
bewildered observer. The incorporation of
the motif of inquiry, cardinal to Bélanger's
world view, takes on even greater significance
with regard to Cyr's. "Que est-ce que
la neige?"; "comment-es-tu là?"; "pourquoi
des feuilles / et sous des pierres?"; "Où
trouver?"; "il pleut ou pas?"; "Qui se traîne:
quoi d'autre?" are but foretastes of the profoundly
telling line that surfaces in
Corrélats: "Je demande quoi penser." With
Songe queje bouge Gilles Cyr has created an
alluring work of fragile beauty.
Simple Facts
James Mackay
Vagabond of Verse. Mainstream Publishing,
£2О.оо/$39-95
Reviewed by Peter J. Mitham
Robert W. Service once observed, "The best
autobiographers handle themselves with
discretion." Accordingly, he maintained a
secrecy about himself throughout his
career, preferring to let biographers chronicle
his personal life in intimate detail following
his death. Vagabond of Verse, by
Glasgow writer and Burns scholar James
Mackay, penetrates the shroud that Service
drew about himself, but it ultimately leaves
the reader wanting more.
Mackay triumphs in skilfully reworking
Service's two autobiographical volumes,
Ploughman of the Moon (1945) and Harper
of Heaven (1948), into a coherent whole
that allows Service to speak for himself.
Furthermore, Mackay provides a detailed
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