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The OSCAR - OUR 36 th YEAR
Page 34 DEC 2008
By Susan McMaster
Because it makes great Christmas
gifts. A poem nicely printed
on good paper, makes a cheap,
unusual gift. (See, poetry is practical!)
I do one every year. Friends have kept
some of my Christmas poems pinned to
their bulletin boards for years, and I’ve
myself propped poem cards on my study
mantelpiece or shelves for even longer.
The fifth reason poetry matters is
because, although every life is a story,
you can’t remember exactly how it
started, and you won’t know exactly how
it ends. It won’t be you who completes
the narrative. What you do have are the
moments in between – holding a baby for
the first time, saying goodbye to a friend
for the last, waking to a fall of new snow.
Moments like these, caught in a handful
of luminous words, will be available to
you always, in every deeply felt detail.
The fourth reason poetry matters
is because it is beautiful. At times of
ceremony or deep emotion, we need
extraordinary words: “To the marriage of
true minds...,” “Rage, rage, against the
dying of the light...,” “Ashes to ashes,
dust to dust....”
The third reason is that it intensifies
other arts. How often have you heard a
great new song – wonderful beat, great
voice – only to realize the words were flat
and banal? Or the opposite? Even simple
lyrics can be memorable and satisfying:
“I once had a girl, / or should I say, / she
once had me. / She showed me her room, /
isn’t it good, Norwegian wood?” The joke
Why Does Poetry Matter?
and intrigue of “had” and “had”; the halfrhyme
of “room” with the full rhymes of
“good”, “wood”, and “should”; the mystery
of “Norwegian wood” and its suggestion
of cold northern light, hearthfire, a pale
Nordic beauty; the perfect match between
melody and words: this is poetry.
As is, of course, “To be or not to be...,”
from the greatest theatre in our language.
Poetry appears in theatre worldwide across
all recorded time. A minor contribution of
my own is “Dangerous Graces”, a show
of women’s poetry which I scripted for
the GCTC. Artists of all kinds take off
from poetry – composers, visual artists,
choreographers, film producers. Many
of my poems have been set to music, for
example, as in a recent cantata by John
Armstrong and the performances and
recordings of Geode Music & Poetry and
First Draft. They’ve also inspired artworks
by such painters as Roberta Huebener and
Juliana McDonald.
The second reason poetry matters is
that it pays attention. To the moment, to the
details, which convey the whole so much
more effectively than generalizations.
“A lovely fall day,” one might say, or,
instead, “Season of mists and mellow
fruitfulness...” “Death is awful,” or “I
heard a fly buzz when I died...” “How can
I choose?” or, “ Two roads converged in a
yellow wood...” “I love you,” or “How do
I love thee, let me count the ways...”
The first reason why poetry matters – well,
I leave that to you. Is there a poem you
love?
Susan McMaster with a cup of tea at her home.
Photo by M A Thompson
Lend Me Your Left Ear
By Mary Anne Thompson
The Gargoyle’s Left Ear: Writing
in Ottawa
By Susan McMaster
Black Moss Press Settlements, 2007
ISBN 978-0-88753-443-0
Part memoir, part portrait of the
artist in Ottawa, and part activist
manual, The Gargoyle’s Left
Ear is Susan McMaster’s recently
published poetic prose song.
Susan weaves her life as shy
child, young emerging feminist, wife,
mother, and artist against the familiar
backdrop of the streets of OOS, the
Glebe, Carleton and Lisgar.
Her connections to the people
in the artistic community of poets,
visual artists and musicians reads
like a Who’s Who of Artistic Ottawa:
Ouroboros (which published her first
collection); the Ottawa Poetry Group;
Ottawa Independent Writers; First
Draft; SugarBeat; and Geode Music &
Poetry; the stages where she presents
her work, like the National Library,
National Gallery, Great Canadian
Theatre Company, Rasputin’s, Tree,
Orion, the Ottawa International
Writers’ Festival, Ottawa Folk
Festival, CBC, CKCU, CHUO, and
CHEZ.
Throughout the book, Susan
makes clear that poetry is not written
in a vacuum. Balances between
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family and poetry are not often easy,
and Susan shows with insightful
humour and compassion how she
has managed. There is drama; falling
through the canal into icy water when
she was late in pregnancy; and not
knowing if a child is going to live or
die. There is humour: misplacing the
text of the poem she wrote to read at
her oldest daughter’s wedding.
Through such projects as
Bookware, Ottawa Valley Poets,
Waging Peace: Poetry and Political
Action, “Random Acts of Poetry,”
“Against the War …,” and “Poetry in
the Park,” Susan has helped to make
poetry relevant to our understanding
of the world and our place in it. At
this time of economic uncertainty and
concern for war and environmental
devastation, we need poetry and poets
more than ever.
The Gargoyle’s Left Ear
illustrates over and over again how
poetry can say what might not be
said. Poetry gives voice to the best
and worst and saddest and happiest
times. To birth and death. By tracing
the thread of poetry through her life,
Susan shows that poetry encompasses
who we are -- the good, the bad and
the ugly – and helps us to realize that
as humans we are flawed but beautiful.
That life itself is beautiful and worth
living to the full.
Many of the artists Susan writes
about in The Gargoyle’s Left Ear
have links to OOS. Mary Lee Bragg
and Colin Merton have both written
for the December OSCAR. (see pages
19 and 22 in this issue). Susan herself
was mid-wife at the birth of OSCAR,
helping Nancy Ross start this
community newspaper in Old Ottawa
South more than 35 years ago.
Although I grew up in Ottawa,
in reading her work I learned many
interesting things about the nooks and
crannies of this city.