By Tim Lilburn
Published by University of Regina Press
$19.95 ISBN 978-0-88977-530-5
Years ago I lived a block from poet and essayist Tim Lilburn in Saskatoon鈥檚 leafy City Park area, and it鈥檚 been wonderful to watch his literary star rise. He has earned the Governor General鈥檚 Award for Poetry, and is the first Canadian to win the European Medal of Poetry and Art. Like Lilburn, I also now live on Vancouver Island, and was excited to discover what my former nearly neighbour has been up to.
Not surprisingly, his latest title 鈥� a collaboration with M茅tis artist Ed Poitras 鈥� breaks new ground. Part poetry, part essay, part script, The House of Charlemagne is a brilliantly conceived and executed 鈥減erformable poem,鈥� and an homage to Louis Riel鈥檚 imagined 鈥淗ouse of Charlemagne,鈥� named for the 鈥減olyglot M茅tis nation鈥� Riel imagined rising centuries after his death. It was produced with male and female dancers by New Dance Horizons/Rouge-gorge in Regina (2015), and the book includes two black and white production photos.
The bizarre and poetic story unfolds via multiple voices and shapes, but the key player is Honor茅 Jaxon (aka William Henry Jackson), a University of Toronto educated non-M茅tis and son of a Prince Albert shopkeeper. Jackson became Riel鈥檚 final secretary, embracing the leader鈥檚 metaphysical beliefs about 鈥渁ctive essences.鈥� He was sentenced to an insane asylum, and died old and living in a 鈥渟mall fort鈥� made of empty ammunition boxes in New York, where he鈥檇 attempted to gather published material that celebrated the M茅tis. Lilburn takes these 鈥渂ones鈥� and, like an orthopedic surgeon, constructs a body that is political, intellectual and philosophical, and it howls.
The book鈥檚 first part, Massinahican (Riel鈥檚 text that 鈥渁ttempt[ed] to render old Rupert鈥檚 Land .... into philosophy, interiority and politics鈥�) is an amalgam of history; quotations (in French) from Riel鈥檚 work and from others 鈥� Julian of Norwich and Plato; free verse poetry; and a description of the dance production.
During the multi-art performance, Lilburn sat side-stage and symbolically 鈥渟ent large sections of the poem skittering into the movement鈥� while live music (by Jeff Bird of the Cowboy Junkies) and geese, wind, gunshot and water special effects were played.
The second part is the three-act poetic performance script, including dialogue between Riel and Jaxson. The former says to the latter: 鈥淵ou and I are badger-mind/wasp-intuition.鈥� In the prison scene, a guard says: 鈥淵ou were Platonic fools we dismembered/to save you from the embarrassment your sky thought/would inevitably have brought you.鈥� In Act 3, when Jaxson maligns the fact he鈥檚 failed to gather the archives of 鈥渢he Last Provisional Government at Batoche,鈥� he says of the blowing papers: 鈥淗ow strange this is the result/of such thousand horse-powered longing鈥�.听
Evidenced in the poetry is Lilburn鈥檚 intrinsic sense of the natural world, an ear tuned to the song of the land and multiple mentions of communities (Last Mountain Lake, Souris, Riding Mountain). Scents are featured, too 鈥� 鈥淭he damp, cool/blue smell of the Crowsnest Pass.鈥�
Lilburn鈥檚 latest looks at history through a different lens, and makes a sound like 鈥渢he engine room of God鈥檚 warm breath.鈥�
鈥� This book is available at your local bookstore or from www.skbooks.com
听
