E.D. Blodgett

The late sun falls slowly into the afternoon of your eyes, and there it pauses as one might pause to take a breath —from “Lost” Nothing Is But You and I, the breathtaking final volume in the Apostrophes series, reveals poet E.D. Blodgett at his most accomplished. Lyrical grace meets exquisite technique as Blodgett fathoms intimacy, knowledge, and being. The poems allow us to listen to one side of an intimate conversation; yet despite this inward focus, the speaker looks up and out at a larger world, inviting us into contemplations of loss, time, memory, and the ineffable other.

Nothing Is But You and I

Apostrophes VIII

Sumptuous imagery, commanded by musical lines and understated language, reveals the poet's breathtaking vision.

Sleep, You, a Tree

Apostrophes VII

In a series of poems inspired by Gustav Mahler's Kindertotenlieder, E.D. Blodgett searches for meaning amidst grief. In the contemplative gentleness of his words, he finds the special light children possess in their state of unknowing as they encounter the world. These sparse poems move through acceptance and resignation to the solace that exists in the word. Blodgett's poetry will speak to readers who have experienced loss, are exploring grief, or want to find a way to connect with stillness. as bells that ring through the winter air the clear laughter of children sings in the trees almost like brooks bursting in spring the air stands up its joy unbound the breath of it the bright birth of stars

Songs for Dead Children

Elegy is a collaboration of the poetry of E.D. Blodgett and the black and white photography of Yukiko Onley, to create a wistful remembrance of loss, death, and transition, in honor of Onley's late husband. The reflective poetry quietly muses about the unknown, while the still images of natural beauty evoke a related mood. Elegy is not subdivided into separate poems per se; it is rather one long poem of memory, longing, and healing.

Elegy

Premier titulaire de la Chaire Louis-Desrochers en études canadiennes à l'Université de l'Alberta, le professeur E. D. Blodgett présente dans cet essai original le résultat de sa réflexion sur les traits fondamentaux de la littérature canadienne-française/québécoise. Pour lui, le lien écriture-histoire est fondamental et constitue l'origine d'un processus d'écriture complexe. Ce processus ou dialogue, selon Blodgett, a constitué les lieux fondateurs de la Nouvelle-France et de l'imaginaire du Canada français. Dans chaque cas étudié, on retrouve une figure d'enfant représentant un fils (ou une fille) à la fois idéologique et politique, une figure d'enfant « sacrifié ». Cette thématique de l'enfant «sacrifié », selon l'auteur, serait l'héritage culturel des jésuites, c'est-à-dire de leur relation avec le Fils de Dieu sacrifié pour le salut de l'humanité. La culture jésuite aurait en effet été fondée sur l'idéal- l'aventure - chevaleresque du Moyen Âge et ancrée dans une profonde croyance que la voie du martyre mène au salut éternel. Cette croyance, écrit Blodgett, aurait imprégné la mentalité de la Nouvelle-France et aurait longtemps été une force déterminante dans la littérature du Canada français. L'histoire de cet engagement a été racontée dans Les Relations, textes destinés au recrutement de la jeunesse française. Toujours à la recherche de la pureté, de l'innocence et de la jeunesse, les jésuites ont fait de l'enfance l'objet de leurs aspirations les plus profondes. Se considérant eux-mêmes enfants de Dieu, ils acceptaient volontiers de se soumettre à la volonté du Père divin, à tel point que leur foi aveugle les amènera à s'infliger des supplices et même à anticiper les joies du martyre. Les jésuites seront donc les premiers « enfants sacrifiés» de la littérature québécoise.

Enfants des Jésuites ou le sacrifice des vierges Les

These poems flow from reflection on the most fundamental issue in modern and contemporary thought: if, as our European-cultured inheritance teaches, the criterion of truth and knowledge is an interior feeling of certainty, how can we be sure the world exists independently of our act of knowing it? In the great tradition of the Romantic philosophers and poets, Blodgett answers "we cannot." To perceive is to create - and more: it is to speak, to shape with language.

Through You I

Apostrophes II

Harold Coward

The result of a dialogue between poets and scholars on the meaning and making of the sacred, this book endeavours to determine how the sacred emerges in sacred script as well as in poetic discourse. It ranges through scholarship in areas as apparently disparate as postmodernism and Buddhism. The perspectives developed are various and without closure, locating the sacred in modes as diverse as patristic traditions, feminist retranslations of biblical texts, and oral and written versions of documents from the world’s religions. The essays cohere in their preoccupation with the crucial role language plays in the creation of the sacred, particularly in the relation that language bears to silence. In their interplay, language does not silence silence by, rather, calls the other as sacred into articulate existence.

Silence, the Word and the Sacred

Governor-General's award-winning poet E.D. Blodgett continues his series of meditations on love, living, and loss. This intelligent collection offers more of Blodgett's lush imagery and deep questioning within the apostrophe form. A lovely offering from one of Canada's leading writers.

E.D. Blodgett

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