Re. Dk/ : Read the work

At the estate sale of the late Stephanie Dudek,
Vendome Avenue, 20 July 2020

The first issue of the new online periodical http://poetry-quebec.com/ is dedicated to the work of Louis Dudek. My article, "The First Person in Literature", on Louis, is available on the site. I add the following as a suggestion, a postscript, that we read a poet's writing, his body of work, and avoid those whose aim seems purely negative.

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Louis Dudek made an enormous contribution to literature in Canada as a poet, publisher, and critic. He helped many poets realize something of their creative potential by mentoring, publishing their work, and reviewing their books.

Robin Blaser describes Louis as being a “walking loneliness.” Even Louis’ friendship with Ezra Pound, for which he has been criticized for being overly naïve in his support of Pound’s work, is the friendship of a someone who would find approaching Pound difficult. It is this criticism of Dudek’s relationship with Pound, who Pound referred to as Dk/, that I would like to discuss here.

People will dig up whatever they can to criticize someone else, or invent something, or reveal their personal grudges in their comments. When he met Pound, Dudek was young and in awe of the older poet, as many of us would be if we were in his situation. Another visitor of Pound’s at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, where Pound was incarcerated after the war, was Charles Olson. It took Olson several years of dealing with Pound before he finally made his break with him. Olson and Pound had personalities that were larger than life; alternately, Louis was introverted and introspective.

Assuming that Pound needed to be “disowned”, then perhaps Dudek, like Olson, should have disowned Pound much earlier in his career than he did. Dudek rightly identified Pound’s Cantos as one of the greatest works of 20^th Century literature; however, he never supported Pound’s political views.

Dudek went to Pound to offer his support as a younger poet to the older poet that he admired for his poetry, just as Olson approached Pound for the same reason. To find one’s own voice, as a poet, it is necessary to assimilate something of the work and vision of the poets who come before us and that we admire in our youth. Both Louis and Olson assimilated in their work what they learned from Pound, and both poets eventually found their own distinctive poetic voices. Pound’s poetry helps inform something of Dudek’s work, just as Pound’s poetry helps inform something of Olson’s work, but the majority of both Dudek’s and Olson’s body of work is original and beautiful, for instance Dudek’s Atlantis and Olson’s masterpiece The Maximus Poems.

Dudek’s respect for Pound is that of an introverted person for the elder poet who had accomplished more in his writing career than just about any other poet in the 20^th Century. However, Dudek was not without serious critical reflection on Pound: Louis confided to me that despite having taught Pound’s work for over thirty years he never convinced anyone to share his enthusiasm for Pound; as well, he accepted that Pound was "mentally ill", as others have diagnosed, but which in no way disqualifies Pound’s creative work. Louis would always direct his students to read Pound’s work, The Cantos, for themselves, to go to the source, and not get hung up on what others are saying.
Although I saw Louis only infrequently in the 1990s--at poetry readings at McGill and a group of us went to dinner at Ben's Restaurant after the readings with Louis--I was kept informed of how he was doing by Sonja Skarstedt, who did so much for Louis during that time. Sonja, who is a tireless worker for poetry, both writing her own work and publishing poets with Empyreal Press, also published Louis’ work in his final years.

I remember when Louis died in 2001, leaving the reception after the funeral, walking into the cold dark March evening, and feeling an incredible emptiness, knowing that an important person in Montreal, a city of poets, was Louis Dudek and that he was now no longer among us. I felt that a great man of letters had died.

What is the meaning of the poet’s life? Poetry demands everything from a person. It demands one’s time and one’s soul and being. The meaning of the poet’s life is his writing, and this means his body of work. The message, then, is this: pay your respect to an elder poet, like Louis Dudek, by reading their body of work. Avoid the writings of those who would destroy a poet's reputation and memory. These people don’t know what motivated the man, who he really was, or his future place in literature.

Montreal Goddesses

The streets adjoining St. Patrick's Basilica, Montreal

This is what's left of Hermine Street, where my great grandmother, Mary Callaghan, lived, only a block from St. Patrick's Church where her two brothers, both priests, served the congregation. Father Martin Callaghan was the first Montreal-born pastor of St. Patrick's. Of course, we are reminded that he was always "interim" pastor, retired from that position for a younger man who happened to be the son of a past mayor of Montreal . . . It was the act of nouveau riche Irish not wanting to be associated with a priest from the working class, a man who lacked being born into the social position that the other, younger man, had been born into. Father Martin's brother, Father James Callaghan, also served at the church and there is a weather-damaged plaque paying homage to him stored in the basement of the church. I took photographs of the plaque when I visited there with my son about ten years ago (around 1999). Hermine isn't much of a street anymore, not residential at all. It's a half block from St. Patrick's and the street has been cut in two, by the Ville Marie Expressway. This photo faces south and that's a below ground section of the Ville Marie Expressway at the end of the street. Hermine was once residential, now it's a wasteland. Here is a photo of a business that was once located on Hermine:

This is on St. Alexander Street--rue St. Alexandre--looking south towards Hermine. St. Patrick's is just to the right of this photograph.

This is rue St. Alexandre looking north, with St. Patrick's on the left.

You can see a little of this red door, on the right, in the previous photograph. I believe it was where Father Martin Callaghan and Father James Callaghan lived when they were priests at St. Patrick's. Check it out at the Morrissey family history website.

Here (above) is St. Patrick's from rue St. Alexandre.

Looking down at LaGauchetierre (it runs perpendicular to Hermine and St. Alexandre) from St. Patrick's Church. There's a memorial park in the foreground with the foundation of some old buildings that were associated with the church and then some buildings on the other side of the street. Same view below, from circa 1915.

Other historical photos of St. Patrick's Church:

This would be the entrance from Sherbrooke Street West

This is looking from LaGauchetierre, south and parallel to Sherbrooke Street West

This is taken looking up at one of the buildings across the street from St. Patrick's on rue St. Alexandre. This whole area is being redeveloped, lofts and condos are bringing in new people which has a great location to the downtown of Montreal. When I first began walking in this area it was quite run down, and St. Patrick's wasn't in great shape, that was in the early 1970s. I think if there is a single place of deep spirituality in Montreal, this is important, or in any of the many churches in Montreal, it is at St. Patrick's. When I'm downtown I'll sometimes go to St. Patrick's.

Walk to the Black Stone

Here is the Black Stone.

It was 150 years ago, in 1859, that the Black Stone was erected. The Black Stone, also called the Black Rock, is situated on Bridge Street at the entrance of the Victoria Bridge on the Montreal side of the St. Lawrence River. The rock was dredged from the river by workers who were constructing the Victoria Bridge and it commemorates the deaths of over 5,000 Irish victims of typhoid fever who had just arrived in Canada after having escaped famine in Ireland in 1847. Already weakened by tragedy at home, the loss of their homes by forced evictions and the death of relatives, as well their own hunger, the long and difficult ship journey to Canada, and then death by typhoid fever when they arrived... It's a tragic and sad story of these people. The men who were building the Victoria Bridge discovered the mass grave--they died only twelve years before--of the Irish famine victims, some probably their own deceased relatives. Of course, they insisted that this tragedy be commemorated in some way. The rock faces a parking lot, on the other side of the street, where the actual graves are located. Every year, at the end of May, several hundred people walk from St. Gabriel's Church in Point St. Charles to the rock where a memorial service is held. There is a reception at the church hall after the walk. These photos were taken a few years ago, on a rainy cool May morning.

Yoni rocks

Two collages

Images of trees

W.B. Yeats's Grave, Sligo, Ireland, July 1978

Back in July 1978, I visited my friend R.R. Skinner at Boisville, his home in Camberley, England. We had first met a few years before, in August 1974, after I attended Krishnamurti's Gathering in Saanen, Switzland. After visiting with RR I planned to spend some time in Ireland and flew into Dublin, then after a day or two I took the train across Ireland to Galway and then on to Sligo. It not only rained, it poured rain the whole time I was there. I was miserable. One day I took a bus tour to the grave of W.B. Yeat's, that was probably the same day I also visited Lissidale House, where Yeats stayed in his youth. I did my research for this trip the way poets do their research, which is after the fact... this perhaps accounts for the dismal nature of my trip to Ireland. Years later I decided I would never visit a place where I didn't know somebody, or where I didn't have a reason for visiting (for instance, a conference). The life of the tourist is not for me, it is given to loneliness and self-consciousnss, constant travel, exhaustion, trying to maintain an interest in siteseeing when I'd prefer to be at home reading a book, and associating with some questionable people. It's all perfectly dreadful! So, this is the highlight of my trip to Ireland: Yeats's grave, including the church near his grave, and a Celtic Cross gravestone, all within close proximity to each other. Yeats is (perhaps) the greatest English language poet of the 20th Century.

Blackie

This is Blackie, a cat I found in our barn at The Cedars when he was only a few days old. I called him Black Lightning, because he moved so fast that I couldn't catch him. He has tufts of fur on the ends of his ears, which immediately endeared him to me. I loved that cat from when I first saw him.

Blackie loves a party, he loves people visiting the house. He's a sociable cat, extroverted when it comes to parties. He also eats at the table with whoever is there. We had Blackie until CZ developed asthma and he moved to my mother's house on Montclair. My mother said "He can't come here, I have a cat; put him down." A few days later I drove him over to her house and announced he was now living with her; "Blackie," I said, "this is your new home." He didn't object, he was always upwardly mobile. He soon became my mother's favourite. So, from the barn to our house, to our house in the city, to the big house on Montclair, to an apartment in Toronto, and next (as my mother enters a retirement home) to my brother and sister-in-law's home! What a character!

Here's Blackie waiting for his breakfast, I think it was French toast... could he chow down!

Here's Blackie (from his life in the country) with a birthday card in front of him, waiting to be opened. I think Blackie's a Taurus, like me.

Review of two books by James Hollis

View from Pointe Calliere Museum in Old Montreal after a Jung Society 
of Montreal end of year luncheon.

My review (below) of two new books by James Hollis, was published in the spring 2009 issue of the Newsletter of the C.G. Jung Society of Montreal. _________________________________________________ 

Why Good People Do Bad Things: Understanding Our Darker Selves 

James Hollis New York: Gotham Books, 2007, 272 pps. 

What Matters Most: Living A More Considered Life James Hollis New York: Gotham Books, 2009, 288 pps. 

The older we get the more life seems a journey. An excellent guide on this journey is Jungian analyst James Hollis, who is the author of two new books, Why Good People Do Bad Things: Understanding Our Darker Selves and What Matters Most: Living A More Considered Life. Both of these books will reward the reader with many insights into life’s journey; both are an invitation to psychological and spiritual wholeness. Hollis asks, “Why do good people do bad things?” To answer this question he turns to C. G. Jung¹s archetype of the Shadow, which he defines as being “composed of all those aspects of ourselves that have a tendency to make us uncomfortable with ourselves, it is what discomforts the sense of self we wish to have.” Hollis points out that “Of the many concepts Jung articulated, few if any are richer than his idea of the Shadow.” 

For Hollis, and other Jungians, an understanding and awareness of the Shadow part of the human psyche is one of the roads to wholeness and individuation. This is especially important for those of us in the second half of life; it is a time in which, as Hollis writes, “The critical summons is to recover a personal sense of authority, explore, thoughtfully express the personal Shadow, and risk living faithfully the soul’s agenda.” Of course, few people willingly examine their Shadow; it is usually kept hidden, avoided, or even denied. Some of us prefer to live in a cocoon of infantile expectations; others are complacent; and still others prefer to avoid doing the very work that will bring us depth and an insightful life. But this life, this journey, demands that we live intelligently and authentically, that we live a life of emotional and psychological maturity. Indeed, while working with Shadow material is difficult, there is a reward: this lies in the release in our lives of a reservoir of creative energy of which we had not previously been aware. 

This Shadow energy can find its expression in creative work, but is also shown in a renewed sense of who we are and a commitment to living a life aligned to our values and the “soul’s agenda.” James Hollis’s most recent book, What Matters Most: Living A More Considered Life, will reward the reader many times over. I think it is one of Hollis’s best books for readers at any stage in life, at any place in the journey of life. Hollis begins by admitting that the book is an “eccentric compilation,” and it is! He writes, “We are not here to fit in, be well balanced, or provide exempla for others. We are here to be eccentric, different, perhaps strange, perhaps merely to add our small piece, our little chunky selves, to the great mosaic of being.” This is a wonderful invitation to be who and what we are. The book, then, is made up of individual chapters that can be read solely or consecutively. They are discussions of Hollis’s considered opinion and observation of life’s meaning and “what matters most” in life. 

A selection of some of the chapters’ titles will give an idea, a sampling, of what Hollis considers important in life’s journey: That Life Not Be Governed By Fear That We Consider Feeding The Soul That We Respect The Power Of Eros That We Step Into Largeness That We Risk Growth Over Security That We Find And Follow The Path Of Creativity That We Encourage Spiritual Crises That We Write Our Story, Lest Someone Else Write It For Us Each of these chapters can be read separately; each is a thoughtful discussion and elaboration on a specific aspect of “what matters most.” They are diverse subjects, held together by Hollis’s intelligence and insight, and sometimes explained more fully with literary references. The emphasis in the book is not to find happiness, it is to find wholeness and to live a conscious life that is in agreement with the soul’s needs and requirements. For at least the last forty years an interest in mythology (and the belief by many in the absence of a cohesive mythology in our society) has taken hold of the popular imagination. Hollis reminds us of Jung’s “myth for our time” which he says is individuation. Hollis then writes: “In fact it is a summons to service, of ego submission to values larger than those previously embraced.” Thus, our journey is one of individuation, of inner discovery and self-knowledge. This journey is the central myth or adventure of our time. 

Since I first began reading James Hollis’s books, in the early 1990s, and heard Hollis speak to the C. G. Jung Society of Montreal (he is a gifted and riveting public speaker) I have always found him to be one step ahead of my own thinking, one step ahead of me in my life’s journey. He has always been an astute thinker and a most welcome guide in these matters. If you want to begin reading Hollis, or if you have read several of his books, I highly recommend What Matters Most: Living A More Considered Life. James Hollis concludes the book by suggesting the following, 

This search for God, this longing for meaning and understanding, while often frustrating, has given me my journey, and my journey has given me greater acquaintance with many gods along the way , all, especially the dark ones, worthy of and demanding respect and many good and many bad people, but always an interesting life. In the end, having a more interesting life, a life that disturbs complacency, a life that pulls us out of the comfortable and thereby demands a larger spiritual engagement than we planned or that feels comfortable, is what matters most. (p. 256) 

Stephen Morrissey

winter 2009

Note: Read other reviews of books by James Hollis reviewed here, do a search on this blog.

Between Chaston and Green, early summer