“a beautiful rebellion”
Written by Rita Bouvier
Published by Thistledown Press
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$19.95
ISBN 9781771872348
I took an extended pause before opening a beautiful rebellion, the fourth poetry collection by Saskatoon’s Rita Bouvier. The Métis writer and educator grew up beside the Churchill River, and the cover photo of a forceful river flowing between forested banks before a backdrop of white sky is immensely effective. To me, the scene says: Yes, this is the answer to all that ails us. This is holy.
Indeed, a sense of reverence permeates much of the work in this moving and intimate collection, with its odes to jack pine, bear, the moon, aunties and other relatives, and “feathery snowflakes/whirling down from the heavens above”. One of my favourite pieces, “holy, holy, holy,” ingeniously juxtaposes “waves crashing against the rocky shoreline” with “God/reaching in and then out again”. Bouvier’s narrator in “daylight thief at Amigos Café” watches the other patrons-including a dancing child-and considers herself “a thief … in broad daylight/stealing the sacred … all around me.”
This careful poet continually turns to the natural world for restoration and peace as she considers colonialism, patriarchy, “the murky waters of truth and reconciliation,” climate change and the pandemic. She rejoices in “the winged ones,” “the art of gathering/sweet wild berries,” and considers jack pine to be “medicinal aerosol/a rich biochemical molecular picnic”. Awe and gratitude are frequently present, as is the perception of humanity’s oneness.
The writing is highly visual, ie: the aunties wear “sweaters of sky and magenta,” and dew’s personified thus: “droplets of condensed water vapor/on blades of grass on a spider’s web/jewel-like/clinging their way back to the earth.” Lovely, as is Bouvier’s hyper-awareness of sound, evident in “soundscape” (“the saddest sound you will ever hear/is the faint and mournful sound/of a beaver crying”) and several other poems.
The use of “Rebellion” in the title immediately turns my thoughts to Louis Riel, and the leader and “gentle man” appears in the “supermoon rising” section. Interestingly, his sister, Sarah Riel, lived and is buried in Bouvier’s home community of Île-á-la-Crosse, and the siblings’ paternal grandparents met there. Text in Cree and Michif-languages spoken in Île-á-la-Crosse-organically weaves through the free verse and the few prose poems.
Above all, this book feels like an homage to the north, where Bouvier was raised “by the waterfall place/by the holy springs/by the strait of the spirit/in the place of peace.” Her poem “a table in the sky” is one of several that paints the area as a kind of boreal Utopia, and I am there with the poet at a lookout in her “childhood island home” as she “waited for the pinpoint of [her] papa/to return from a day’s work across the frozen lake.”
Ah, yes. Bouvier’s successfully transported me to her sacred place beside the river, in the “small village/without many amenities.” And she makes me believe that if we all had a hallowed place like this to visit, we could, despite our scars and transgressions, eventually-and in community with the water, the creatures, and each other-“climb our way … into the light.”
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL
BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
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“Gordie’s Skate”
Written by Bill Waiser, Illustrated by
Leanne Franson
Published by Thistledown Press
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$14.95
It's fitting that this historically-revered Canadian be celebrated via the arts, as well, and that one of Canada’s foremost historians, Saskatoon’s double GG Award-winning Bill Waiser, has shifted genres (Waiser’s well-known for his non-fiction work) and written an illustrated children’s book, Gordie’s Skate, to share the story of Howe’s humble beginnings, his passion to play, and his ultimate success.
Waiser’s successfully transitioned into the magical world of children’s literature with a compelling story that introduces us to a young Howe who “would have played [hockey] all day and night if he could … even in his sleep.” Inspired by Howe’s autobiography Mr. Hockey: My Story, Waiser’s book is set in Saskatoon during the 1930s. The Great Depression was in full swing, and when a neighbour knocked on the five-year-old Howe’s door with a bag of items to sell, Howe’s mother bought the sack and “Out tumbled an old pair of men’s skates.” Howe and his sister each grabbed one, stuffed socks into the toes, and “tried skating by carefully balancing on one foot.”
This touching softcover is wonderfully illustrated in watercolours by Leanne Franson from Martensville, SK. Franson’s captured the era beautifully via the characters’ patched clothing, old cars, and household images like clothes drying on a line beside a woodstove. One can feel the old-school winter cold in the images: thick tights and socks, toques, and layers were de rigeur in the 1930s. Readers of a certain age will relate to scenes of red-cheeked children skating on sloughs, in flooded yards, or even down the streets’ icy ruts. I also delighted in the subtle evocations of prairie, including telephone poles on the wide horizon, and cattails bordering the Hudson Bay slough, which “stretched for miles, from the back of [Howe’s] house to the Saskatoon airport.”
Waiser explains in his Author’s Note that it was actually Howe’s mother’s kindness that “resonated” with him. He says it was reminiscent of his own parents, “who taught [him] the importance of helping others.”
I’m delighted that Waiser-a longtime University of Saskatchewan history professor and author of numerous diverse books, including A World We Have Lost: Saskatchewan Before 1905 and Loyal Till Death: Indians and the North-West Rebellion, has penned this story for contemporary children. Gordie’s Skate is a timeless tale … about the early days of a hockey legend; his kind-hearted mother; about challenging economic times and hard work; and about a bygone, pre-technological era, when receiving an old pair of skates ignited joy and passion in an athletic child, and that child grew up to become a household name.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
