In a month-long act of resistance, poets remind us that poetry can push back against forces that marginalize voices, erase stories, and impose control over how we live and imagine.
An interview with Christian McPherson
ALL LIT UP: How would you describe Screaming Obscenities at the Sky to someone picking it up for the first time?
CHRISTIAN MCPHERSON: First of all, if I saw them picking it up, say in a bookstore and they were looking at it, I would go over to them and gently, but firmly, grab them by the upper arm, likely startling them. At that point I would quickly lean in and whisper into their ear, “Careful.” I would pause for dramatic effect and then continue, “That one has teeth, don’t mess around with it. That book is no joke.” Then I would let go of their arm and casually walk out the door. I imagine the person would ask the bookstore clerk “Who the hell was that?” “No clue, some loony,” they would reply.
Less seriously, though, I would never do that. I would tell them this is no ordinary book of poetry, this is a wild ride. You need to make sure your seatbelt is on and the safety bar is securely fastened before you start reading. It’s bigger than most volumes of poetry (weighing in somewhere around 100 poems) and it’s seriously pissed off. So don’t try to corner it or it will kill you! There are close to 400 drawings, doodles, and or pieces of art also in the book that accompany these poems. This is my sixth book of poetry but my first one with art. I never seen anything like it. The design team over at At Bay Press were phenomenal. Zine-like I have heard it described. It’s not really a graphic novel but that’s where I have found it sleeping in bookstores. Best not to wake it. Like I said, it’s a beast.
ALU: How do you see poetry as an act of resistance?
CHRISTIAN: Poetry itself isn’t an act of resistance any more than any other art form, I don’t think. However when the fascists come, they shoot the protesters and then they shoot the academics and the artists. I think poetry is there to point out truth. It might be small “t” truth, but truth just the same. That can upset people when it is in conflict with their worldview. When the world is going sideways, artists need to be pointing it out. It can also bridge divides, so we can understand each other’s humanity. Just because you come from a foreign land and speak another language, have different clothes and costumes, a different God, or no God, doesn’t mean we can’t understand one another – art, poetry – it can do this. Not letting authoritarians divide us into Us vs. Them – that is resistance.
ALU: What does poetry allow you to say or refuse that other forms don’t?
CHRISTIAN: Interpretive dance can only go so far. Fusion Jazz, spotty. Poetry can be a hammer when I hold it, but it can also be subtle, sneaky. You might not even know what you read until days later. It’s like a slow-release medication. You might be in a grocery store and overhear a conversation and then you might start to cry and not know exactly why, but then you remember that poem. Careful how many poems you read at once.
ALU: Is there a line (in your own or someone else’s work) that you return to?
CHRISTIAN: “At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back into the same box.” It’s good to keep in mind, for me. Doesn’t matter how much money or power or fame you have, death is a unifier. And from this I extrapolate that we will all be forgotten (or remembered, for a while) in time. “What do you do with the time?” – a line of my own. A question. How should one fill one’s day? Life is hard for most people. So I feel very lucky I get to have some spare time where I actually get to make things, poems, stories, drawings, etc. I try not to waste any of it. The older I get, the more precious it becomes. We only get so much and then it’s back in the box.
ALU: What role does community—readers, poets, teachers—play in your writing?
CHRISTIAN: I need readers for this to work, right? I’m grateful for anyone who bothers to pick up my book and read it. Just because I put a billion hours into making something doesn’t mean anyone should pay a second to look at it. Like any artist, or maybe most artists, you want to be seen or heard or read. I personally want art to change me. I want to have an experience when I read something, or watch something. I think empathy and understanding are big act, high art. If I can do that for somebody else, that would make me happy.
ALU: How do you sustain a practice of writing poetry in politically or personally challenging times?
CHRISTIAN: I get angry at the state of the world. I get pissed off at fascist and genocidal behaviours of governments; climate change, unhinged billionaires, wet socks, etc. All this nonsense fuels me to write, fuels me to draw. When I get pissed off, I tend to make art. I turn to mockery. Sarcasm is my default position. I will rip you a new one and I will do it with a quick line of poetry. You will bleed out in seconds–you won’t even know you were cut. Don’t piss me off or you might find yourself in a poem and nobody wants that. Ha!
Reprinted with permission from At Bay Press.
Watch Christian read “The Lump“
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CHRISTIAN MCPHERSON is a poet and novelist. He lives in Ottawa with his wife and their two kids. He has written a bunch of books including, The Cube People, Saving Her, and My Life in Pictures. If he isn’t out walking his dogs, driving his son to hockey practice or his daughter to cheerleading, he is usually sneaking off to the movies.
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Thanks to Christian for answering our questions, and to At Bay Press for the text images from Screaming Obscenities at the Sky, which is available to purchase now (and get 15% off + FREE shipping Canada-wide with the code POETSRESIST until April 30!).
Follow our NPM series all month long to discover new poetry or connect with old favourites, and visit our poetry shop here.
